Psychology 101 Harper College Unit 2

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Brain structure
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Mass of neurons developed into three main regions of the brain: hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain
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Brain function
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Each structure has a specific function
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Neural networks
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Large number of neurons working together to integrate incoming information and coordinate outgoing info via pathways
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How do brain structures operate?
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They are connected in pathways and networks
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Why is the cortex so wrinkly?
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As humans we are more intelligent which requires more space in the skull, so it's wrinkly to fit more mass
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Why are patients with brain damage useful for studying the relationship between the brain structures and functions?
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To learn about what structures contribute to functions and why
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Which techniques are used for studying brain structures?
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MRI, CAT
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Which techniques are used for studying brain functions?
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PET, fMRI, EEG
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What symptoms can be observed when somebody has damage to the prefrontal cortex?
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Difficulty in social context, cannot perform in relation to what is expected, doesn't connect emotionally
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What are some key functions of the prefrontal cortex?
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Process reason and emotion, personality, social cues, moral compass, executive skills such as inhibition, planning, decisions, attention etc
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When do the frontal lobes finish developing?
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In your twenties, in the formal operational stage
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What is the key function of the motor cortex?
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Voluntary movement, which is reflected with a map of the body, and forms back border of frontal lobes
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In terms of this proportion which parts of the body have the most space devoted to them in the motor cortex?
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Smaller more intricate areas of the body for fine movements
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Explain cross over of motor information
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Left brain controls right side of the body, right brain controls left side of the body
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What is the key function of the somatosensory cortex?
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Touch, located as the front border of parietal lobes
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What is meant by: \"there is a map of the body in the brain\"?
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A portion of the cortex is dedicated to a part of the body (finer body parts get bigger section)
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In terms of disproportion which parts of the body have the most cortex devoted to receiving their sensations?
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Most sensitive gets most space
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What is meant by cross over of sensory information?
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Left hemisphere equals right body, right hemisphere equals left body
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What are phantom limb patients?
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Sensations in limbs that are no longer there
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Spinal cord
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Helps transmit messages from brain to body
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Corpus callosum
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Large bundle of axons that connects the brain's two hemispheres, responsible for relaying info between the two sides
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Medulla - part of the brain stem
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Responsible for breathing and reflexes, heart rate
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Pons - part of brain stem
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Several clusters of fibers involved in sleep and arousal
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Cerebellum - not in brain stem
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Responsible for motor coordination
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Reticular formation - part of brain stem
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Responsible for diffused collection of neurons involved in stereotyped patterns of behavior such as walking, sleeping, turning to attend to a sudden noise
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Amygdala - part of limbic system
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Responsible for discrimination of objects necessary for survival such as food, mates, social rivals
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Hypothalamus
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Responsible for monitoring three pleasurable: activities eating, drinking, sex and emotion, stress, reward
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Thalamus - on top of brainstem
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Functions as an essential relay station
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What structures make up the hindbrain?
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Medulla, pons, cerebellum
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What structure makes up the midbrain?
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Reticular formation
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What structures make up the forebrain?
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Amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, thalamus
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Occipital lobe
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Structure at the back of the head responding to visual stimuli
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Temporal lobes
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Structure is located above ears for hearing, language processing, memory
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Parietal lobes
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At the top and toward the rear registering spatial location, attention and motor control
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Frontal lobes
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Behind the forehead for personality, intelligence, control of voluntary muscles
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Somatosensory cortex
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Processes information about body sensations, located at the front of parietal lobes
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Motor cortex
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Processes information about voluntary movement, located behind frontal lobes
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Association areas
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Region of highest intellectual functions, such as thinking and problem solving
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Prefrontal cortex
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Part of the forebrain, outer layer of brain, responsible for most complex mental functions such as thinking and planning
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Central nervous system
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The body's electrochemical communication circuitry made up of the brain and spinal cord
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Peripheral nervous system
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Network of nerves that connects the brain and spinal cord to other parts of the body
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Autonomic nervous system
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System that takes messages to and from internal organs, monitoring proceses like breathing, heart rate, digestion
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Sympathetic nervous system - autonomy
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System that arouses the body to mobilize it for action, thus involved and experience of stress. Prepare your body for action - fight or flight
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Parasympathetic nervous system - autonomatic
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Calms the body
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Sensory nerves
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Nerves that convey information from skin and muscles to CNS
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Motor nerves
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Tell muscles what to do
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Neuron
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Cells that do communicating, send message, nerve cells that handle information processing function
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Glial cells
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Nerve cells that provide support, nutritional benefits, keep neurons running smoothly
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Dendrites
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Treelike fibers projecting from a neuron, which receive information and oriented toward the neurons cell body
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Axon
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Part of the neuron that carries info away from the cell body toward other cells
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Axon terminal
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Numerous fibrous structure is at the end of an axon
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Axon terminal buttons
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Structures at the end of axon terminals
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Myelin sheath
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Layer of fat cells that in case and insulates most axons
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Soma, cell body
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The part of the neuron that contains the nucleus, which directs the manufacture of substances that the neuron needs for growth and maintenance
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Which structure receives messages from surrounding cells?
