neuropsychology

• somatic nervous system


  controls skeletal muscles, voluntary
• autonomic nervous system


  controls internal organs and glands, involuntary
• brain


  complex processing
• spinal chord


  transmits information
• central nervous system


  information processing
• components of central nervous system

  brain and spinal chord
• peripheral nervous system


  body wide messenger, sensory and motor neurone network
• sympathetic ans


  activates in stress response (fight or flight), increases bodily activity such as heart rate, breathing rate, sweating, inhibits digestion
• parasympathetic ans


  decreases bodily activity, activates in rest, does the opposite to the sympathetic ans
• when a threat is detected

  hypothalamus activates sympathetic branch of autonomic nervous system
• response of sympathetic ans to threat

  adrenaline and noradrenaline released into bloodstream from the adrenal glands
• effect of hormones from sympathetic ans


  biological changes eg. heart beats faster, breathing rate increases, digestion slows
• psychological changes from sympathetic ans

  panic and alertness
• james lange theory of emotion

  physiological arousal comes before emotion
• neuron


  a specialised cell which transmits information electrochemically
• sensory neuron


  detects sense information such as touch and carries this information from pns to the cns
• relay neuron


  receives information from sensory neurones and sends information to motor neurones via synapses, also passes information on to cns for processing in the brain
• motor neuron


  carries the electrical signal to the muscle (effector) then motor end plates cause the muscle to contract or relax
• reflex arc


  formed from a sensory, relay, and motor neuron, allows the body to respond quickly to danger, before the brain is able to detect and process the pain signal
• dendrites


  extensions of the neuron, detect signals from other neuros
• cell body


  contains the genetic information and controlls all the cells functions
• axon


  long extension that transmits the nerve impulse to the next neuron
• myelin sheath


  insulating layer of cells around axon, speeds up impulse transmission
• sensory receptors


  specialised dendrites that detect external stimuli