Bio: SAQs Flashcards
Explain localization of behaviour, with reference to one study.
Introduction:
- LoF is the theory that certain areas of the brain correspond to certain functions
- Refers to the idea that behaviour, emotions and thoughts originate in the brain in specific locations
- Different parts of the brain are responsible for different tasks, f.e. 2 main hemispheres
- Left - logic, problem-solving
- Right - creativity and imagination
4 main lobes, occipital (vision), parietal (higher senses and language), frontal (reasoning and creativity) and temporal (hearing, perception and memory).
Support Study: HM
- HM car accident when he was 7
- Epileptic seizures 10-27 progressively worse
- Surgery removing tissue from the medial temporal lobe, including hippocampus (consolidation of memory from short-term to long-term)
- Milner studied HM until 2008, aim to understand the effects of the surgery
- Suffered primarily from anterograde amnesia - could not remember faces of people he met after surgery
- Retrograde amnesia improved - he only had problems remembering the period of one year before the operation
- Could not acquire new episodic (event memory) or semantic (general knowledge)
- Could form a cognitive map (spatial memory), different encodement from episodic and semantic memory
- could retain info for a while if rehearsed, but forget afterwards
- capacity for working memory (conversation requiring minimal level of retention) and procedural memories (mowing a lawn)
- hippocampus had most damage
Link:
- memory systems constitute a complex system
- hippocampus important STM to LTM
- STM not stored in hippocampus as retain was possible w rehearsal
- retention of memories from childhood - medial temporal is not the site of permanent storage but a role in organization
- implicit memory may contain several stores, such as procedural, emotional and skills, all related to different brain areas.
Explain Neuroplasticity with reference to one study
Introduction:
-Neuroplasticity- ability of the brain to adapt and change the connections between brain cells, neurons, over time
-Caused by brain development, diseases, learning or experiences.
-can help deal with and overcome brain damage
-easier in children, brain is more plastic and susceptible to change
-takes place through neural networks
-neurons interact through axons and dendrites at the end of the cells, creating a series of webbed interconnections, which create neural network and produce (or stop) a behaviour through dendritic branching and pruning.
- Repeating a behaviour strengthens the neural network, which causes the dendrites at the end of the neuron to branch as more connections with axons take place.
On the other hand, no repetition = pruning as the neural network associated with the behavior weakens, extra neurons are eliminated to increase efficiency. In some cases, pruning is normal and often happens between puberty and childhood.
Support Study: Draganski 2004
- aim is discover whether structural differences in the brain could be found through brain imaging technology - MRIs
- 24 participants, 21:3 m:f
- first scan - no notable difference
- division into two groups of 12
- first group, minimum 60 second practice basic juggling during 3 months
- second group no change
- new MRI after three months
- difference in size of two areas between the two grousp
- jugglers stop practice, another MRI in three months
- difference notable but smaller
- difference between the second scan caused by an increase in volume in areas associated with visually detected movements
- practice strengthened neural connection
Link:
- neuroplasticity observed
- MRI show changed in the brain between scans
- first and second scan = dendritic branching
- juggling and practicing - creation and strengthening of the neural network responsible for the action
- third scan dendritic pruning, no more practice weakened the network, the area of the brain decreased in size.
Explain one technique used to study the brain in relation to behavior with reference to one study
Introduction: MRI
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging gives a three-dimensional picture of the brain structures
- detects changes in blood flow without using a radioactive tracer
- uses magnetic fields and radiowaves
- some substances making up the body have intrinsic magnetic properties and respond to being in a magnetic field
- when a magnetic field is passed, reverbations are produced by hydrogen molecules
- picked up by scanner which converts it into a structural image
- can detect growth in brain areas
Support Study: Draganski 2004
- aim is discover whether structural differences in the brain could be found through brain imaging technology - MRIs
- 24 participants, 21:3 m:f
- first scan - no notable difference
- division into two groups of 12
- first group, minimum 60 second practice basic juggling during 3 months
- second group no change
- new MRI after three months
- difference in size of two areas between the two grousp
- jugglers stop practice, another MRI in three months
- difference notable but smaller
- difference between the second scan caused by an increase in volume in areas associated with visually detected movements
- practice strengthened neural connection
Link:
- MRI used to observe the structural differences caused by neuroplasticity over the course of the study
- MRI show changed in the brain between scans
- first and second scan = dendritic branching
- juggling and practicing - creation and strengthening of the neural network responsible for the action
- third scan dendritic pruning, no more practice weakened the network, the area of the brain decreased in size.
Explain Neural Pruning with reference to one study
Introduction
-Every behaviour and action has a neural network responsible for it
-Neuroplasticity- ability of the brain to adapt and change the connections between brain cells, neurons, over time
-Caused by brain development, diseases, learning or experiences.
-can help deal with and overcome brain damage
-easier in children, brain is more plastic and susceptible to change
-takes place through neural networks
-neurons interact through axons and dendrites at the end of the cells, creating a series of webbed interconnections, which create neural network and produce (or stop) a behaviour through dendritic branching and pruning.
- Repeating a behaviour strengthens the neural network, which causes the dendrites at the end of the neuron to branch as more connections with axons take place.
On the other hand, no repetition = pruning as the neural network associated with the behavior weakens, extra neurons are eliminated to increase efficiency. In some cases, pruning is normal and often happens between puberty and childhood.
Support Study: Draganski 2004
- aim is discover whether structural differences in the brain could be found through brain imaging technology - MRIs
- 24 participants, 21:3 m:f
- first scan - no notable difference
- division into two groups of 12
- first group, minimum 60 second practice basic juggling during 3 months
- second group no change
- new MRI after three months
- difference in size of two areas between the two grousp
- jugglers stop practice, another MRI in three months
- difference notable but smaller
- difference between the second scan caused by an increase in volume in areas associated with visually detected movements
- practice strengthened neural connection
Link:
- neuroplasticity observed
- MRI show changed in the brain between scans
- first and second scan = dendritic branching
- juggling and practicing - creation and strengthening of the neural network responsible for the action
- third scan dendritic pruning, no more practice weakened the network, the area of the brain decreased in size.
Explain the use of one research method in one study of the brain and behaviour
Introduction:
-Experiments are a scientific way of testing a hypothesis
-Includes independent variable (manipulated by the researcher), dependent variable ( outcome measured) and extraneous variables (other variables that may affect the results)
-field experiment (researcher deliberatey manipiulates IV but in natural environment)
-natural (iv is manipulated but by natural flow nd chance
-Quasi (conditions not randomly allocated)
-lab (controlled environment - participant knows hey are participating)
-experiments can help study behaviours, such as neuroplasticity
-Neuroplasticity- ability of the brain to adapt and change the connections between brain cells, neurons, over time
-Caused by brain development, diseases, learning or experiences.
-can help deal with and overcome brain damage
-easier in children, brain is more plastic and susceptible to change
-takes place through neural networks
-neurons interact through axons and dendrites at the end of the cells, creating a series of webbed interconnections, which create neural network and produce (or stop) a behaviour through dendritic branching and pruning.
- Repeating a behaviour strengthens the neural network, which causes the dendrites at the end of the neuron to branch as more connections with axons take place.
On the other hand, no repetition = pruning as the neural network associated with the behavior weakens, extra neurons are eliminated to increase efficiency. In some cases, pruning is normal and often happens between puberty and childhood.
Support Study: Draganski 2004
- aim is discover whether structural differences in the brain could be found through brain imaging technology - MRIs
- 24 participants, 21:3 m:f
- first scan - no notable difference
- division into two groups of 12
- first group, minimum 60 second practice basic juggling during 3 months
- second group no change
- new MRI after three months
- difference in size of two areas between the two grousp
- jugglers stop practice, another MRI in three months
- difference notable but smaller
- difference between the second scan caused by an increase in volume in areas associated with visually detected movements
- practice strengthened neural connection
Link:
- true experiment as while it was not too strictly controlled, the participants were aware they were in the experiment
- iv was juggling
- control group
- control variable was mri scan difference
- MRI show changed in the brain between scans
- first and second scan = dendritic branching
- juggling and practicing - creation and strengthening of the neural network responsible for the action
- third scan dendritic pruning, no more practice weakened the network, the area of the brain decreased in size.
Explain the formation of neural networks with the use of one study
Introduction
-Every behaviour and action has a neural network responsible for it
-Neuroplasticity- ability of the brain to adapt and change the connections between brain cells, neurons, over time
-Caused by brain development, diseases, learning or experiences.
-can help deal with and overcome brain damage
-easier in children, brain is more plastic and susceptible to change
-takes place through neural networks
-neurons interact through axons and dendrites at the end of the cells, creating a series of webbed interconnections, which create neural network and produce (or stop) a behaviour through dendritic branching and pruning.
- Repeating a behaviour strengthens the neural network, which causes the dendrites at the end of the neuron to branch as more connections with axons take place.
On the other hand, no repetition = pruning as the neural network associated with the behavior weakens, extra neurons are eliminated to increase efficiency. In some cases, pruning is normal and often happens between puberty and childhood.
Support Study: Draganski 2004
- aim is discover whether structural differences in the brain could be found through brain imaging technology - MRIs
- 24 participants, 21:3 m:f
- first scan - no notable difference
- division into two groups of 12
- first group, minimum 60 second practice basic juggling during 3 months
- second group no change
- new MRI after three months
- difference in size of two areas between the two grousp
- jugglers stop practice, another MRI in three months
- difference notable but smaller
- difference between the second scan caused by an increase in volume in areas associated with visually detected movements
- practice strengthened neural connection
Link:
- neuroplasticity observed
- MRI show changed in the brain between scans
- first and second scan = dendritic branching
- juggling and practicing - creation and strengthening of the neural network responsible for the action
- third scan dendritic pruning, no more practice weakened the network, the area of the brain decreased in size.
Explain one ethical consideration in one study of the brain and behaviour
Introduction:
- Ethical considerations are required guidelines for conduct that must be followed whe doing psychological research
-Informed consent, debriefing, protection from mental and physical harm, no deception, right to withdraw and confidentiality.
-Confidentiality guidelines state that participants, and the data gained from them must be kept anonymous unless they give their full consent, and no names should be used in a research report.
- LoF is the theory that certain areas of the brain correspond to certain functions
- Refers to the idea that behaviour, emotions and thoughts originate in the brain in specific locations
- Different parts of the brain are responsible for different tasks, f.e. 2 main hemispheres
- Left - logic, problem-solving
- Right - creativity and imagination
4 main lobes, occipital (vision), parietal (higher senses and language), frontal (reasoning and creativity) and temporal (hearing, perception and memory).
Support Study: HM
- HM car accident when he was 7
- Epileptic seizures 10-27 progressively worse
- Surgery removing tissue from the medial temporal lobe, including hippocampus (consolidation of memory from short-term to long-term)
- Milner studied HM until 2008, aim to understand the effects of the surgery
- Suffered primarily from anterograde amnesia - could not remember faces of people he met after surgery
- Retrograde amnesia improved - he only had problems remembering the period of one year before the operation
- Could not acquire new episodic (event memory) or semantic (general knowledge)
- Could form a cognitive map (spatial memory), different encodement from episodic and semantic memory
- could retain info for a while if rehearsed, but forget afterwards
- capacity for working memory (conversation requiring minimal level of retention) and procedural memories (mowing a lawn)
- hippocampus had most damage
Link:
- confidentiality kept, initials but not full name
- memory systems constitute a complex system
- hippocampus important STM to LTM
- STM not stored in hippocampus as retain was possible w rehearsal
- retention of memories from childhood - medial temporal is not the site of permanent storage but a role in organization
- implicit memory may contain several stores, such as procedural, emotional and skills, all related to different brain areas.
- information is valuable but anonymous
Explain the role of one neurotransmitter on human behavior with reference to one study.
Introduction:
- Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry the electrical impulses between neurons in the brain and body
- they act within the gap between two neurons, the synapse
- very fast process
- starts in dendrites that branch out form the cell body and receive electrochemical impulses from a nearby neuron
- the impulse passes down the axon as an action potential, down to the terminal buttons, which contain tiny sacs filled with a neurotransmitter called a synaptic vesicle.
- the neurotransmitter is then released into the synapse between the neurons
- synapses can be excitatory or inhibitory, which means the y can either instruct the receiving neuron to fire or not to fire respectively.
- each nuerotransmitter can act in either an excitatory way or an inhibitory way
- neurotransmitters are affected by chemicals that bind to receptor sites, agonists which increase the neurotransmitter effect, or antagonist, which reduce their effect
Study: Gais and Born 2004
- Aim - investigate the role of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the human hippocampus while the person is in slow-sleep
- 29 male 18-35
- 1 adaptation two experiment nights
- randomly split into two groups
- both groups completed a word memory task (declarative/explicit memory) and a mirror-image tracing task (non-declarative, implicit memory) 10-10.30 pm
- On the first night, subjects were injected with physostigmine, an agonist promoting ACh production over two hours. On the second night, all subjects received a placebo.
- the participants from the experimental sleep group were awoken three hours after falling asleep and asked to recall the words they remembered and complete the tracing task
- the control group stayed awake and they were asked at the same time to repeat both tasks
- during sleep, memory for the declarative task seriously decreased after administration of physostigmine when compared to placebo
- however, in wake conditions ACh did not result in decreased memory performance but in a small increase in wordlist recall as compared with that in the placebo condition
Link:
- acquisition of declarative information when we are awake needs higher ACh levels when compared to acquisition of non-declarative information
- processing and storage of the materials into neocortical networks require a period of low ACh levels to prevent suppression of feedback from the hippocampus to other areas of the brain
- high ACh is needed for information to be retained in the hippocampus
- low ACh is needed for the information to enter long-term memory
Explain the role of one antagonist with reference to one study
Introduction:
- Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry the electrical impulses between neurons in the brain and body
- they act within the gap between two neurons, the synapse
- very fast process
- starts in dendrites that branch out form the cell body and receive electrochemical impulses from a nearby neuron
- the impulse passes down the axon as an action potential, down to the terminal buttons, which contain tiny sacs filled with a neurotransmitter called a synaptic vesicle.
- the neurotransmitter is then released into the synapse between the neurons
- synapses can be excitatory or inhibitory, which means the y can either instruct the receiving neuron to fire or not to fire respectively.
- each neurotransmitter can act in either an excitatory way or an inhibitory way
- neurotransmitters are affected by chemicals that bind to receptor sites, agonists which increase the neurotransmitter effect, or antagonist, which reduce their effect
- Antagonists are chemicals that block or inhibit the action of the neurotransmitter, usually by binding at the receptor site so the neurotransmitter cannot.
Study: Antonova et al
- Aim demonstrate that blocking ACh receptors in the brain can affect spatial memory tasks in humans
- 20 male adults, mean age 28
- randomly injected either with scopolamine, antagonist, or placebo
- put into an fMRI playing an arena task game, researchers were observing how well the participants were able to create spatial memories
- the participants were told to rehearse the location of the object they needed to find for 30 seconds while the starting location changed
- scopolamine group took longer on average to find the pole in the area
- scopolamine group reduced hippocampus activity
- ACh plays a key role in the encoding of spacial memories in humans
- scopolamine prevents
Explain the role of one agonist with reference to one study
Introduction:
- Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry the electrical impulses between neurons in the brain and body
- they act within the gap between two neurons, the synapse
- very fast process
- starts in dendrites that branch out form the cell body and receive electrochemical impulses from a nearby neuron
- the impulse passes down the axon as an action potential, down to the terminal buttons, which contain tiny sacs filled with a neurotransmitter called a synaptic vesicle.
- the neurotransmitter is then released into the synapse between the neurons
- synapses can be excitatory or inhibitory, which means the y can either instruct the receiving neuron to fire or not to fire respectively.
- each neurotransmitter can act in either an excitatory way or an inhibitory way
- neurotransmitters are affected by chemicals that bind to receptor sites, agonists which increase the neurotransmitter effect, or antagonist, which reduce their effect
- Agonists are substances that bind to synaptic receptors and increase the effect of the neurotransmitter, by catalysing the speed of release of the neurotransmitter, preventing re-uptake or inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down the neurotransmitter
Study: Gais and Born 2004
- Aim - investigate the role of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the human hippocampus while the person is in slow-sleep
- 29 male 18-35
- 1 adaptation two experiment nights
- randomly split into two groups
- both groups completed a word memory task (declarative/explicit memory) and a mirror-image tracing task (non-declarative, implicit memory) 10-10.30 pm
- On the first night, subjects were injected with physostigmine, an agonist promoting ACh production by inhibiting the enzyme that breaks ACh down over two hours. On the second night, all subjects received a placebo.
