Week Three Activity: Neuroscience and Behavior

Discuss Briefly

1. Why do psychologists study the brain and nervous system?

2. What are the major parts of the brain, and for what behaviour is each part responsible?
3. How does the nervous system communicate electrical and chemical messages from one
part to another?
4. How do neuroscientists study the brain’s connections to behavior and mind?

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Lim Chin has developed an interest in how the brain controls the body’s voluntary action.
You suggest that she become:
a. a genetic psychologist
b. a behavioral neuroscientist
c. an evolutionary psychologist
d. a clinical neuropsychologist

2. The brain and the spinal cord constitute the _________ nervous system.
a. central
b. peripheral
c. primary
d. autonomic

3. The fundamental units of the nervous system are nerve cells, called:
a. axons
b. glial cells
c. neurons
d. neurotransmitters

4. Perhaps the main reason that neurons can communicate over relatively great distances within
the body is the fact that neurons contain:
a. a long axon
b. a large cell body
c. many dendrites
d. a variety of neurotransmitters

5. The branch-like fibers extending in clusters from the neuron’s cell body are called:
a. axons
b. terminal buttons
c. glial fibers
d. dendrites