biopsychology: key terms

• what is the autonomic nervous system?


  governs the brain’s involuntary activities (e.g. stress, heartbeat) and is self regulatory (i.e. autonomous). it is divided into the sympathetic branch (fight or flight) and the parasympathetic branch (rest and digest)
• what is the brain?

  that part of the central nervous system that is responsible for coordinating sensation, intellectual and nervous activity
• what is brain plasticity?


  refers to the brain’s ability to modify its own structure and function as a result of experience
• what is broca’s area?

  an area in the frontal lobe of the brain, usually in the left hemisphere, related to speech production
• what is the central nervous system?


  comprises the brain and spinal cord. it receives information from the senses and controls the body’s responses
• what is circadian rhythm?

  a pattern of behaviour that occurs or recurs approximately every 24 hours, and which is set and reset by environmental light levels
• what is an electroencephalogram?

  a method of recording changes in the electrical activity of the brain using electrodes attached to the scalp
• what are endocrine glands?


  special groups of cells within the endocrine system, whose function is to produce and secrete hormones
• what is the endocrine system?

  a network of glands throughout the body that manufacture and secrete chemical messengers known as hormones
• what are endogenous pacemakers?


  mechanisms within the body that govern the internal, biological bodily rhythms
• what is an event related potential?

  a technique that takes raw eeg data and uses it to investigate cognitive processing of a specific event. it achieves this by taking multiple readings and averaging them in order to filter out all brain activity that is not related to the appearance of the stimulus
• what is an exogenous zeitgeber?

  an environmental cue, such as light, that helps to regulate the biological clock in an organism
• what is the fight or flight response?

  a sequence of activity within the body that is triggered when the body prepares itself for defending or attacking (fight) or running away to safety (flight). this activity involves changes in the nervous system and the secretion of hormones that are necessary to sustain arousal
• what is functional magnetic resonance imaging?

  a technique for measuring brain activity. it works by detecting changes in blood oxygenation and flow that indicate increased neural activity
• what is functional recovery?


  refers to the recovery of abilities and mental processes that have been compromised as a result of brain injury or disease
• what is hemispheric lateralisation?

  Refers to the fact that some mental processes in the brain are mainly specialised to either the left or right hemisphere
• what are hormones?


  the body’s chemical messengers. they travel through the bloodstream, influencing many different processes including mood, the stress response and bonding between mother and newborn baby
• what is the hpa axis?

  describes the sequence of bodily activity in response to stress that involves the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal cortex
• what is an infradian rhythm?

  rhythms that have a duration of over 24 hours, and may be weekly, monthly or even annually
• what is the localisation of function?

  refers to the belief that specific areas of the brain area associated with specific cognitive processes
• what is the motor cortex?


  a region of the brain responsible for the generation of voluntary motor movements
• what are motor neurons?

  form synapses with muscles and control their contractions
• what are neurotransmitters?


  chemical substances that play an important part in the workings of the nervous system by transmitting nerve impulses across a synapse
• what is the peripheral nervous system?


  the part of the nervous system that is outside the brain and spinal cord
• what is the pituitary gland?

  the ‘master gland’, whose primary function is to influence the release of hormones from other glands
• what are post mortem examinations?

  ways of examining the brains of people who have shown particular psychological abnormalities prior to their death in an attempt to establish the possible neurobiological cause for this behaviour
• what are relay neurons?


  these neurons are the most common type of neuron in the central nervous system. they allow sensory and motor neurons to communicate with each other
• what are sensory neurons?

  carry nerve impulses from sensory receptors to the spinal cord and the brain
• what is the sleep wake cycle?

  refers to alternating states of sleep and waking that are dependent on the 24 hour circadian cycle
• what is the somatic nervous system?

  the part of the peripheral nervous system responsible for carrying sensory and motor information to and from the central nervous system
• what is the somatosensory cortex?


  a region of the brain that processes input from sensory receptors in the body that are sensitive to touch
• what is the spinal cord?


  a bundle of nerve fibre enclosed within the spinal column and which connects nearly all parts of the body with the brain
• what is split brain research?

  research that studies individuals who have been subjected to the surgical separation of the two hemispheres of the brain as a result of severing the corpus callosum
• what is a synapse?

  the conjunction of the end of the axon of one neuron and the dendrite or cell body of another
• what is synaptic transmission?


  refers to the process by which a nerve impulse passes across the synaptic cleft from one neuron (the presynaptic neuron) to another (the postsynaptic neuron)
• what are ultradian rhythms?

  cycles that last less than 24 hours such as the cycle of sleep stages that occur throughout the night
• what is wernicke’s area?

  an area in the temporal lobe of the brain important in the comprehension of language