Biological influences

Question 1

what is the hindbrain?

Answer 1

The hindbrain is the continuation of the spinal cord. Regulates involuntary functions such as breathing, blood pressure, heart rate, etc. Also regulates balance, coordination and movement. It is made up of several, the most important being the medulla and cerebellum as well as the pons.

Three main structures:

Question 2

What are the pons?

Answer 2

Nerve fibres that connect the brain with the spinal cord. Controls sleep, arousal, dreaming, waking, etc.

Question 3

What is the medulla?

Answer 3

Controls vital, reflexive functions such as vomiting, swallowing, breathing, coughing, etc. Damage to this area is likely to lead to an individual being placed on life support machines to regulate breathing and heart function.
If damage is too severe, the person will be pronounced ‘brain dead’, and when life support is turned off, they will die.

Question 4

What is the cerebellum?

Answer 4

Responsible for coordination of movements, speech and language. Receives information the sensory systems, spinal cord and other parts of the brain and uses that information to regulate posture and balance and coordinates fine muscle movements.

Question 5

What is the midbrain?

Answer 5

Links the hindbrain with the forebrain.
• Coordinates and integrates motor and sensory processes, which are vision and hearing. It acts like the brain’s sensory switchboard passing information from the spinal cord to the forebrain and vice versa. Receives messages from all the sense except smell and sends them on to higher brain regions that deal with those senses, it also receives replies that it directs to places such as the cerebellum. Through the centre of the midbrain running from forebrain to midbrain is the reticular formation.

Question 6

What is the reticular formation?

Answer 6

A network of nerves about the thickness of a finger. Its main function is to screen incoming information so that the higher brain centres can attend to important information and not be overloaded with less important information. It also plays a role in controlling sleeping and waking and our level of alertness and so is often referred to the brain’s arousal system. The Reticular Activating system (RAS) is part of the reticular formation. It has both ascending pathways that extend to the cerebral cortex and descending pathways that extends down to the spinal cord. The RAS increases or dampens down arousal levels and muscle tone in response to feedback from the brain. When our RAS activity is low, we go to sleep.

Question 7

What is the forebrain

Answer 7

The largest and most highly developed part of the brain. Is involved in cognitive processes which are perception, learning, memory and thinking. Plays a major role in how we think, feel and behave. Many neural pathways in the forebrain connects with parts of the forebrain and hindbrain to coordinate and regulate functions of the brain. Consists of various structures, most important being the hypothalamus, the thalamus and the cerebral cortex.

Question 8

What is the hypothalamus?

Answer 8

Is located below the thalamus. Is small, about the size of a grape Role is extremely important as it regulates the internal environment of the body hunger, sleep, thirst, sex drive, body temperature and emotions. Regulates the pituitary gland (hormones)

Question 9

what is the thalamus?

Answer 9

It receives sensory information from all sensory receptor sites (except smell), analyses the information and passes it to other areas of the brain for further processing. Damage to area can lead reduced sense of touch, or visual or hearing impairment. Also plays important role in regulating our level of arousal, how awake, attentive we feel through connection to the RAS. If damaged, arousal is reduced, resulting in lethargy or even a coma.

Question 10

What is the cerebral cortex

Answer 10

Is wrinkled like a walnut and in a living, healthy brain is soft and pinkish-grey in colour. Is located over and around most of the other brain structures. The left and right hemispheres are almost symmetrical and each one has sensory and motor functions that are found in virtually the same place in each hemisphere.
Consists of cerebrum

Question 11

What is the cerebrum?

Answer 11

Comprises most of the forebrain. It lies above and In front of the cerebellum. Consists of an outer layer, the cerebral cortex, as well as masses of neural tissue where nerves form connections. Has two halves (hemispheres) . Responsible for learning, language, memory, reasoning and decision making which are cognitive abilities.

Question 12

What is the left hemisphere responsible for?

Answer 12

Recognition and processing of sensations from the right side of the body.
Control of voluntary movements on the right side of the body.
Language-based tasks (speaking, reading, writing)
Analytical thinking
Sequential processing
Logical reasoning

Question 13

What is the right hemisphere responsible for?

Answer 13

Reception and processing of sensation from the left side of the body.
Control of voluntary movements on the left side of the body.
Visual-spatial tasks (reading a map, completing a jigsaw puzzle)
Appreciating of art and music.
Detection and expression of emotion.
Recognition of faces and patterns

Question 14

What is the callosum?

