Bio-psychology Flashcards
What does biopsychology use?
What are the six indications of the sympathetic state?
What are the six indications of the parasympathetic state?
What are the two functions of the nervous system?
How is the nervous system adapted to its function?
What is the main role of the nervous system?
Uses biological processes to explain behaviour
- Increases heart rate
- Increases breathing rate
- Dilates pupils
- Inhibits digestion
- Inhibits saliva production
- Contracts rectum
- Decreases heart rate
- Decreases breathing rate
- Constricts pupils
- Stimulates digestion
- Stimulates saliva production
- Relaxes rectum
- Collects, processes and responds to environmental stimuli
- Co-ordinate working of different organs and cells in the body
It has a specialised network of cells in the human body
It’s the primary internal communication system.
What is the function of the brain?
What is the outer layer of the brain called?
What is the brain divided into?
What are the functions of the spinal cord?
What are the two things that the spinal cord does?
What is the role of Peripheral Nervous System?
What is role of the Autonomic Nervous System?
What are the two roles of the Somatic Nervous System?
What does the nervous system use?
What does the endocrine system use?
Centre of all conscious awareness
Cerebral cortex
Divided into two hemispheres
Extension of the brain. Responsible for reflex actions
- Passes messages to and from the brain
- Connects nerves to PNS (Peripheral Nervous System)
Transmits messages to and from the CNS
-Governs vital functions in the body
- Controls muscle movement
- Receives information from sensory receptors
Electrical impulses/messages
Chemical impulses/messages.
What is the function of the following hormones and where in the body are they made:
Oxytocin
Thyroxin
Adrenaline
What are the three stages of the Fight or Flight response?
What are the two types of responses in stressful situation?
What are the three stages of the ANS Response?
What is the endocrine system responsible for?
When do the CNS and endocrine system work together?
In what two ways are signals transmitted through neurones?
Love hormone (made in the pituitary gland)
Responsible for metabolism (made in thyroid gland)
Fight/flight response, strength and anger etc (made in the adrenal gland)
Hypothalamus recognises threat —> Adrenal gland (specifically the adrenal medulla) —> Adrenaline to the endocrine system
Fight or Flight (or Freeze) / Tend and Befriend
Parasympathetic state —> Sympathetic state (response/changes in body) —> Parasympathetic state
Responsible for secretion of hormones into the bloodstream
During Fight or Flight response
Signals transmitted electrically and chemically.
What are the three types of neurones?
What is the description of the way these three neurones interact for a reflex action?
What are the six main parts of a neurone?
What is the resting state?
What is activation?
What is the action potential transmitted through?
What are the seven main parts of the synaptic transmission?
What are the signals within neurons?
What are the signals between neurones?
What are the three stages of the Synaptic Transmission?
Sensory, motor and relay
Sensory neurone gets the stimulus which is passed along relay neurones which sends a message to the CNS which then goes back to the motor neurone which activates the movement of a muscle
- Cell body (soma) / Nucleus
- Dendrites
- Myelin sheath
- Axon
- Nodes of Ranvier
- Terminal buttons
When the inside of cells are negatively charged compared to the outside
Stimulus causes inside of cell become positively charged
Transmitted done through the axon
- Presynaptic nerve terminal
- Axon
- Synaptic vessel
- Synapse
- Neurotransmitter
- Dendrite
- Postsynaptic receptor sites
Electrical
Chemical
Presynaptic —> Synapse —> Postsynaptic.
What are neurotransmitters and what do they do?
What does each neurotransmitter fit into?
What is the definition of excitation of neurotransmitters?
What is the definition of inhibition of neurotransmitters?
What is the function of the following areas of the brain and what lobe are they found in:
Motor Area
Somatosensory
Auditory
Visual Area (or Visual Cortex)
Chemicals released into the synapse and taken up by postsynaptic receptor sites
Each neurotransmitter fits into a specific receptor site (and has specialist functions)
Neurotransmitter increases the positive charge of the postsynaptic neuron
Neurotransmitter increases the negative charge of the postsynaptic neuron
Found in the frontal lobe. Controls voluntary movement in the opposite side of the body
Found in the parietal lobe. This is where sensory information from the skin is represented (related to touch)
Found in the temporal lobe. Analyses speech-based information. Damage may produce partial hearing loss
Found in the occipital lobe. This is where each eye sends information from the right visual field to the left visual cortex and from the left visual field to the right visual cortex.
