KEY WORDS

Adrenaline

The adrenal medulla releases this, which plays a key role in the fight or flight response by causing physiological changes to prepare the body e.g. increased heart rate, pupil dilation, etc.

Auditory Area

The area responsible for analysing and processing acoustic information.

Autonomic Nervous System

Role in homeostasis which maintains in balance internal processes like body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure, consists of the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system, consists only of motor pathways.

Biological Rhythms

A cyclical pattern within biological systems that evolved in response to environmental influence e.g. day and night, these could be endogenous pacemakers (internal) or exogenous zeitgebers (external).

Broca’s Area

Found in the left frontal lobe and is thought to be involved in language production.

Central Nervous System

Consists of the brain and spinal cord, provides conscious awareness and is involved in all psychological processes, consists of many regions that have different functions.

Circadian Rhythm

Type of biological rhythm, 24 hour, known as the body clock, resets levels of light, e.g. sleep-wake cycle or body temperature.

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Works on the premise that information is processed in the brain as electrical activity in the form of action potentials or nerve impulses, transmitted along neurons, measure this through electrodes attached to the scalp that are then graphed over a period of time.

Endocrine System

Works alongside the nervous system, a network of glands that secrete chemical messages called hormones into the blood that have different effects on the body.

Endogenous Pacemakers

Internal mechanism that govern biological rhythms, specifically circadian, most important is the suprachiasmatic nucleus which is closely linked to the pineal gland.

Event-Related Potentials (ERP)

Use electrodes attached to the scalp, a stimulus is presented to a participant and the researcher looks for activity related to the stimulus.

Excitation

Neurotransmitters that make the post-synaptic cell more likely to fire, when the excitatory neurotransmitter binds to the post-synaptic receptor it causes an electrical charge that results in an excitatory post-synaptic potential (EPSP).

Exogenous Zeitgebers

Influence biological rhythms, they are environmental events that are responsible for resetting the biological clock, e.g. social cues such as meal times but the most important is light which resets the body clock each day.

Fight or Flight

When someone enters a potentially stressful situation the amygdala activates and responds to sensory input and connected it with emotions e.g. fear.

Function Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

A brain-scanning technique that measures blood flow in the brain during tasks to see which neurons use the most energy, creating a dynamic 3D map of the brain to see which areas are involved in different neural activities.

Functional Recovery

The transfer of functions from a damaged area of the brain after trauma, to other undamaged areas, can take place through neuronal unmasking where dormant synapses open connections to compensate for damaged areas.

Glands

Part of the endocrine system that secretes hormones e.g. testes, ovaries, pituitary, etc.

Hemispheric Lateralisation

The fact that two halves of the brain are functionally different and that each hemisphere has a functional specialisation e.g. left for language, right for visual motor tasks.

Hormones

Produced/secreted by glands, chemical messengers that excite a particular part of the body to perform a function.

Infradian Rhythm

A biological rhythms that can be weekly, monthly or annually e.g. menstrual cycle is a monthly rhythm to regulate ovulation/fertilisation hormones.

Inhibition

Neurotransmitters that make post synaptic cells less likely to fire if it binds to the post-synaptic receptors as it results in inhibitory post-synaptic potential (IPSP).

Localisation of Function

The idea that certain function e.g. language and memory are correlated with certain locations within the brain.

Motor Area

Responsible for voluntary movements by sending signals to the muscles in the body.

Motor Neuron

Found in the CNS and control muscle movements, when stimulated they release neurotransmitters that bind to receptors on muscles to trigger a response (movement).

Nervous System

Divided into central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS), a network of nerve cells that transmit messages between parts of the body, allowing communication.

Neurotransmitters

Electrochemical messengers that transmit nerve impulses across the synaptic gap during synaptic transmission, can be excitatory e.g. noradrenaline or inhibitory e.g. GABA.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Relaxes the body, returning to ‘normal’ resting state e.g. slows heart rate and breathing rate and restarts other functions such as digestion and salivation.

Peripheral Nervous System

Relays messages (nerve impulses) from the CNS to the rest of the body, consists of the somatic nervous system (SNS) and the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).

Plasticity

The brain’s ability to change and adapt in reaction to the environment and through experience e.g. learning a new skill develops neuronal connections in the related area of the brain.

Post-Mortem Examination

When researchers study the brain of a person who displayed a behaviour while alive that suggested possible brain damage e.g. the work of Broca who studied a man who displayed speech problems and discovered after he died that he had a brain lesion.

Relay Neuron

Found between sensory input neurons and motor output neurons, found in the brain and spinal cord to allow communication between sensory and motor neurons.

Sensory Neuron

Found in receptors and carry nerve impulses to the spinal cord and brain where they are translated into sensations. Some sensory neurons stop at the spinal cord to allow for quick reflex actions.

Somatic Nervous System

Maintains communication between CNS and outside world, made up of sensory receptors that carry information to the brain and spinal cord and motor pathways that allow the brain to control movement, provides muscle responses via the motor pathways.

Somatosensory Area

Receives incoming sensory information from the skin to produce sensations related to pressure, pain, temperature, etc.

Split Brain Research

Individuals who have undergone a surgical procedure where the corpus callosum bundle of nerve fibres that connects the who hemispheres is cut, usually done to reduce symptoms of severe epilepsy.

Sympathetic Nervous System

Involved in responses that prepare the body for fight or flight, impulses travel from the SNS to organs to prepare the body e.g. increasing heart rate, blood pressure but decreasing digestion, salivation, etc.

Synaptic Transmission

Process by which neurons communication, information is passed down the axon as action potential, when it reaches the end it must cross the synaptic gap between the pre-synaptic and post-synaptic neuron. The axon terminal (end of the axon) has synaptic vesicles that release neurotransmitters across the gap to bind to receptor sites on the post-synaptic cell.

Ultradian Rhythms

Last fewer than 24 hours and can be found in the pattern of human sleep, alternating between REM and NREM sleep and consists of 5 stages, starts at light sleep, then deep sleep, then REM sleep where brain waves speed up and cause dreams, repeats every 90 minutes and can be complete up to 5 times each night.

Visual Area

Receives and processes visual information, contains different parts for different type of information e.g. colour, shape or movement.

Wernicke’s Area

Found in the left temporal lobe and is thought to be involved in language processing/comprehension.