Biological psychology Flashcards

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1
Q

Name the functions of the Medulla

A
  • controls HR
  • respiration
  • important for survival
  • extension of the spinal cord.
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2
Q

Name the functions for the reticular formation

A
  • regulates sleep
  • wakefulness
  • levels of arousal
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3
Q

Name the functions of the cerebellum

A
  • fine motor control (including speech)
  • balance and skilled action
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4
Q

Name the function of the pons

A

Relay between cerebellum and the brain

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5
Q

Name the 4 areas of the Hindbrain

A
  • Medulla
  • Reticular function
  • Cerebellum
  • Pons
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6
Q

Damage to Pons leads to…

A
  • paralysis and patient only able to move eyes but cognition preserved
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7
Q

What is damaged to Pons Caused by

A

stroke

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8
Q

What are the areas of the midbrain?

A
  • Substantial nigra
  • Tectum
  • Tegmentum
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9
Q

What is the role of substantial nigra?

A
  • reward and movement
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10
Q

Why does substantial nigra look dark

A

high dopamine neuron conc

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11
Q

why is there less substantial nigra in Parkinson’s brain?

A

degeneration of brain -> melanin not functioning correctly

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12
Q

what is the function of the Tegmentum?

A
  • movement
  • arousal
  • orientating organism to stimuli
  • pleasure seeking -> ^ dopamine
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13
Q

Name the function of the Tectum

A
  • orientates organism in enviro -> recieves info from eyes, ears and skin and moves them in coordination of stimuli
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14
Q

What did Plato state about the brain?

A

Pontified + questioned whether mental states arised in the brain

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15
Q

What did Aristole question about the brain?

A

whether mental experiences arise in the heart

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16
Q

What did Decartes propose about the Mind-body problem?

A

dualism- the mind and body are seperate

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17
Q

What did the dual-aspect theory propose?

A

Mind and body are two levels of explanation of same entity

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18
Q

What does the biological reudctionist theory propose about the mind-body problem?

A

mind explained in bio theory.
Psychology = temporary answer for full bio explanations

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19
Q

What is functional specialisation?
(Phrenology)

A

Different parts of cortex have different functions.
i.e personality differences manifest in different cortial size + bumps in skull

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20
Q

Why was Phrenology wrong?

A
  • not all psychological traits founded in science
  • observing differences doesn’t mean found in brain
  • certain areas in skull morphology wrong
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21
Q

What is the functional specialisation: continuum?

A
  • a scale ranging from equipotentiality to specialised cells.
  • is there specialisation for certain thigs or does it stem from elsewhere
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22
Q

What are the three general areas of the brain?

A
  • Hindbrain
  • Midbrain
  • Forebrain
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23
Q

What are the references of the brain?

A

Dorsal/Superior = top of brain
Ventral/inferior = bottom of brain
Posterior/caudal = back of brain
Anterior/rostal = front of brain

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24
Q

What is the structure of the brain?

A
  • Grey matter = neuronal cell bodies
  • White matter= axons, myelin and gila cells
  • corpus callousm= white matter tract communicating between two H.
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25
Q

What does the Brodmann area do?

A

shows how diff parts of brain are connected but not all the same

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26
Q

what are the two cells within nervous system?

A

neurons + gila

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27
Q

What is the structure of a neuron?

A

presynaptic neuron -> synapse -> postsynaptic neuron + output = action potential

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28
Q

What is the electricity of neurons?

A

Single atoms have positive charge or negative electrical charge = ions

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29
Q

What is electrical potential?

A

overall difference between nearby areas leading to voltage

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30
Q

What is the chemistry and biology of neurons?

A

Chemistry= particles diffuse to equate concentrations
Biology= go through specialised channels; can’t diffuse across membrane

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31
Q

What are the 4 events of action potential?

A
  1. Neurotransmitter binds to receptor
  2. channel opens triggering cascade
  3. producing depolarisation causing overshoot 4. repolarisation triggered leading to undershoot before resting state.
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32
Q

What is the saltatory condition?

A
  • Ions exhchanging at notes of Raviner -> action potential jumps to next note at 150 m/s
  • myelin allowing action potential move along channel ^ AP
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33
Q
A
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34
Q

What is a sensory neuron?

A

input coming from sensory receptor cell turn physical stimuli into AP

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35
Q

What is the structure of a sensory neuron?

A

Receptor cell
Myelin sheath + axon
cell body
terminal buttons

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36
Q

What do motor neurons

A
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37
Q

What is learning?

