Brain and Neuroscience Flashcards

Dendrites (receive signals), cell body/soma (contains nucleus), and axon (transmits signals away from the cell body).

A fatty insulating layer around axons that speeds up neural impulse transmission via saltatory conduction.

A brief electrical charge that travels down the axon when the neuron fires, following the all-or-none principle.

A neuron either fires at full strength or does not fire at all; there is no partial firing.

Neurotransmitters are released from the presynaptic neuron's terminal buttons, cross the synaptic cleft, and bind to receptors on the postsynaptic neuron.

The process by which neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by the presynaptic neuron, ending their effect on the postsynaptic neuron.

Mood, sleep, appetite, and arousal. Low serotonin levels are linked to depression.

Involved in reward, motivation, movement, and pleasure. Excess dopamine is associated with schizophrenia; deficiency is linked to Parkinson's disease.

Enables muscle contraction and plays a role in learning and memory. Its deficit is associated with Alzheimer's disease.

The major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. It reduces neural activity; low GABA levels are linked to anxiety disorders.

Natural opioid neurotransmitters that reduce pain perception and produce feelings of pleasure or euphoria.

The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (all other nerves).

Sympathetic (activates fight-or-flight response) and parasympathetic (calms the body to rest-and-digest).

Executive functions including reasoning, planning, judgment, voluntary movement (motor cortex), and speech production (Broca's area).

Processes auditory information and is involved in language comprehension (Wernicke's area) and memory formation.

Processes somatosensory information (touch, pressure, temperature, pain) via the somatosensory cortex.

Processes visual information. Damage to this area can cause cortical blindness.

Essential for forming new explicit (declarative) memories. Damage results in an inability to create new long-term memories.

Processes emotions, especially fear and aggression. It plays a key role in emotional memory and the fight-or-flight response.

The brain's sensory relay station — it routes incoming sensory information (except smell) to the appropriate cortical areas.

Coordinates voluntary movement, balance, and motor learning. It fine-tunes motor activity rather than initiating it.

Broca's area (left frontal lobe) controls speech production; Wernicke's area (left temporal lobe) controls language comprehension. Damage to either causes a distinct type of aphasia.

fMRI detects brain activity by measuring blood flow changes; PET scans track radioactive glucose to show which brain areas are most active. Both are functional imaging techniques.