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Dendrites
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Which structure speeds up the transmission of impulses?
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Myelin sheath
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Which structure transmits an electrical impulse?
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Axon
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Where are neurotransmitters located?
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Terminal button
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Synapse
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Gap in between cells where communication happens
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What are the three keys for communication between neurons?
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Axon terminal buttons, dendrite of receiving cell, synaptic gap
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Presynaptic neuron - sending
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Send electrical impulses through axon and fires neurotransmitters to receiving neuron
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Postsynaptic neuron
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Neuron receiving signals - neurotransmitters - from sending neuron
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Neuro transmitter
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Chemical substances stored within tiny sacs within terminal buttons and involved in transmitting information across the synaptic gap to the next neuron
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Vesicles
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Tiny sacs within terminal button holding neurotransmitters
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Receptors
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Structures receiving messages - neurotransmitters - in dendrite of receiving a neuron
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Transporters - reuptake pumps
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Passageways and terminal button of sending neuron that takes back unused neurotransmitter from receiving cells - vacuum
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Reuptake
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Reabsorption of neurotransmitters back into the sending neurons
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Resting potential
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When neutron is ready to fire an electrical impulse
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Action potential
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When neuron is firing an electrical impulse
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All or nothing principle
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A neuron will fire when it reaches this threshold, it cannot change intensity. the impulse is what it is
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Threshold
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When a neuron goes from not firing, to firing if it receives enough firing messages
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Using the gun analogy explain how a neuron fires
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Once a neuron receive enough electrical impulses to tell the neuron to pull the trigger, it fires and sends neurotransmitter bullets
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Which direction does a cell fire?
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From dendrite end of the cell toward the axon terminals
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Excitatory neurotransmitters
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Tells the neuron to Fire
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Inhibitory neurotransmitters
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Tells the neuron don't fire
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What are some neurotransmitters?
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Endorphins, serotonin, dopamine
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Can a neurotransmitter have multiple functions?
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Yes
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Can one function be related to different neurotransmitters
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Yes
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Do psychoactive drugs mimic natural neurotransmitters?
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Yes
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Plasticity
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The brain's special capacity for change, change in response to . how cells wire together
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Does plasticity involve forming a new synapses, pruning synapses or both?
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Both
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Is plasticity involved in learning, recovery from injury, or both?
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Both
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Chromosomes
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Strands of DNA
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Genes
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Bits of DNA, lined up on chromosomes
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DNA
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Chemical that makes up chromosomes
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How many individual chromosomes does a normally developed person have?
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46
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How many pairs of chromosomes does it normally developing person have?
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23
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How many copies of each specific gene doesn't normally developing person have?
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2
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Where do the copies of each specific gene for a normally developing person come from?
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Parents
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Phenotype
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Observable characteristics - also based on environment and
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Genotype
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Information in genes
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Dominant allele
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Version of the gene that shows up in the phenotype regardless of what other parent gives
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Recessive allele
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Only shows up when paired with another recessive
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Polygenic inheritance
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Many genes
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Carrier
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Healthy individual that carries the recessive gene and can pass it on to their child
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Behavioral genetics
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Comparing different genetic components
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Twin studies
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Identical versus fraternal - nature versus nurture of identical twins raised in same home versus different homes
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Evolutionary psychology
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Why is this in our gene pool? Centered on evolutionary ideas: adaptation, reproduction & natural selection as the basis for exploring human behavior
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Natural selection
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Darwin's principle of an evolutionary process in which organisms that are best adapted to their environment will survive and produce offspring. Moth example
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Adaptation
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Being more likely to survive because you fit your environment
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Epigenetics
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Above the genomes, switches that turn genes on and off
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What are the key terms of behavior genetics?
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Genotype, phenotype
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What are the key terms of evolutionary psychology?