A

Long-term change in beh by experience causing structural change

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38
Q

What is Hebbian learning?

A

Neurons that fire together, wire together; synapse are consistently firing causing growth + metabolic change in cells

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39
Q

What is Long-term potentiation?

A

presynaptic neuron and positsynaptic neuron fires together as response

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40
Q

How does LTP cause structural change?

A

Neurons physically change and get stronger to new response

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41
Q

why is response stronger when conditioned?

A
  • LTP has occurred where the CS now associated w CR
  • e.g, Bell + food associated as neurons fire at same time -> synapse connected between them
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42
Q

Why is timing important for strengthening responses?

A
  • longer gap between CS and UCS -> harder to get connection
    Cause before effect -> strong relationship
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43
Q

What is spike time dependent on + what happens ?

A
  • dependent on plasticity
  • CS before UCS -> action potential (LTP)
  • UCS before CS -> Weakened connection(Long-term depression)
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44
Q

What is aquisition?

A

two stimuli assoiciated and conditioned together

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45
Q

What increases salivation response?

A

Extinction & spontaneous recovery

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46
Q

How are anxiety disorders related to CC?

A

NS(fear) becomes the CR

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47
Q

How does CC treat phobias?

A

exposure therapy -> extinction as stress response reduced

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48
Q

What are the public health implications of drug consumption?

A

Drug consumption rooms
- harm reduction
- safe environment

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49
Q

What is habituation?

A

Repeated or prolonged exposure to stimulus -> gradual reduction in responding

50
Q

What did Watson propose about learning?

A

Organisms experience stimuli and observable changes can be measured
shows mind not needed in explaining phenomenons

51
Q

What is the mechanism for classical conditioning?

A

Gradual increase in learning: starts slow, rapidly increases then slows down.
Post learning -> Cs independently elicits CR

52
Q

What is second-order conditioning?

A

US able to produce learning from earlier procedure which was used as CS.
Or at times not directly associated

53
Q

What happens in extinction?

A

CS not presented without US -> Cr diminishing quickly until no longer occurs.
beh declines + continues to drop until eventually dog ceases to salivate to the sound of the tone.

54
Q

What happens after a rest period?

A

Spontaneous recovery where learnt beh recovers from extinction after rest period

55
Q

what does spontaneous recovery show about extinction?

A

beh acquired through learning weakened
but not eliminated.

56
Q

Why does beh become extinct?

A

Excitatory association: process increasing likelihood of response
Inhibitory association: process decreasing likelihood of response

57
Q
A
58
Q

What type of beh does CC learn?

A

Involuntary beh associated w neural activity

59
Q

What does Thorndike mean by law of effect?

A

environment elicit voluntary beh + beh change due to consequences

60
Q

What is a mix of CC and OC?

A

Animals show natural beh + use shaping to get new beh.

61
Q

What is the primary and secondary reinforcers?

A

Primary: don’t need to be learnt + needed to survive
Secondary: learnt + influence our daily lives, effectiveness acquired through experience w primary reinforcer

62
Q

What is positive reinforcement?

A

^ the likelihood of beh when stimulus presented

63
Q

What is negative reinforcement?

A

increases the likelihood of beh when stimulus removed

64
Q

What is positive punishment?

A

decrease likelhood of beh when stimulus presented

65
Q

What is negative punishment?

A

decreases the likelihood of beh when stimulus removed

66
Q

What is the premack principle of reinforcement?

A

Most effective reinforcement = preferred reinforcer used to reinforce non-preffered tasks.
establish hierarchy of beh to determine maximal reinforcers

67
Q

What are the limiting conditions of reinforcement?

A
  • rewards can decrease in desired beh; extrinsic reinforcement undermines why people engage in beh
  • intrinsic rewards undermine extrinsic reinforcement.
68
Q

What did Lepper and Greene find in their study of reinforcement?

A

drawing time in 1st group dropped when no longer resented w reward compared to 2nd group presented w reward.

Reward changed motivation in children -> overjustification effect

69
Q

What are the basic principles for reinforcement?

A
  • discrimination: learning under stimulus control certain response when certain stimulus present = discriminative stimulus
  • extinction: response rate drops + spontaneous recovery seen.
70
Q

What are the 4 schedules of reinforcement?
What does the schedule of reinforcement do?

A
  • Fixed ratio
  • Variable ratio
  • Fixed interval
  • Variable ratio

Changes the rate and pattern of beh depending on presentation of reinforcement

71
Q

What is the difference between interval and ratio reinforcement?