What are the two main theories of localisation of function in the brain?
What are the names of the two parts of the brain?
What are the four lobes of the brain?
Where is the language area of the brain?
What is Broca’s area?
What is Wernicke’s area?
What are the two deformities of these two areas?
What are the two evaluation points for evidence for localisation?
What are the two evaluation points for evidence for holistic theory?
What happens to the brain throughout its lifetime?
What happens during infancy to the brain?
Localisation and holistic theory
Right and left hemisphere
Frontal lobe; parietal lobe; occipital lobe; temporal lobe
Left side of the brain
Speech production
Word recognition
Broca’s aphasia and Wernicke’s aphasia
Brain scan evidence and Neurological evidence
Lashley’s research and Plasticity
Brain changes throughout its lifetime
Rapid growth in synaptic connections- peaking at about 15,000 by age 2-3.
What is the definition of synaptic pruning?
What is functional recovery?
What happens in this recovery concerning healthy areas of the brain?
What is this process called and how does it occur?
What are the two stages involved during the recovery?
What are the three structural changes involved in the recovery?
What are the five tasks that the left side of the brain is responsible for?
What are the seven tasks that the right side of the brain is responsible for?
Rarely used connections deleted, frequently used connections strengthened
Areas of the brain unaffected by trauma are able to adapt and compensate for damaged areas
Healthy areas of the brain take over the functioning of damaged, destroyed or missing areas
Process occurs quickly (spontaneous recovery) and slows down over time
- Brain rewires and reorganises itself
- Secondary neural pathways activated
- Axonal sprouting
- Reformation of blood vessels
- Recruitment of homologous areas
- Analytical tasks
- Language
- Music
- Control of the right side of the body
- Viewing objects visible in the right field only
- Controls left side of the body
- Drawing
- Spatial tasks
- Viewing objects visible in the left visual field only
- Emotional content of language
- The synthesiser
- Face recognition.
What is the left side of the brain responsible for?
What is the right side of the brain responsible for?
What is a commissurotomy?
Describe Sperry’s (1968) studies?
What are the three positive evaluation points for split brain research into hemispheric lateralisation?
What are the two negative evaluation points for split brain research into hemispheric lateralisation?
What is the full definition of hemispheric lateralisation?
What is the full definition of split brain research?
What did split brain research allow the researchers to investigate?
Language
Creative thoughts
Where the corpus callosum and other tissues which connect the two hemispheres are cut down the middle
Involved a group of individuals all of whom had undergone the same surgical procedure of a commissurotomy in order to separate the two hemispheres and control frequent and severe epileptic seizures
- Lateralisation demonstrated
- Methodological strengths
- Theoretical basis
- Generalizability
- Functional differences overstated
The idea that the two halves (hemispheres) of the brain are functionally different and that certain mental processes and behaviours are mainly controlled by one hemisphere rather than the other, as in the example of language
A series of studies which began in the 1960s involving epileptic patients who had experiences a surgical separation of the hemispheres of the brain
Allowed them to investigate the extent to which brain function is lateralised.
What part of the procedure of split brain research meant that the information could not be conveyed from that hemisphere to the other?
Describe what happened for the following key findings:
Describing what you see
Recognition by touch
Composite words
Matching face
What happened in this research when a composite picture made up of two different halves of a face was presented?
By presenting the image to one hemisphere of a split brain patient meant that the information could not be conveyed from that hemisphere to the other
When a picture of an object was shown to a patient’s right visual field, the patient could easily describe what was seen. If however, the same object was shown to the left visual field, the patient could not describe what was seen, and typically reported that there was nothing there
Although patients could not attach verbal labels to objects projected in the left visual field, they were able to select a matching object from a grab-bag of different objects using their left hand
If two words were presented simultaneously, one on either side of the visual field, the patient would write with their left hand the word and say the word
The right hemisphere also appeared dominant in terms of recognising faces
One half was presented to each hemisphere- the left hemisphere dominated in terms of verbal description whereas the right hemisphere dominated in terms of selecting a matching picture.
