6. A2 - Biopsychology Flashcards
Define - Localisation of Function
certain functions have certain locations within the brain.
Define - Hemispheric Lateralisation
two halves of the brain are functionally different and each
hemisphere has functional specialisations
What is the motor area?
voluntary movements by sending signals to the muscles in the
body.
What is the somatosensory area?
receives incoming sensory information from the skin to produce sensations related to pressure, pain, temperature, etc.
What is the visual area?
receives and processes visual information.
contains different parts that process different types of information including colour, shape or movement.
What is the auditory area?
analysing and processing acoustic information.
What is the Broca area?
left frontal lobe
language production.
What is the wernickes area?
left temporal lobe
language processing/comprehension.
What is Split-Brain Research?
Corpus callosum is cut.
What is Plasticity?
brain’s ability to change and adapt because of experience.
What is functional recovery?
transfer of functions from a damaged area of the brain after trauma to other undamaged areas.
Give an example of a case study for localisation of function
Phineas Gage,
- rail line
- piece of iron through his skull.
- experienced a change in personalities, such as loss of inhibition and anger.
- evidence for localisation of brain function
Where is the motor area located?
Frontal lobe
voluntary movements by sending signals to the muscles in the body.
What did Hitzig and Fritsch discover?
Different muscles are coordinated by different areas of the motor cortex by electrically stimulating the motor area of dogs.
This resulted in muscular contractions in different areas of the body depending on where the probe was inserted.
The regions of the motor area are arranged in a logical order eg. finger next to hand.
Where is the somatosensory area?
In the parietal lobe
Receives incoming sensory information from the skin to produce sensations related to pressure, pain, temperature etc.
What did Robertson discover?
The somatosensory area of the brain is highly adaptable
Where is the visual area?
back of the brain in the occipital lobe
Receives and processes visual information.
How does the visual area work?
right to left and left to right.
Where is the auditory area located?
Temporal lobe
Responsible for analysing and processing acoustic information.
How does the auditory area work?
left to right and right to left
Who is the Broca’s area named after?
Paul Broca
- Tan - understand spoken language not to produce any coherent words
- After death - post-mortem examination lesion in the left frontal lobe.
- conclude area was responsible for speech
production. - Broca’s aphasia, which results in slow and inarticulate speech.
Explain the story of how the Broca’s area was discovered
- Treating a patient named Leborgne, who was more commonly referred to as ‘Tan’.
- Tan could understand spoken language but was unable to produce any coherent words, and could only say ‘Tan’.
- After Tan’s death, Broca conducted a post-mortem examination on Tan’s brain and discovered that he had a lesion in the left frontal lobe.
- This led Broca to conclude that this area was responsible for speech production.
- People with damage to this area experience Broca’s aphasia, which results in slow and inarticulate speech.
Who discovered the Wernicke’s area?
Carl Wernicke’s.
Understanding language.
How was the Wernicke’s area discovered?
- lesions - able to speak, - unable to comprehend language.
- left temporal lobe - language processing/comprehension.
- Wernicke’s aphasia - producing sentences that are fluent, but meaningless
What did Wernicke conclude?
Language involves a separate motor and sensory region.
The motor region is located in the Broca’s area and the sensory in the Wernicke’s area.
What connected the two hemispheres in the brain?
Corpus callosum
Facilitate interhemispheric communication allowing the left and right hemispheres to talk to one another.
What does the corpus callosum do?
Facilitate interhemispheric communication allowing the left and right hemispheres to talk to one another.
Who did the split-brain research?
Sperry and Gazzaniga (1967)
what was the aim of the split-brain research?
Examine the extent to which the two hemispheres are specialised for certain functions.
What method was used during the split-brain research?
- image/word projected to the patient’s left visual field or the right visual field.
- information presented to one hemisphere can not be transferred to other hemi.
Sperry and Gazzaniga diff tasks, tactile tests, and drawing tasks.
- describe what you see
- tactile test, object placed in the patient’s left or right hand and they had to either describe what they felt or select a similar object from a series of alternate objects.
- drawing task picture in either left or right visual field they simply draw what they saw.
What were the findings of the describe what you see task of the split-brain experiments?
What were the findings of the tactile tests of the split-brain experiments?
What were the findings of the Drawing tasks of the split-brain experiments?
What conclusions were made from the split-brain research?
key differences between hemispheres.
- left hemisphere is dominant in terms of speech and language.
- right hemisphere is dominant in terms of visual-motor tasks.
What is functional recovery?
transfer of functions damaged area of the brain after trauma to other undamaged areas.
- Done through neural unmasking.
What is neuronal unmasking?
Way of functional recovery.
Where dormant synapses open connections to compensate for a nearby damaged area of the brain.
Allows new connections in the brain to be activated thus recovering any damage occurring in specific regions.
What did Kuhn et al. discover about plasticity and functional recovery?
- increase in grey matter after participants played video games for 30 minutes a day over a two-month period.
What did Davidson et al. discover about plasticity and functional recovery?
- Demonstrated the permanent change in the brain generated by prolonged meditation
- Buddhist monks - meditated frequently - greater activation of gamma waves
- students - no experience of meditation.
- highlight the idea of plasticity and the brain’s ability to adapt as a result of new experience
What does fMRI stand for?
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
what does a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine do?
- brain-scanning technique that measures blood flow in the brain when a person performs a task.
- most active neurons = most energy used.
- creates a dynamic (moving) 3D map of the brain
- highlighting which areas are involved in different neural activities.
What does EEGs stand for?
Electroencephalogram
What does a Electroencephalogram do?
- premise that information is processed in the brain as electrical activity in the form of action potentials or nerve impulses, transmitted along neurons.
- measure electrical activity through electrodes attached to the scalp.
- Small electrical charges are detected by the electrodes are graphed over a period of time, indicating the level of activity in the brain.
What does Event-Related Potentials do?
- similar equipment to EEG
- key difference is that a stimulus is presented to a participant and the researcher looks for activity related to that stimulus.
What does ERPs stand for?
Event-Related Potentials
What is a post-mortem examination?
- study the physical brain of a person who displayed a particular behaviour while they were alive that suggested possible brain damage.
What does studying of the brain allow?
allows psychologists to gain important insights into the
underlying foundations of our behaviour and mental processes.
How do fMRI machines work?
- brain-scanning technique that measures blood flow in the brain when a person performs a task.
- premise that neurons in the brain that are the most active during a task use the most energy.
- Deoxygenated haemoglobin has a different magnetic quality from oxygenated haemoglobin.
- 3D image highlights different magnetic qualities.
- 1-4 seconds after it occurs and accurate within 1-2 mm.
- increase in blood flow response to the need for more oxygen
How do EEG machines work?
- information releases electrical activity as action potentials or nerve impulses
- Electrodes detect small electrical charges and can be graphed