Answer 14

What connects both of the hemispheres. Thick band of neural fibres. Allows messages to be sent from one side of the brain to the other

Question 15

What are the association areas?

Answer 15

Broca’s area

Wernicke’s area

Question 16

What is the broca’s area

Answer 16

Is Located in the frontal lobe part left hemisphere. Is associated with speech production and articulation. Our ability to articulate ideas, as well as use words accurately in spoken and written language, has been attributed to this crucial area. Damage to a discrete part of the brain in the left frontal lobe (Broca’s area) of the language-dominant hemisphere has been shown to significantly affect the use of spontaneous speech and motor speech control. Words may be uttered very slowly and poorly articulated. The person who is effected by this however, knows what they are saying. Known as Broca’s aphasia.

Question 17

What is the Wernicke’s area ?

Answer 17

Is located in the posterior superior temporal lobe (left hemisphere). Connects to Broca’s area via a neural pathway. Is involved in the comprehension of speech. Historically has been associated with language processing, whether It is written or spoken
Language development or usage can be seriously impaired by damage to Wernicke’s area of the brain. When this area of the brain is damaged, a disorder known as Wernicke’s aphasia can result, with the person being able to speak in phrases that sound fluent yet lack meaning. Known as Wernicke’s aphasia.

Question 18

What is split brain studies?

Answer 18

Rodger Sperry. Corpus callosum cut in patients with severe epilepsy, allowing researchers to investigate the extent to which brain function is lateralised.

Question 19

What does the frontal lobe do?

Answer 19

The function of the frontal lobe is for abstract thinking, planning and skills.
Control of voluntary movements.
Receive auditory information and are the main site of processing this information.
Play a role in the ability to interpret different sorts of sounds and understand speech.
If damaged a person’s personality may change markedly and the capacity for reasoning and problem solving is reduced.

Question 20

What does the parietal lobe do ?

Answer 20

Is touch, orientation of spaces and non-verbal thinking.
Called sensory cortex.
Located on top of the cortex.
Receive information about touch and temperature from the skin as well as information about the body’s position in space and muscle movement.
Damage to this area can lead to a reduction in bodily feelings.

Question 21

What does the temporal lobe do?

Answer 21

The functions are visual pattern recognition, hearing and language.
Located at the upper part of each hemisphere
Damage to temporal lobe affects a person’s language ability.

Question 22

what does the occipital lobe?

Answer 22

Contains the primary visual cortex
Responsible for vision
Damage to this area can affect vision even if the eyes and their connecting nerves to the brain are normal.

Question 23

what is a neuron?

Answer 23

An individual cell that receives and transmits information and conveys messages to each other.
Nerve cell – an electrically excitable cell that takes up, processes and transmits information through electrical and chemical signals.

Question 24

what is the structure of a neuron?

Answer 24

Cell body (soma):
Determines if neuron will be activated and will transmit messages to other neurons, contains nucleus, has extensions.

Axon:
Transmits messages from the soma to other cells in the body including neurons, muscles, organs and glands.

Dendrites:
Fine branches that stretch from the cell body
They receive incoming information from other neurons and transmit it to the cell body.
Detects and receives neural information.

Myelin sheath:
Is a fatty covering that helps insulate the axon from other axons or neurons and enable rapid transmission of impulses.

Synaptic gap:
Each neuron is separated from the next neuron by a tiny gap.

Question 25

What is a case study?

Answer 25

• Is an in-depth descriptive study of the behaviour of an individual
 Data collection techniques can be used:
Direct observation of behaviour
Interviews
Psychological testing
An examination of past records

Question 26

What are the values and limitations of case studies

Answer 26

Is a non-invasive research technique. In-depth study allowing a full description of the person’s behaviour.This enables a comprehensive understanding of the person and their problem.

The process is time consuming. Difficult to generalise results (individuals have unique characteristics). Observer bias/ lack of objectivity.

Question 27

Who was Phineas Gage?

Answer 27

Earliest injury case ever recorded 1848.
25 year old railway worker.
Shot an ignited rod through his skull while packing gunpowder into a rock.
Injuries – rod shot through his cheek through his brain embedded into his skull.
Resulting in personality change, became moody impulsive.
Lost his job, ended up a show ground exhibit.