Nervous System

Functions of the brain

-conciousness - level of awareness

-reticular activating system (RAS) - responsible for level of conciousness; located in the
brain stem
-info goes through this center and then to the cerebral cortex
-functions as the arousal or alerting system
-medications - barbituates act on this system exhibiting depressive effects

-Sleep

-drowsiness - lightest level of sleep

-slow wave sleep - the person will have very slow frequency brain wave occuring
-R.E.M. Sleep - associated with deep sleep, dreaming
-extreme depression of RAS : coma
-calm but alert

-Language

-areas for both writen and spoken language

-mainly in the parietal and temporal lobes
-main language center is in the left hemisphere of the brain
-damage to either wernicke or brocas area results in ephasia - inability to speak
-emotions
-controlled by the limbic system
-areas in the frontal lobe, and area around the corpus collasum
-main structure - hippocampus
-interpretation of the emotions is controlled by the cerebral cortex
-if damaged, person will have extreme mood swing, extreme tearfulness
-plays a role in memory - damage to hippocampus: difficulty recalling memory from that
point on

-Memory

-short term - only lasts minutes, after minutes can be consolidated and transfered to long term
mem.
-long term - can last for many many years
-in terms of 7 plus or minus three
-areas are located in temporal and parietal lobes
-engrams - bring back memories, believed to be perminant changes that occur in the synapse
of the brain, burns that info into the brain
-tests
-CT scan - gives pictures of slices - can be stacked to give 3D view
-PET scan - similar to the CT, but uses tracers - radioactive agents
 -advantage is we can understand the functioning, with use of tracers
-MRI - magnetic field created that cause the brain to emitt radiowaves, computer then
constructs images from those radiowaves, much clearer image than CT
-ultrasound (infants) - bouncing sound waves off of numerous structures
-EEG

-Disease (in terms of the brain)

-Parkinson's disease - starts by effecting the kinesthetic portion of the brain, overtime may
develop memory, judgement issues, usually develops around 60-70 yrs old; typical sings -
intention tremors: tremors worsen with intention on movement, parkinsonian mask: facial
expression never changes, parkinsonian gait: spine becomes very rigid, lean forward from waste,
rather than picking up feet they shuffle (makes falls very common), bradykinesia: slow
movement
-Alzheimer’s - plaque formation that occurs, can only be truly diagnosed during an autopsy,
proteins are being denatured and plaque forms to defend the brain