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AP Psychology Exam Review The Brain Brain Mnemonics by Michael Britt www.thepsychfiles.com Slide 2 Figure 2.2, p. 67 Slide 3 Slide 4 Slide 5 Pons - regulates waking and relaxing. Helpful mnemonic: Put a d in pons and you have ponds. Ponds are relaxing to look at. Your pons is activated when you look at a calm, relaxing pond. Pons Slide 6 Reticular formation - nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal. Helpful mnemonic: Slide 7 The medulla controls heartbeat and breathing. Helpful mnemonic: picture an Olympic athlete wearing gold medals around her neck and covering her heart and lungs. Slide 8 The thalamus - the brains sensory switchboard. It directs messages to the sensory areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla. Helpful mnemonic: Hal & Amos are traffic cops. Slide 9 Slide 10 The Hippocampus is involved in memory. Helpful mnemonic: Use hippo-compass: picture a hippo who is lost and cant remember how to get home, so hes using a compass. Slide 11 The amygdala regulates the emotions of fear and anger. Helpful mnemonics: If youre familiar with attack planes, a MIG is a scary attack fighter jet. Slide 12 The thalamus is the brains sensory switchboard. It directs messages to the sensory areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla. Helpful mnemonic: Hal & Amos are traffic cops. Slide 13 The cerebellum, or the little brain helps coordinate voluntary movements and balance. Helpful mnemonic: Slide 14 The hypothalamus directs eating, drinking, body temperature, and control of emotions, and helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland. Helpful mnemonic: Picture a HYPOdermic needle spraying two thirsty llamas with water to quench their thirst and cool them down. Slide 15 The cerebral cortex is the intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells that covers the cerebral hemispheres. It is the bodys ultimate control and information processing center. Helpful mnemonic: Imagine a Texas hat on your head which is covering the outermost part of your brain the cor"tex". Slide 16 The Corpus Callosum connects the two hemispheres. Helpful mnemonic: corPLUS calloSUM The two hemispheres of the brain communicate through the Corpus Callosum. Helpful mnemonic: Picture corpus CALL SOMEONE Slide 17 Each brain hemisphere is divided into four lobes that are separated by prominent fissures. These lobes are: frontal lobe (forehead) parietal lobe (top to rear head) occipital lobe (back of head) temporal lobe (side of head) Helpful mnemonic: F reud T ore his P ants O ff Slide 18 The Frontal Lobe is where complex thinking occurs. Helpful mnemonic: Use front door as your mnemonic. Put the front door on your forehead and put Einstein (complex thinker) behind the door. Slide 19 The Temporal Lobe is where auditory processing occurs. Helpful mnemonic: Use tempo as your mnemonic and picture a metronome above your ear (where the temporal lobe is located) Slide 20 The Parietal Lobe processes sensory information. Helpful mnemonic: Use a piranha fish as your mnemonic. The piranha bites you on the top of the head (where the parietal lobe is located). Thats a sensation the parietal lobe would process! Slide 21 The Occipital Lobe processes visual information. Helpful mnemonic: Use the Occ part of the word Occipital and imagine an octopus. Then, picture eyeballs instead of suckers on the tentacles. Slide 22 Brocas Area is the area of the brain responsible for producing speech. If it is damaged, you can understand what someone says, but their speech is disjointed. Helpful mnemonic: Brocas speech is broken or Brocas banter is broken Slide 23 Wernickes Area is responsible for the comprehension of speech. If you have an aphasia in this area of the brain you are unable to understand and respond to what people are saying to you. Helpful mnemonic: In other words, Wernickes comprehension is crappy.