Kaplan MCAT behavioral sciences questions and answers graded A

Kaplan MCAT behavioral sciences questions and answers graded A 3 types of neurons ✔✔motor (efferent) interneurons sensory (afferent) Branches of autonomic nervous system and functions ✔✔Parasympathetic: rest and dig ...

Kaplan MCAT behavioral sciences questions and answers graded A 3 types of neurons ✔✔motor (efferent) interneurons sensory (afferent) Branches of autonomic nervous system and functions ✔✔Parasympathetic: rest and digest sympathetic: fight or flight Organization of brain (Hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain) ✔✔Hindbrain: cerebellum, medulla oblongata, reticular formation Midbrain: inferior and superior colliculi Forebrain: thalamus, hypothalamus, basal ganglia, limbic system, cerebral cortex Thalamus (Forebrain) ✔✔Relay station for sensory info Hypothalamus (Forebrain) ✔✔maintains homeostasis and integrates with the endocrine system through the hypophyseal portal system that connects to anterior pituitary Basal Ganglia (Forebrain) ✔✔Smoothens movements and helps maintain postural stability Limbic System (Forebrain) ✔✔Controls emotion and memory. Includes septal nuclei (pleasure seeking), amygdala (fear and aggression), hippocampus (memory), and fornix (communication) 4 lobes of the cerebral cortex ✔✔Frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal Frontal Lobe (Cerebral Cortex) ✔✔Executive function, impulse control, long-term planning (prefrontal cortex), motor function (primary motor cortex), speech production (Broca's area) Parietal Lobe (cerebral cortex) ✔✔Sensation of touch, pressure, temp, and pain (somatosensory cortex), spatial processing, orientation, and manipulation Occipital Lobe (cerebral cortex) ✔✔visual processing Temporal Lobe (cerebral cortex) ✔✔sound processing (auditory cortex), speech production (Wernicke's area), memory and emotion (limbic system) Acetylcholine ✔✔Voluntary muscle control, parasympathetic nervous system, attention, alertness Epinephrine and Norepinephrine ✔✔Fight or flight responses, wakefulness, alertness Dopamine ✔✔Smooth movements, postural stability Serotonin ✔✔Mood, sleep, eating, dreaming GABA ✔✔inhibitory. Brain "stabilization" Endorphins ✔✔Natural painkillers Sensation ✔✔Conversion of physical stimuli into neurological signals Perception ✔✔Processing of sensory info to make sense of significance Sensory receptors ✔✔Respond to stimuli and trigger electrical signals. Sensory stimuli transmitted to projection areas in brain, which further analyze sensory input Threshold ✔✔minimum stimulus that causes and change in signal transduction Weber's Law ✔✔The just-noticeable difference for a stimulus is proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus, and this proportion is constant over most of the range of possible stimuli Signal detection theory ✔✔The effects of nonsensory factors (experiences, motives, expectations) on perception of stimuli Response bias ✔✔examined using signal detection experiments with four possible outcomes: hits, misses, false alarms and correct negatives Adaptation ✔✔A decrease in response to a stimulus over time Vision ✔✔eye detects light in form of photons Visual Pathway ✔✔Retina, Optic nerve, optic chiasm, optic tracts, laternal geniculate nucleus (LGN) of thalamus, visual radiations, visual cortex Hearing ✔✔ear transduces sound waves into electrical signals interpreted by brain Cochlea ✔✔detects sound Utricle and saccule ✔✔Detects linear acceleration Semicircular canals ✔✔detects rotational acceleration Auditory Pathway ✔✔Cochlea, vestibulocochlear nerve, medial geniculate nucleus (MGN) of thalamus, auditory cortex Smell ✔✔detection of volatile or aerosolized chemicals by olfactory chemoreceptors (olfactory nerves) Taste ✔✔Detection of dissolved compounds by taste buds in papillae Somatosensation ✔✔Four touch modalities (pressure, vibration, pain and temperature) Kinesthetic sense (Proprioception) ✔✔Ability to tell where one's body is in space Bottom-up (data-driven) processing Object Recognition ✔✔Recognition of objects by parallel processing and feature detection. Slower but more accurate Top-down (conceptually-driven) processing Object Recognition ✔✔Recognition of an object by memories and expectations, with little attention to detail. Faster but more prone to mistakes Gestalt Principles ✔✔Ways the brain can infer missing parts of an image when it is incomplete Habituation ✔✔The process of becoming used to a stimulus Dishabituation ✔✔Occurs when a second stimulus intervenes, causing a resensitizaation to the original stimulus Observation