A

interval reinforcement based on amount of time elapsed since previous reinforcement vs ratio based on how many reinforcements made.

72
Q

What is the difference between fixed interval and variable interval?

A

Variable interval provides next reinforcement once reinforcer responded meaning length of time varies whereas, fixed interval reinforcement when time elapsed even though response mightn’t be given.

73
Q

What is the difference between fixed ratio and variable ratio?

A

fixed ratio specific number of reinforcement given then response made whereas, variable ratio reinforcement delivered after specified average num reached.

74
Q

Intermittent reinforcement produces….

A

beh more resistent to reinforcement than continuous reinforement because more diffcult to detect when placed on extinction

75
Q

What shaping in reinforcement?

A

Learning result from reinforcement of successive steps/approximations to final desire

76
Q

What is superstitious beh?
What did Skinner find in his experiment?

A
  • repeating beh accidentally reinforced whic produces abnormal beh
  • found pigeons idiosyncratic beh ^ occurance when reinforced w food every 15 secs.
77
Q

What are the natural elements of OC?

A
  • Brain structures contribute to reinforcement process
  • pleasure centres -> limbic system produced when positive experience occurs
78
Q

How is pleasure produced in the brain?

A

structures in pathway meander from midbrain to hypothalamus -> accumbens stimulation producing pleasure.

79
Q

How does dopamine contribute to reinforcement?

A

High dopamine associated w positive emotion from reward centre.
Rats want to stimulate pathway at expense of other basic needs

80
Q

How does reinforcement explain why people take drugs?

A
  • drugs block action of dopamine
  • opiates and cocaine activate pathways + centres -> ^ pleasure and desire to take more
81
Q

How does OC work in motor impairments?

A

more effortful movement -> less movements -> contraction of cortial representations -> permanent damage
unsuccessful motor attempts -> punishment -> beh suppression + permanent damage

82
Q

How is reinforcement used in rehabilitation?

A
  • Constraint-induced movement therapy -> constrain unaffected limbs forcing affected limb to be used.
  • gradually improve performance of affected limb
83
Q

What change occurs in dopamine during acquisiton?

A

dopamine represent reward prediction error; dopamine responds to bell not food

84
Q

What is the forebrain divided into?

A
  • cerebral cortex
  • subcortial structures
85
Q

What is in the subcortial structures?

A
  • Pituitary gland
  • hippocampus
  • amygdala
  • hypothalamus
86
Q

Name the functions of the Thalamus

A
  • relays + filters info from senses + transmit info into cerebral cortex
  • receieves input from all major senses except smell
  • closes pathways of incoming sensations during sleep
87
Q

What are the functions of the hypothalamus?

A
  • regulates body temp, hunger, thirst + sexual beh
  • fighting, fleeting, feeding and mating
88
Q

What happens when the hypothalamus is damaged?

A

overeating + no desire to eat

89
Q

What does the Pituitary gland do?

A

Master gland for hormone-producing systems -> release hormones directing functions to other glands

90
Q

How does the hypothalamus and pituitary gland interact?

A

stress stimulated -> sensory neurons -> hypothalamus -> release ACTH from pituitary gland -> adrenal gland -> hormone activates sympathetic NS

91
Q

What does the limbic system do?

A

group forebrain structures for motivation, emotion, learning and memory.

92
Q

what does the hippocampus do?

A

create new memories + intergrate into knowledge -> store it into other pats of cortex

93
Q

what happens when the hippocampus is damaged?

A

keep new info temporarily
only remember everyday memory for facts and events in consciousness

94
Q

What does the amygala do?

A
  • role in emotional processes -> fear, punishment or reward to neutral stimulus
  • formation of memories
  • emotionally arousing situations -> stimulates hippocampus to remember details
95
Q

What is the function of the basal ganglia?

A

receieves info from cerebral cortex and send output to motor centres in brainstem.

96
Q

what 4 functions are completed in the frontal lobe?

A
  • movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory and judgement.
  • manipulate info and retrieves memories use to plan beh + interact socially.
  • motor cortex: voluntary movement + sends message to basal ganglia, cerebellum and spinal cord.
  • 1/10 neurons = mirror neurons → imitation beh
97
Q

What functions are completed in the paretial lobe?

A
  • somatosensory cortex →outermost layer: representation of body map
  • → each H represents skin on contralateral surface. More sensitive area → larger areas in S → homunculus
98
Q

What fucntions are completed in the occipital lobe?

