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AP Psychology

186 cards · 🇺🇸 English

Comprehensive review for AP Psychology exam covering biological bases, cognition, development, social psychology, and mental health

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What is a neuron?

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  1. 1What is a neuron?
    Basic cell of the nervous system that transmits electrical and chemical signals throughout the body
  2. 2What are the three main parts of a neuron?
    Dendrites (receive signals), cell body/soma (contains nucleus), axon (transmits signals to other neurons)
  3. 3What is an action potential?
    Brief electrical charge that travels down the axon when a neuron fires; all-or-none response
  4. 4What are neurotransmitters?
    Chemical messengers that cross the synapse to carry signals from one neuron to another
  5. 5What is the synapse?
    Tiny gap between neurons where neurotransmitters are released to transmit signals
  6. 6What is acetylcholine (ACh)?
    Neurotransmitter involved in muscle movement, learning, and memory; deficiency linked to Alzheimer's disease
  7. 7What is dopamine?
    Neurotransmitter involved in movement, reward, motivation; excess linked to schizophrenia, deficiency to Parkinson's disease
  8. 8What is serotonin?
    Neurotransmitter affecting mood, hunger, sleep, arousal; deficiency linked to depression
  9. 9What are endorphins?
    Natural opiates released during pain, exercise, excitement; reduce pain and produce feelings of pleasure
  10. 10What is the difference between the central and peripheral nervous systems?
    Central (CNS): brain and spinal cord; Peripheral (PNS): all nerves connecting CNS to rest of body
  11. 11What are the two divisions of the peripheral nervous system?
    Somatic nervous system (voluntary control of skeletal muscles) and autonomic nervous system (involuntary control of organs)
  12. 12What are the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system?
    Sympathetic (arousal/fight-or-flight) and parasympathetic (calming/rest-and-digest)
  13. 13What does the medulla control?
    Automatic survival functions: heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure
  14. 14What is the function of the cerebellum?
    Coordinates voluntary movement, balance, posture; involved in procedural memory
  15. 15What does the limbic system regulate?
    Emotions, memory, motivation, basic drives (hunger, sex, aggression)
  16. 16What is the amygdala's function?
    Processes emotions, especially fear and aggression; evaluates emotional significance of stimuli
  17. 17What is the hippocampus responsible for?
    Forming new explicit memories; damage prevents new long-term memories (like patient H.M.)
  18. 18What is the hypothalamus?
    Regulates body temperature, hunger, thirst, sexual behavior; controls pituitary gland
  19. 19What does the thalamus do?
    Sensory relay station; directs incoming sensory information (except smell) to appropriate brain areas
  20. 20What is the cerebral cortex?
    Outer layer of brain; responsible for higher-level thinking, perceiving, planning, language
  21. 21What are the four lobes of the cerebral cortex?
    Frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes
  22. 22What is the frontal lobe responsible for?
    Motor control, executive functions (planning, decision-making), personality, judgment; contains motor cortex and Broca's area
  23. 23What is the parietal lobe responsible for?
    Processing sensory information (touch, temperature, pain); contains somatosensory cortex; spatial awareness
  24. 24What is the occipital lobe responsible for?
    Visual processing; contains primary visual cortex
  25. 25What is the temporal lobe responsible for?
    Auditory processing, language comprehension (Wernicke's area), memory formation
  26. 26What is Broca's area?
    Region in left frontal lobe controlling speech production; damage causes difficulty speaking but comprehension intact
  27. 27What is Wernicke's area?
    Region in left temporal lobe controlling language comprehension; damage causes fluent but meaningless speech
  28. 28What is brain plasticity?
    Brain's ability to reorganize and form new neural connections, especially after damage or during learning
  29. 29What is the corpus callosum?
    Bundle of nerve fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres, allowing communication between them
  30. 30What is hemispheric lateralization?
    Specialization of functions in left (language, logic) and right (spatial, creative) brain hemispheres

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