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Cards In This Set
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Corpus callosum
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A large bundle of nerve fibers that connect corresponding parts of one side of the brain with those of the other side.
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Split-brain operation
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Brain surgery that is occasionally performed to treat a from of epilepsy; the surgeon cuts the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres of the brain.
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Cerebral hemispheres
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The two symmetrical halves of the brain; constitute the major parts of the brain.
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Generalization
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Type of scientific explanation; a general conclusion based on many observations of similar phenomena.
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Reduction
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Type of scientific explanation; a phenomenon is described in terms of the more elementary processes that underlie it.
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Reflex
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An automatic, stereotyped movement produced as the direct result of a stimulus.
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Model
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A mathematical or physical analogy for a physiological process; for example, computers have been used as models for various functions of the brain.
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Doctrine of specific nerve energies
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Muller's conclusion that because all nerve fibers carry the same type of message, sensory information must be specified by the particular nerve fibers that are active.
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Experimental ablation
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The research method in which the function of a part of the brain is inferred by observing the behaviors an animal can no longer perform after the part is damaged.
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Functionalism
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The principle that the best way to understand a biological phenomenon ( a behavior or a physiological structure) is to try to understand its useful functions for the organism.
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Natural Selection
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The process by which inherited traits that confer a selective advantage (increase an animal's likelihood to live an reproduce) become more prevalent in the population.
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Mutation
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A change in the genetic information contained in the chromosomes of sperms or eggs, which can be passed on to an organism's offspring; provides genetic variability.
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Selective advantage
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A characteristic of an organism that permits it to produce more than the average number of offspring of its species.
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Evolution
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A gradual change in the structure and physiology of plan an animal species - generally producing more complex organisms - as a result of natural selection.
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Behavioral neuroscientist (physiological psychologists)
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A scientist who studies the physiology of behavior, primarily by performing physiological and behavioral experiments with laboratory animals.
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