PSYC BC 1119y Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Adrenal Gland, Sympathetic Nervous System, Neuroglia

• School: Barnard College
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC BC 1119y
• Professor: Russell Romeo

Document Summary

Stress: any significant disturbance of homeostasis by environmental, physiological, and/or psychological factors. Homeostasis: maintaining a particular physiological parameter relatively constant (in balance) Almost instantaneously, sympathetic nervous system releases norepinephrine (noradrenalin) and epinephrine (adrenalin) from the adrenal gland- fight or flight response. Elevated level of cort allows the following adaptive responses to acute stress: However, if you keep utilizing your energy (chronic/constant stress), pathological responses include: Neural damage brain regions involved in cognition and emotional regulation (as well as hpa regulation) Prefrontal cortex: executive function (decision-making, impulsivity, risk assessment), working memory (remembering something in the short-term) Hippocampus: contextual memory, episodic memory, spatial memory, learning, mood. Stress-induced dendritic remodeling in hippocampus: dendritic retraction/atrophy occurs when you are stressed- shorter dendrites and many fewer of them- result is that it can"t process as much information- deficits in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory tasks. Stress-induced dendritic remodeling in prefrontal cortex: dendritic retraction/atrophy- processes less info.