AP Psychology Commonly Examined Terms Study Guide

AP Psychology Commonly Examined Terms  Guide

87. parietal lobes: the portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; includes the sensory cortex 88. occipital lobes: the portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes the visual areas, which receive visual information from the opposite visual field 89. temporal lobes: the portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears, includes the auditory areas, each of which receives auditory information primarily from the opposite ear 90. motor cortex: an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements 91.sensory cortex: the area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body sensations 92. association areas: areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor orsensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking 93. aphasia: impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage to either Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing under- standing) 94. Broca's Area: an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech 95. Wernicke's area: a brain area involved in language comprehension and expres- sion; usually in the left temporal lobe 96. plasticity: the brain's capacity for modification, as evident in the brain reorgani- zation following damage (especially in children) and in experiments on the effects of experience on brain development 97. corpus callosum: the large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them 98.split brain: a condition in which the two hemispheres of the brain at isolated by cutting the connecting fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum) between them 99. endocrine system: the body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream 100. hormones: chemical messengers, mostly those manufactured by the en- docrine glands, that are produced in one tissue and affect another 101. adrenal glands: a pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys.The adren- als secrete the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (nonadren- aline), which help to arouse the body in times of stress 102. pituitary gland: the endocrine system's most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands