Term
| Biologically based mechanisms |
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Definition
| Mechanisms that enable and predispose us to behave, to feel, and even to think in certain ways |
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Definition
| A change over time in the frequency with which particular genes - and the characteristics they produce - occur within an interbreeding population |
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| Characteristics that increase the likelihood of survival and ability to reproduce within a particular environment wil be more likely to be preserved in the population and therefore will become more comon in the species over time |
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| Physical or behavioral changes that allow organisms to meet recurring environmental challenges to their survival, thereby increasing their reprodutive ability |
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| The specific genetic makeup of an individual |
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Definition
| The individual's observable characteristics |
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| A double-stranded and tightly coiled molecule of DNA whose strands coil around one another |
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| The biological units of heredity |
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Definition
| A process whereby a number of gene pairs combine their influences to create a single phenotypic trait. |
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| A study of how heredity and environment interact to influence psychologic characteristics |
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| Study in which people who were adopted early in life are compared on some characteristic with both their biological parents, with whom they share genetic endowment, and with their adoptive parents, with whom they share no genes |
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| Studies that compare trait similarities in identical and fraternal twins |
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| Hereditability coefficient |
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Definition
| A statistic that estimates the extent to which the differences, or variation, in a specific characteristic within a group of people can be attributed to genetic factors |
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Definition
| The basic building blocks of the nervous system |
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Term
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Definition
| Specialized receiving units like antennae that collect messages from neighboring neurons and send them on to the cell body |
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Definition
| A part of the neuron that conducts electrical impulses away from the cell body to other neurons, glands, or muscles |
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Term
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Definition
| The voltage differential between the inside and outside of a neuron (about -70 mV) when the neuron is at rest; the interior is negatively charged compared to the exterior of the cell, and is said to be polarized |
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Term
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Definition
| A nerve impulse resulting from an electrical shift from -70 mV to +40 mV in the voltage differential between inside and outside of a neuron, or depolarization of an axon's cell membrane |
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Term
| Absolute refractory period |
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Definition
| A period of time when the membrane is not excitable and cannot discharge another impulse |
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Definition
| The law stating that action potentials occur at a uniform and maxium intensity, or they do not occur at all |
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Definition
| Changes in the negative resting potential that do not reach the -50 mV action-potential threshold |
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Definition
| A whitish, fatty insulation layer derived from glial cells during development |
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Definition
| A tiny gap between the axon terminal and the next neuron |
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Definition
| Chemical substances that carry messages across the synaptic gap to other neurons, muscles, or glands |
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Definition
| Chambers within the axon terminals |
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Definition
| Large protein molecules embedded in the receiving neuron's cell membrane |
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Definition
| A deactivation mechanism in which the transmitter molecules are taken back into the presynaptic axon terminal |
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Term
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Definition
| A neurotransmitter involved in muscle activity and memory |
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Term
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Definition
| Neurotransmitters that have a more widespread and generalized influence on synaptic transmission |
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Definition
| Chemicals that produce alterations in consciousness, emotion, and behavior |
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Term
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Definition
| A drug that increases the activity of a neurotransmitter |
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Term
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Definition
| A drug that inhibits or decreases the action of a neurotransmitter |
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Definition
| Neurons that carry input messages from the sense organs to the spinal cord and brain |
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Definition
| Neurons that transmit output impulses from the brian and spinal cord to the body's muscles and organs |
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Term
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Definition
| Neurons that perform connective or associative functions within the nervous system |
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Term
| Peripheral nervous system |
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Definition
| All the neural structures that lie outside of the brian and spinal cord |
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Definition
| Sensory neurons that are specialized to transmit messages from the eyes, ears, and other sensory receptors, and motor neurons that send messages from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles that control our voluntary movement |
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Definition
| Neurons that are specialized to sense the body's internal functions and control the glands and the smooth (involuntary) muscles that form the heart, the blood vessels, and the lining of the stomach and intestines |
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Term
| Sympathetic nervous system |
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Definition
| A system that has an activation or arousal function and tends to act as a total unit |
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Term
| Parasympathetic nervous system |
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Definition
