AP Psych Unit 2

• Franz Gall proposed the idea of Phrenology, studying bumps on the skull could reveal a person’s brain size, associated mental abilities, and character traits.
• Our adaptive brain is wired by our experiences.
• Among the body’s cells are nerve cells that conduct electricity and “talk” amongst one another through chemical messages between a tiny gap separating them.
• Specific brain systems serve specific functions, not the ones Franz Gall thought.
• We integrate information processed in these different brain systems to construct our experience of sights and sounds, meanings and memories, pain and passion.
• Very similar to human brains, animal brains can be studied to understand how neural systems work.
• Women are more selective than men when choosing sexual partners–they have to nurse children.
• Genes are NOT destiny– you can still change regardless of genes (mostly)
• Women are more reasonable than men.
• A neuron is a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system.
• The cell body is the part of a neuron that contains the nucleus; the cell’s life support center.
• Dendrites are neurons’ often bushy, and branching extensions that receive and integrate messages, conducting impulses toward the body.
• Axons are the neuron extensions that pass messages through its branches to other neurons to muscles or glands.
• Myelin Sheath is a fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one node to the next.
• Myelin is laid down up to age 25 and is associated with neural efficiency, judgment, and self-control.
• Glial Cells (Glia) are cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they also play a role in learning, thinking, and memory.
• Glial cells provide nutrients, insulate myelin, guide neural connections, mop up ions and neurotransmitters.
• In more complex animal brains, the ratio of glia to neurons increases.
• Albert Einstein’s brain had a much greater concentration of glia than average.
• Action Potential is a neural impulse, a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.
• Neural impulse speeds range from 2mph (3 kph) to 200 mph (320 kph).
• Neurons generate electricity from chemical events.
• Ions are exchanged in the neuron’s chemical to electrical process.
• The fluid outside an axon’s membrane has mostly positively charged sodium ions (Na+).
• A resting axon’s fluid interior (which have large negatively charged protein ions and smaller positively charged potassium ions (K+)) has a mostly negative charge.
• The surface of an axon is selectively permeable; some things are allowed, others are not.
• Symptoms of depression and anxiety correlate with increased activity in the right frontal lobe, a brain area associated with behavioral withdrawal and negative emotion
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) - a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images of soft tissue
• MRI scans show brain anatomy.
• Position Emission Tomography Scan (PET Scan) - a visual display of brain activity that detects where a (temporarily) radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task.
• People with a history of violence tend to have smaller frontal lobes, especially in regions that aid moral judgment and self-control.
• Magnetoencephalography (MEG) - records magnetic fields from the brain’s natural electrical currents with a head coil.
• Functional MRI (fMRI) - a technique for revealing bloodflow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans
• Monkeys with an anxious temperament have brains that use more glucose in regions related to fear, memory, and expectations of reward and punishment.
• Years after surviving a near plane crash, passengers who viewed material related to their trauma showed greater activation in the brain’s fear, memory, and visual centers than when they watched footage related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
• fMRI scans show brain function as well as structure.
• Soldiers with PTSD compared to those without have stronger magnetic fields in the visual cortex when they view trauma-related images
• Positron Emission Tomography (PET) - tracks where a temporarily radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain of the person given it performs a given task.
• Electroencephalography (EEG) - measures electrical activity in neurons with electrodes placed on the scalp.
• Neural Measure