Bio psych Flashcards
What is plasticity?
Describes the brains tendancy to change and adapt as a result of learning a new experience.
What is one piece of research conducted into Plasticty?
Maguire- studied brains of taxi drivers and found significantly more grey matter within posterior hippocampus - associated with spatial and navigation skills.
Maguire
What variation did research into plasticity show?
Showed taxi drivers who had been doing job longer had more prounced structural difference.
What is an evaluation of the maguire study?
Supporting evidence from Draganski- who studied medical students before and after exams- found the same region- posterior hippocampus changed.
What is functional recovery?
It is a form of plasticity which allows the brain to
Who investigated and what factors affect platisicty?
Bezzloa et al (2012)- 40 hours of golf training
What does cognitive reserve mean?
Developed by Schneider (2014), people with further education 2/5 - 16+ years achieved full recovery, compared with 12+ years.
Name the process of synaptic transmission
- Action potential arrives at axon terminal
- vesicles merge at the membrane at the presynaptic cell.
- Release neurotransmitters across then diffuse across synaptic cleft.
- Release neurotransmitters across then diffus synaptic cleft.
- Reacting post synaptic cell
- Summation happens.
What direction synaptic transmission?
uni directional- can only happen one way across the synapse
What are the 4 ways of Investigating the brain?
Post mortem
EEG
ERP
FMRI
Negative
What is an evaluation of Post Mortem
Brain may be affected after death and can not see a clear correltion between brain and behaviours exhibited
What is FMRI?
The use of brain scans which study blood going to certain areas of the brain when brain is being used- to show high activity in the brain
What is EEG
The use of a scalp with electrodes attached, used to study beta, gama, theta waves under the scalp to study signals sent around the brain.
What is an ERG
Event related potnetials, uses the same method as EEG, sum of the waves/isloate waves to see activity. Process of statistical averaging to remove background noise to isolate stimulus reaction.
What is spatial resolution
the identifcation of the exact location of a brain structure/ activity