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Chapter 2 Psych
For Exam 1
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| nervous system | the body’s electrochemical communication circuitry. The field that studies the nervous system is called neuroscience, and the people who study it are neuroscientists. |
| One cubic centimeter of brain holds how many nerve cells? | 50 million nerve cells. That’s about the size of a snack cube of cheese |
| Several extraordinary characteristics allow the nervous system to direct our behavior: (4 of them) | complexity, integration, adaptability, and electrochemical transmission. |
| Complexity | Right now, your brain is carrying out a multitude of tasks, including seeing, reading, learning, and breathing. Extensive assemblies of nerve cells participate in each of these activities, all at once. |
| Integration | The brain is the “great integrator” meaning that the brain does a wonderful job of pulling information together. Sounds, sights, touch, taste, smells—the brain integrates all of these as we function in the world. |
| Adaptability | Although nerve cells reside in certain brain regions, they are not fixed, unchanging structures. They have a hereditary, biological foundation, but they are constantly adapting to changes in the body and the environment. |
| plasticity | denotes the brain’s special capacity for change. You might believe that thinking is a mental process, not a physical one. Yet thinking is a physical event, because your every thought is reflected in physical activity in the brain. |
| Electrochemical Transmission | The brain and the rest of the nervous system work as an information-processing system When an impulse travels down a neuron it does so electrically. When that impulse gets to the end of the line, it communicates with the next neuron using chemicals |
| Afferent nerves, or sensory nerves | carry information to the brain and spinal cord. These sensory pathways communicate information about the external environment and internal body processes from sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord. |
| Efferent nerves, or motor nerves | carry information out of the brain and spinal cord—that is, they carry the nervous system’s output. These motor pathways communicate information from the brain and spinal cord to other areas of the body, including muscles and glands |
| neural networks | interconnected groups of nerve cells that integrate sensory input and motor output |
| central nervous system (CNS) | the brain and spinal cord. More than 99 percent of all our nerve cells are located in the CNS. |
| peripheral nervous system (PNS) | the network of nerves that connects the brain and spinal cord to other parts of the body. |
| The peripheral nervous system has two major divisions: | the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system |
| somatic nervous system | consists of sensory nerves (afferent), whose function is to convey information from the skin and muscles to the CNS about conditions such as pain and temperature, and motor nerves (efferent), whose function is to tell muscles what to do |
| autonomic nervous system | take messages to and from the body’s internal organs, monitoring such processes as breathing, heart rate, and digestion. |
| The autonomic nervous system is also divided into two parts: | The sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system |
| sympathetic nervous system | arouses the body to mobilize it for action and thus is involved in the experience of stress |
| parasympathetic nervous system | calms the body |
| Stress | the body’s response to stressors |
| stressors | the circumstances and events that threaten people and tax their coping abilities. When we experience stress, our body readies itself to handle the assault of stress; a number of physiological changes take place. |
| Acute stress | the momentary stress that occurs in response to life experiences. When the stressful situation ends, so does acute stress |
| corticosteroids | powerful stress hormones |
| Chronic stress | stress that goes on continuously—may lead to persistent autonomic nervous system arousal. |
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JoshuaB5