A
  • process visual info
  • sensory receptors(eyes) → thalamus → primary areas of OL
  • damage → blindness; info processes by eye
99
Q

What functions does the temporal lobe fufil?

A
  • hearing and language
  • auditory cortex → receives sensory info for ears based on frequencies of sounds. analogous to somatosensory cortex.
  • secondary areas process info into meaningful units → speech and words.
  • visual association areas interpret visual stimuli + recognise common objects in environment.
100
Q

cont…

A
  • epresentation of info in lobes → 3rd level
    • association areas → neurons provide sense and meaning to info registered in cortex. → visual cortex (outer occpital lobe) →shape and motion interpreted
      • auditory cortex → register sound frequencies; association areas interpret sound meaning.
101
Q

How is action potential recorded?
what does action potential teach?

A

intracellular recording -> recording activity of neurons

teaches about memory and hippocampus beh in sleep
- asleep: same sequence of cells firing
- replay: memory reconsolidation STM -> LTM

102
Q

How is action potential recorded in humans?

A

record local field potentials by recording activity of general area neurons are in
- electrodes implanted on surface + monitored to understand epileptic procedure

103
Q

What results are found from studying electrodes?

A
  • different sounds + vowels activate different electrodes
  • cortial representation of speech understood by recording cortex directly
104
Q

What are the executive functions of the frontal lobes?

A

Hot EF: impulses and urges = biological imperative or emotionally charged -> protect from danger
Cold EF: logical choices presented w problem rationally

105
Q

Tell me about picking up objects in Sperry’s split brain research

A

Patients able to pick up object w left hand but not able to describe what’s seen -> info registered in RH but not transferred to LH

106
Q

What do EEGs do?

A
  • record electrical activity in brain while awake or asleep
  • amplify brain signals in synapse and AP
  • detect diff states of consciousness in brain activity
107
Q

What did Hubel and Wisel discover about EEGs + primary visual cortex?

A
  • inserting electrodes in OL in cats -> observe AP of individual neurons
  • certain neurons in primary visual cortex activated -> contrast between light and dark backgrounds
  • neurons in visual cortex selectively respond to aspects of visual images
108
Q

what causes the recognition of faces?

A

Variety of features detected by sensory neurons cause neurons in temporal lobe to activate

109
Q

What causes Prosopagnosia?

A

Damage to visual processing neurons in temporal lobe preventing faces to be detected.
function lost damage area corresponds w info processed in brain area make up mental life supporting mind-body dualism

110
Q

What are CT scans?

A
  • recombines multiple X-ray photos into single image.
  • locates tumors + lesions
111
Q

What are MRI scans?

A

magnets causing molecules in soft tissue to realign -> measureable field distortions

112
Q

Why are MRI better than CT scans?

A
  • better resolution
  • clearer image of brain structure + localise brain damage
113
Q

What are functional brain imaging?

A
  • watch brain action
  • rely on activated brain area + demand more blood neurons to work -> increased blood flow in active areas.
114
Q

What are PET scans?

A
  • use radioactive markers to measure blood flow in brain
  • Radioactive substance dropped into bloodstream + brain scanned by radioactive detectors during cognitive task completed
  • active areas demand more blood flow + energy -> ^ radioactivity
115
Q

what are fMRIs and their functions?

A
  • magnet causing haemoglobin molecules to realign to measure blood flow in brain.
  • detects and provide picture of level of activation in brain area. = Blood oxgyen dependent signals (BOLD)
116
Q

What are the advantages of functional imaging scans?

A
  • insight into info processing in specific areas of brain
  • fMRI reveal strong activity in visual association cortex: fusiform gyrus → damage: struggle recognising faces
  • amygdala → emotional arousal
  • increased activity in frontal lobe involved in emotional regulation.
117
Q

What is associationism?

A

diff beh/cognitive functions associated w diff parts of brain. (phrenologist + some neurologist)

118
Q

What is wholism?

A

cognitve functions not decomposable, brain works as a whole to support them.

119
Q

What is double association?

A

Two patients (or patient groups) show opposite patterns of impairment

120
Q

How is Broca and Wernicke an example of double dissociation?

A

Broca had two patients w damage to left inferior frontal lobe -> impaired speech production but could comprehend speech
WHEREAS,
Wernkie had patients w posterior temporal damage -> fluent but disordered speech + impaired speech comprehension.

121
Q
A