Psychology 202
Exam 2 Study Guide
The Visual System: Chapter 6 & Lecture
 Sensory receptors, transduction, receptor potentials (in contrast to action potentials)
 Three dimensions of light
 Basic anatomy of the eye (Figure 6.3; focus on: cornea, iris, pupil, lens,
accommodation, retina, fovea)
 Basic anatomy of the retina (Figure 6.5) and neuronal changes (e.g.,
hyperpolarization, depolarization, or action potential) that occur with the processing
of light
 Rods vs. cones (specific aspects of vision associated with each and relative numbers
of each)
 Photopigments
 Neural pathway from retina to primary visual cortex (Figure 6.7) and nature of
primary visual cortex map
 LGN, magnocellular and parvocellular layers
 Coding of light in the retina
 Receptive field
 ON cells, OFF cells
 Trichromatic coding, opponent-process coding, afterimages

Coding of light in the primary visual cortex
 Generic types of visual information that is processed there, cytochrome
oxidase (CO) blobs
 Modular organization of primary visual cortex

Coding of light in the visual association areas
 dorsal stream vs. ventral stream (Figure 6.22)
Sleep and Biological Rhythms: Chapter 8 & Lecture
 Polygraph, EEG, EOG, EMG
 Stages of sleep and corresponding brain waves
 Characteristics of REM sleep, rebound phenomenon (REM rebound effect)
 Theories/explanations of deep/slow-wave sleep and REM sleep +
evidence/observations regarding these theories/explanations
 Adenosine
 Neural control of arousal
 Five neurotransmitters and corresponding brain areas (see handout on the
class website)

Neural control of slow-wave sleep
 Sleep/waking flip-flop
 Sleep-promoting region: Ventrolateral preoptic area (vlPOA)
Updated: 3/8/2016


Wakefulness-promoting regions: brain stem and basal forebrain systems (see
“Neural control of arousal” above
Role of orexin/hypocretin in stabilizing the flip-flop

Neural control of REM sleep
 Desynchrony and atonia
 REM-sleep flip-flop
 REM-OFF region: ventrolateral periaqueductal gray matter (vlPAG; in the
midbrain)
 REM-ON region: sublaterodorsal nucleus (SLD; in the pons)

Biological Rhythms
 Circadian rhythms, zeitgebers
 Suprachiasmatic nucleus, PER protein (covered in lecture)
Chapter 9: Reproductive Behavior
 Sexual dimorphism, sex chromosomes, gametes
 Gonads, testes, ovaries, function of SRY gene, testis-determining factor
 Organizational versus activational hormone effects
 Bipotential/bisexual nature of fertilized egg,
 Mullerian system, Wolfian System, androgens (testosterone and dihydrotestosterone),
anti-Mullerian hormone, defeminizing and feminizing effects, demasculinizing and
masculinizing effects (see handout & Figure 9.4)
 Genetic disorders (4 were discussed in lecture) and how the presence/absence of sex
hormones produces the respective symptoms of each
 Primary versus secondary sex characteristics
 Structures and hormones involved in the changes that occur with puberty (see
handout & Figure 9.5)
 Research evidence regarding the relation between prenatal hormones and sexual
orientation
 3 studies concerning genetic females
 1 study concerning genetic males
 Three brain areas that distinguish among heterosexual males, homosexual
males, and heterosexual females
 Concordance rates comparing twins

Important brain areas involved in the sexual behavior of rats
 Medial preoptic area (MPA), medial amygdala, ventromedial hypothalamus
(VMH)
 Areas responsible for sexual motivation versus sexual behavior
Updated: 3/8/2016