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Why - survival, adaptation, natural selection
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What are examples of topics of behavior genetics?
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Intelligence, disorders, personality
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What are examples of topics of evolutionary psychology?
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Aggression, infant separation anxiety, play
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Examples of research of behavior genetics?
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Biological versus adoptive? Twins?
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Examples of research of evolutionary psychology?
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Universal across cultures? Similar species? Early ages?
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Can epigenetic changes be passed to the next generation?
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Yes
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Sensation
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The process of reaching stimulus energies from the external environment and transforming those energies into neural energy
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Perception
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Process of organizing / interpreting sensory information so that it makes sense - select, organize, interpret, perception equals meaning
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Bottom up processing
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Operation in sensation/ perception in which sensory receptors register info about the external environment and send it up to the brain for interpretation. Start with details, put them together, and then give meaning
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Top-down processing
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Operation in sensation / perception, launched by cognitive processing at the brain's higher levels, that allows the organism to what is happening and to apply that framework to info from the world. When your mind imposes order on something
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Where in your body does sensation happen?
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Sense organs
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Where in your body does perception happen?
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Brain
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Explain the active reading in terms of bottom up and top down processing?
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Learning to read is bottom up - c-a-t. After learning how to read, the brain imposes order on the word cat and you see the word as a whole, before you see the parts
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Depth perception
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Ability to perceive objects three dimensionally
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Monocular cues
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Powerful depth cues available from the image in one eye, either the right or the left. Convergence, texture gradient, are some examples
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Binocular cues
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Depth cues that depend on the combination of the images in the left and right eyes and on the way the two eyes work together
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What is the connection between depth perception and nature-nurture?
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Babies maybe pre-wired with depth perception but doesn't mean anything unless they have experience
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Pupil
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opening in the center of the iris
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Retina
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Multi layered light sensitive surface in the eye that record electro magnetic energy and convert it to neutral impulses for processing in the brain
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Rods
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Receptor cells in the retina that are sensitive to light but not very useful for color vision. Dim light
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Cones
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Receptor cells in retina that allow for color perception . Bright light and color
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Blind spot
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The place where the retina contains neither rods nor cones, where the optic nerve leaves the eye on its way to the brain and there are no receptors
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Which part of the brain is normally used for processing visual input?
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The visual cortex located in the occipital lobe
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Before temporary blindness which part of the brain was busy when reading Braille?
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Somatosensory cortex
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After temporary blindness which part of the brain started being used for reading Braille?
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Visual cortex
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Connect this observation to the concept of plasticity discussed in previous classes?
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The brain has rewired itself to adapt to the new situation - blindness
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Optic nerve
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Structure at the back of the eye made up of axons and ganglion cells that carry visual information to the brain for further processing
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Optic chiasm
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The point in the brain where the optic nerve fibers divide and approximately half of nerve fibers cross over the midline of the brain
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Thalamus
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Part of the forebrain that sits at the top of the brainstem in the brains central core and serves as an important relay station
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Visual cortex
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Located in the occipital lobe the part of the cerebral cortex involved in vision
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Parallel processing
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Simultaneous distribution of information across different neural pathways. Process many things at once
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Binding
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Related to vision - The bringing together and integration of what is processed by different neural pathways or cells. Putting the parts together in a coherent whole
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Split brain patient
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Corpus callosum severed medically usually a treatment for severe epilepsy
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Where does input from the right visual field go?
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Left hemisphere
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Where does input from the left visual field go?
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Right hemisphere
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Which hemisphere is used for speech?
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Left hemisphere or Broca's area
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Which hemisphere recognizes human faces as faces rather than a collection of lines and colors?
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Right hemisphere
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Consciousness
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An individual's awareness of external events and internal sensations under a condition of arousal including awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experience
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Controlled processes
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Most alert states of consciousness during which individuals actively focus their efforts toward a goal
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Altered states of consciousness
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Mental states that are noticeably different from normal awareness. Can range from losing self consciousness to hallucination
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Subconscious awareness
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Subconscious processing of information which can take place while we are awake or asleep. Awake - process ease going on just below the surface of our awareness. Sleep - low levels of consciousness
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Psychoactive drugs
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Drugs that act on the nervous system to alter consciousness, modify perceptions , and change moods
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use
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To alter consciousness, can carry a high price tag. Examples - lose track of responsibilities, drug dependence
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Abuse
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Excessive use leading to dependence whether physical, psychological, as well as destroying one's body, career, and relationships
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Addiction
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Either a physical or psychological dependence, or both, on a drug
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Depressant
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Psychoactive drug that slows down mental and physical ability
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Stimulant
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Psychoactive drug, including caffeine, nicotine, and feta means and cocaine, that increase the central nervous systems activity
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Hallucinogen
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Psychoactive drugs that modify a person's perceptual experiences and produce visual images that are not real
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What are some effects of alcohol on behavior?
