PSY 101 1st Edition Lecture 4 Outline of Last Lecture I. Nervous systemOutline of Current Lecture II. More about the nervous systemCurrent Lecture-Synapse: area between axon of one neuron and dendrite of other-Major structures of the CNS-Spinal cord-Brain: lower level structures and cerebral cortex-Lower level structures/old brain: features we share with primitive creatures-Thalamus-Reticular formation-Medulla: breathing, heart rate, salivation; autonomic nervous system -The limbic system-Hypothalamus: critical for motivations, ie “four f’s: feeding, fighting, fleeing, f***ing”-Hippocampus: processes memory-Pituitary gland: “master gland”-Amygdala: aggression/fear-Cerebral cortex: new brain, neurocortex-Frontal lobe: abstract thinking, planning, social skills, personality traits-Parietal lobe: touch, special orientation, nonverbal thinking-Occipital lobe: vision-Temporal lobe: language, hearing, visual pattern recognition-Plasticity: brain reorders, some people can live with half of a brain, some parts adapt to new functions-Major theme: the divided self: you may feel like a unified person, but you contain several “intelligences” that sometimes conflict-Example: you want to eat a chocolate cake but at the same time you don’t because you want to lose weight-Handedness-90% are right handed, left brain is more skilled-99% of righties have language located in the left hemisphere of their brain-70% of lefties do too-Corpus colluseum: largest bundle f nerve fibers, connects two brain hemispheres, and carries messages between hemispheres-Split brain: not much happens to the person, some epilepsy patients get this
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