| A system that slows down body processes and maintains a state of tranquility, generally affecting one or a few organs at a time |
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| A delicately balanced or constant internal state |
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Definition
| A system that contains the brain and the spinal cord, which connects most parts of the peripheral nervous system with the brain |
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Term
| Electroencephalograph (EEG) |
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Definition
| A machine that measures the activity of large groups of neurons through a series of large elctrodes placed on the scalp |
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Term
| Computerized axial tomography (CT, or CAT) scan |
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Definition
| A process that uses X-ray technology to study brain structures |
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Term
| Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) |
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Definition
| A technology that creates images based on how atoms in living tissue respond to a magnetic pulse delivered by the device |
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Term
| Position-emission tomogrpahy (PET) scan |
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Definition
| A scan that measures brain activity, including metabolism, blood flow, and neurotransmitter activity |
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Term
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Definition
| A scan that can produce pictures of blood flow in the brain taken less than a second apart |
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Definition
| The lowest and most primitive level of the brain |
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Term
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Definition
| A part of the brian that support vital life functions |
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Term
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Definition
| A part of the brian that plays an important role in vital body functions such as heart rate and respiration |
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Definition
| A part of the brain that lies just above the medulla and serves as a bridge carrying nerve impulses between the higher and lower parts of the nervous system |
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Definition
| A part of the brian that is concerned primarily with muscular movement coordination but that also plays a role in learning and memory |
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Definition
| A part of the brain that contains clusters of sensory and motor neurons |
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Definition
| A structure that acts as a kind of sentry, both alerting higher centers of the brain that messages are coming and then either blocking messages or allowing them to go forward |
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Definition
| The brain's most advanced portion from an evolutionary standpoint |
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Term
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Definition
| Outer part of the brain containing two large hemispheres, a left side and a right side |
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Definition
| Referred to as the brain's "switchboard," a part of the brian that organizes input that sense organs and routes them to appropriate areas of the brain |
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Definition
| A part of the brain that plays a major role in many aspects of motivation and emotion including sexual behavior, temperature regulation, sleeping, eating, drinking, and aggression |
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Definition
| A system that helps coordinate behaviors needed to satisfy emotional and motivational urges that arise in the hypothalamus and is also involved in memory |
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Definition
| A structure in the limbic system invovlved in forming and retrieving memory |
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Definition
| A structure in the limbic system that organizes motivational and emotional response patterns, particularly those linked to aggression and fear |
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Term
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Definition
| A quarter-inch think sheet of gray cells that form the outermost layer of the human brain |
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Term
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Definition
| A section of cerebral cortex that controls the 600 or more muscles involved in the voluntary body movements |
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Term
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Definition
| A section of cerebral cortex that receives sensory input that gives rise to our sensations of heat, touch, and cold and to our senses of balance and body movement (kinesthesis) |
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Definition
| An area in the temporal lobe that is involved in speech comprehension |
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Term
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Definition
| An area in the frontal lobe that is involved in the production of speech through its connections with the motor cortex region that controls the msucles used in speech |
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Definition
| An area of cortex that is involved in many important mental functions, including perception, language, and thought |
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Definition
| An area of cortex located just behind the forehead, the seat of the so-called executive functions |
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Definition
| A neural bridge consisting of white myelinated fibers that acts as a major communication link between the two hemispheres and allows them to function as a single unit |
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Term
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Definition
| The relatively greater localization of a function in one hemisphere rather than in the other |
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Definition
| The partial or loss of the ability to communicate |
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Definition
| The ability of neurons to change in structure and function |
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Definition
| The production of new neurons in a nervous system |
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Definition
| Immature cells that can mature into any type of neuron or glial cell needed by the brain |
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Definition
| A system consisting of numerous hormone-secreting glands distributed throughout the body |
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Term
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Definition
| Chemical messengers that are secreted from the endocrine system's glands into the bloodstream |
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Definition
| Twin structures perched atop the kidneys that serve, quite literally, as hormone factories, producing and secreting about 50 different hormones that regulate many metabolic processes within the brain and other parts of the body |
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Definition
| Foreign substances that trigger a biochemical response from the immune system |
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