PSYCH 9A Lecture 5: Psych 11A - Lecture 5 - Psychology Fundamentals
Document Summary
Central nervous system (cns) - brain and spinal cord. Peripheral nervous system (pns) - includes both afferent and efferent nerves: The pns is divided into the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system has both sympathetic and parasympathetic components. The very top of the spinal cord forms the brain stem. It includes the medulla - controls our breathing and blood circulation and the pons - controls the level of attentiveness and helps govern the timing of sleep and dreaming (life-sustaining functions). Just behind these is the cerebellum (balance, coordinate movement, timing, sensory integration). The midbrain is on top of the pons, and on top of them all is the thalamus (process sensory information and perform early regulatory functions before directing to the forebrain). The outer surface of forebrain is the cerebra cortex. The cortex is large, thin sheet of tissue crumpled inside the skull. Some of the convolutions divide the brain into sections:
