Biological area (Blakemore and Cooper)

Question 1

key theme

Answer 1

brain plasticity

Question 2

what is brain plasticity

Answer 2

is the idea that your brain adapts and changes according to what you do in your life and the demands placed on it.
It does this by forming new neural connections

Question 3

background

Answer 3

Hirsch and Spinelli
investigated the visual cortex of the brain in kittens.
Kittens wore special goggles so they could see only horizontal stripes in one eye and vertical stripes in the other.
When the goggles were removed, the kittens showed visual deficits and that their visual neurons had adapted to the environment they had seen in each eye.

Question 4

aims

Answer 4

The aim was to investigate the effects of being raised in a restricted visual environment on the kittens:
Investigate the effects of this environment on their behaviour
Investigate the neurophysiological effects on neurons in the kittens’ visual cortex (to see if their brain changes - plasticity)

Question 5

why use kittens

Answer 5

like humans cats eyes are binocular and see in colour

cats brains have a visual cortex which is located to a similar place as humans

it would be unethical to do the experiment on human infants

Question 6

Visual cortex

Answer 6

A part of our brain which receives and processes visual information from the retinas of the eye

Question 7

Startle response

Answer 7

The automatic reaction to sudden or threatening stimuli (e.g. flinching when an object is thrust towards your face)

Question 8

Visual placing

Answer 8

The tendency of kittens to reach out and place their paws in front of them when being carried towards a surface (ready to touch down on the surface)

Question 9

what were the controls in the study

Answer 9

Wore a collar so they could not see their body
Kept in a completely dark room when not in cylinder and for the first two weeks (so their only visual information was the striped cylinder)
Same amount of time each day (5 hours) in the cylinder
Both tested after 5 months in the same environment

Question 10

results

Answer 10

no visuals placing when carried towards a table

no startle reflex was shown shown when objects were thurst towards them

Question 10

differences in behaviour

Answer 10

the kittens were blind in the opposite orientation