PMT

• What are the two main divisions of the nervous system?

  Peripheral Nervous System and Central Nervous System
• What does the Peripheral Nervous System include?

  Parts of the nervous system excluding brain and spinal cord
• What is the Central Nervous System comprised of?

  Brain and spinal cord
• What is the function of the Central Nervous System?

  Receives information and controls body responses
• What does the somatic nervous system do?

  Carries sensory and motor information to and from CNS
• What is synaptic transmission?

  Process of nerve impulse passing across synaptic cleft
• What are hormones?

  Body's chemical messengers traveling through bloodstream
• What processes do hormones influence?

  Mood, stress response, and bonding
• What is the fight or flight response?

  Body's preparation for defending or fleeing
• What triggers the fight or flight response?

  Changes in the nervous system and hormone secretion
• Why does the tend and befriend response occur in females?

  Due to oxytocin inducing a nurturing response
• What are axons?

  Structures that carry electrical impulses in neurons
• What covers axons?

  A fatty layer called myelin sheath
• What did Broca's research reveal about brain function?

  Language function is associated with the left frontal lobe
• How does driving a taxi help with functional recovery?

  It increases brain plasticity
• What did Maguire et al (2000) find about taxi drivers?

  Higher volume of grey matter in posterior hippocampus
• What is the focus of split-brain research?

  Patients with severed corpus callosum
• What happens when an object is projected to the right visual field in split-brain patients?

  They can describe what they see
• What happens when an object is projected to the left visual field in split-brain patients?

  They say nothing is there but can select a matching object
• Why are young people more likely to recover from brain trauma?

  Rapid growth and increased brain plasticity
• What is Wernicke’s area responsible for?

  Language comprehension
• What is an electroencephalogram?

  Recording of brain activity
• What do sensors do during an electroencephalogram?

  Pick up electrical signals from brain cells
• What did Siffre's research examine?

  Effects of free-running biological rhythms in a cave
• What was Siffre's free-running circadian rhythm duration?

  About 25 hours
• What is an endogenous pacemaker?

  Internal biological clock regulating circadian rhythms
• What is the role of the suprachiasmatic nucleus?

  Regulates sleep-wake cycles
• What are the pros of postmortem examination?

  Allows anatomical studying of the brain
• What are the cons of postmortem examination?

  No follow-up studies can be conducted
• What does the autonomic nervous system control?

  Involuntary activities of the body
• How is the autonomic nervous system divided?

  Into sympathetic and parasympathetic systems