- the participants from the experimental sleep group were awoken three hours after falling asleep and asked to recall the words they remembered and complete the tracing task
- the control group stayed awake and they were asked at the same time to repeat both tasks
- during sleep, memory for the declarative task seriously decreased after administration of physostigmine when compared to placebo
- however, in wake conditions ACh did not result in decreased memory performance but in a small increase in wordlist recall as compared with that in the placebo condition
Link:
- acquisition of declarative information when we are awake needs higher ACh levels when compared to acquisition of non-declarative information
- processing and storage of the materials into neocortical networks require a period of low ACh levels to prevent suppression of feedback from the hippocampus to other areas of the brain
- high ACh is needed for information to be retained in the hippocampus, higher ACh levels were obtained due to physostigmine
- low ACh is needed for the information to enter long-term memory
Explain the role of inhibitory or excitatory synapses in one behaviour with reference to one study
Introduction:
- Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry the electrical impulses between neurons in the brain and body
- they act within the gap between two neurons, the synapse
- very fast process
- starts in dendrites that branch out form the cell body and receive electrochemical impulses from a nearby neuron
- the impulse passes down the axon as an action potential, down to the terminal buttons, which contain tiny sacs filled with a neurotransmitter called a synaptic vesicle.
- the neurotransmitter is then released into the synapse between the neurons
- synapses can be excitatory or inhibitory, which means the y can either instruct the receiving neuron to fire or not to fire respectively.
- each nuerotransmitter can act in either an excitatory way or an inhibitory way
- neurotransmitters are affected by chemicals that bind to receptor sites, agonists which increase the neurotransmitter effect, or antagonist, which reduce their effect
Study Porges et al
- inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA
- inhibits neural activity in the hippocampus and frontal lobe
- increase cognitive load
- 94 adults, mean age 73
- cognitive functioning
- correlation between higher concentrations of GABA and superior cognitive performance
Explain the effect of one hormone on human behavior with reference to one study
Explain the use of one research method in one study of hormones or pheromones (Quasi- less expensive and easy)
Explain ethical guideline in one study of hormones or pheromones (protection from mental and physical harm )
Introduction:
- Hormones are chemicals released by glands in the endocrine system which circulate in the bloodstream and act as messengers affecting particular cells and organs.
- The endocrine system is a system comprised of glands, which secrete hormones into the bloodstream to affect behaviour.
- From there, the hormones are sent to target cells by impulses which initiate specific responses.
- The human body contains various hormones which relate to specific emotions and carry out different responses and actions in the body.
- Some hormones produced by the body are adrenaline and cortisol from the adrenals; melatonin, from the pineal gland; oxytocin from the pituitary gland and hypothalamus and testosterone and oestrogen from the gonads (testes/ovaries).
- Hormones have widespread effects on both physiology and psychology in humans and thus behaviour.
- Hormones enter directly into the bloodstream so thus they take longer to produce changes in behaviour that neurotransmitters, but they also linger longer
Study Newcomer et al
- Aim was to investigate whether high levels of the stress hormone cortisol interfere with verbal declarative memory
- participants from WU
- 3 conditions, high, low and placebo
- tested verbal declarative memory as it is affected by long-term stress
- stress related hormones on recall of declarative memory
Explain one effect of one potential pheromone in human behaviour with reference to one study
Introduction:
- airborne chemical messengers released from the body that have a physical or emotional effect on another member of the same species
- animals smell pheromones through a specialized half-mon shaped structure located inside the nose called the vomeronasal organ, pheromone signals picked up by the organ are then relayed through nerves to an area of the brain called the hypothalamus, responsible for emotions, hormones, reproduction and sexual behavior.
Key Study
Neuron 1998
-analyze the brains of 24 men and women while thye smelled chemicals almost identical to the naturally produced sex hormones estrogen and testosterone
PET
-cooraborate that human pheromones do exist and makes and females can communicate via chemicals, certain areas of the brain are activated, such as the hy[othalamus.
Explain the role of one gene in one behaviour with reference to one study
ethical consideration right to withdraw
research method case study
Intro:
- gene is a segment of DNA in a particular location on a chromosome that acts by directing the synthesis of proteins
- human genome, all of human DNA< has 20000-25000 contained on 23 chromosomes
- allele is one of two different versions of a gene
- genes have been shown to affect human behavior, but not directly
- complex interplay between individual cognition, genetic inheritance and environment along with human behavior
- where do gene action firsts into the larger picture
- estimate the heritability fo the behavior
Dutch Family study
- case study
- extreme violence in the male side of the family
- 9 males 1870-1978
- genetic defect on the x chromosome
Explain the use of kinship or twin studies to explain the inheritance of behavior
-based on correlational studies. no iv
-no cause and effect
-twins share commong genetic material (MZ 100), DZ 50
-basis for hypothesis about the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to behaviors such as psychiatric disorders or addictive behavior
correlation found is concordance rate higher for MZ than for DZ
-probability that the same trait will be present in both members of a pair of twins