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Reduced inhibitions, impaired judgment, impaired motor skills, loss of balance
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What activities naturally stimulate the reward pathway?
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Food, sex
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Which neurotransmitter is involved in reward?
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Dopamine
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For pleasure, is dopamine increased or decreased?
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Increased dopamine in nucleus accumbens
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Label the parts of the reward pathway?
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Prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, VTA
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What is the way in which cocaine increases dopamine in the reward pathway?
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It blocks reuptake - clogs vacuum - causing your dopamine to stay and the synaptic gap longer
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What are two ways in which nicotine increases dopamine in the reward pathway?
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It tells terminal button to release more dopamine than normal, and more frequent action potentials - to do it more frequently
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Tolerance
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Resistance, takes more of the substance to get the same effect as before
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Down regulation
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Brain fights back
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Withdrawal
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Brain is no longer sensitive to regular amounts of release of dopamine and needs a higher amount
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What two factors predict alcoholism?
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Low response to alcohol, family history of alcoholism
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What are nervous system chemicals called?
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Neurotransmitters
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What are endocrine system chemicals called?
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Hormones
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What are nervous system chemicals released by?
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neurons
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What are endocrine system chemicals released by?
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Glands
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What are nervous system chemicals released into?
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Synapses
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What are endocrine system chemicals released into?
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Bloodstream
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What is the nervous system's speed of communication?
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Faster
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What is the endocrine system speed of communication?
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Slower
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What are some examples of nervous system neurotransmitters?
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Dopamine, serotonin
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What are examples of endocrine system hormones?
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Melatonin, cortisol
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Circadian rhythms
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Daily behavioral or physiological cycles that involve the sleep /wake cycle, body temperature, blood pressure and blood sugar level
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What hormone is involved in sleep?
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Melatonin, highest at night
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What hormone is involved in waking up?
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cortisol , highest in morning
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Which hormone is associated with sleep?
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Melatonin
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Hormone is associated with awaking/ stress?
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Cortisol
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Which brain area is the biological clock that controls circadian rhythms?
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SCN
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Which brain area responds to light and dark?
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SCN
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Which brain area is involved in arousal - awake/ sleep?
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Pons
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Brainwave in alert stage of sleep
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Beta
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Brainwave in drowsiness
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Alpha
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Brainwave in stage 1 of sleep
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Theta
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Brainwave in stage 2 of sleep
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Sleep spindles
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Brainwave in stage 3 of sleep
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Delta
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Brainwave in stage 4 of sleep
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Delta
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Brainwave in rem
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Beta
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Approximately how many sleep cycles per night?
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4-5
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In which sleep stage is a person most likely to dream?
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REM
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In which sleep stage is a person most likely to have eye movement?
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REM
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myoclonic jerk
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Muscle jerk occurring in light sleep
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Which stages of non REM sleep are characterized as light sleep?
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Stages 1 & 2
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Which stages of non REM sleep are characterized as deep sleep?
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Stages 3 & 4
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What are some functions of deep sleep?
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Restorative, release of human growth hormone, neuron and immune function
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In what type of sleep is it easier to wake someone?
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Light sleep
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In which stages of sleep is someone most likely to sleepwalk or show other common sleep disorders?
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Deep sleep
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REM
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Rapid eye movement, dreams, brain active like wakefulness, limbs inactive
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During REM what are the brain waves like?
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Active like wakefulness
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During REM what usually happens to your body muscles?
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Inactive
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If you wake someone up during REM how likely are they to remember their dreams?
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More likely
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Do all theories of dreaming of agree that there is deep hidden symbolism to dreams?
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No
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According to the video does dreaming help in learning and memory?
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Yes
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REM rebound
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When you go to sleep you jump into REM sleep sooner - when sleep deprived
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Microsleeps
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Dosing and nodding off
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Approximately how many hours of sleep does a teenager need per night?
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9+ hours
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Are the natural sleep rhythms of teens a good fit for high school start times?
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No they are counter to adolescent rhythms because melatonin releases later
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What are the structures involved in the limbic system?
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Hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala
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In what direction does the reward pathway travel?
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VTA, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex
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