Biological Psychology Flashcards
What is biological psychology?
The scientific study of the biology of behaviour
What did René Descartes suggest the universe is proposed of?
Physical matter
The human mind
What is Cartesian dualism?
The ‘mental’ can exist outside of the body and the body itself cannot think
Where did Descartes suggest the soul resided?
The pineal gland
What are the approaches to studying bio psychology?
Experimental/quasi experimental
Neuropsychology
Neuroscience
What is experimental/quasi experimental?
Categorising people but not randomly assigning p’s to conditions
What is neuropsychology?
Study of brain damaged patients to gain an understanding about (normal) human cognition
What case study is related to neuropsychology?
Phinneas Gage
What is cognitive neuroscience?
Allows researchers to study the brain in action
What are the three main physiological systems that control behaviour?
Nervous system
Endocrine system
Genetic inheritance
What is the nervous system?
Brain, spinal chord and peripheral nerves
Rapid response system
What is the endocrine system?
Chemical messengers e.g. Adrenaline, cortisol
Slower response that brings about sustained changes in behaviour
What is genetic inheritance?
Traits passed on through sexual reproduction from parent to offspring
Innate behaviour patterns and predispositions to behave in certain ways
What are the two main functions of the nervous system?
- To collect, process and respond to info in the environment
- To coordinate the workings of different organs and cells
What are the three main areas of the brain?
The hindbrain
The midbrain
The forebrain
What is the function of the hindbrain?
Controls basic functions which are essential for survival
What does the hindbrain contain?
Medulla oblongata
Pons
Cerebellum
What is the medulla oblongata responsible for?
Controlling basic autonomic bio functions such as regulating the cardiovascular system and respiratory system
What is the pons responsible for?
Relays signals from hindbrain to the midbrain and forebrain
Contains important motor control and sensory nuclei (auditory info)
Involved in regulating brains levels of attentiveness, initiating sleep and generating dreams
What is the cerebellum (little brain) responsible for?
Managing fine motor control
Controlling balance, precision, timing and coordination
What can damage to the cerebellum result in?
Unbalanced, uncoordinated movements
What does the midbrain do?
Sends info to forebrain and receives signals from the hindbrain
Involved in auditory and visual sensory processing
Involved in regulating body temp and involved in pain processing
What does the forebrain do?
Involved in higher level cognitive processes, thinking and reasoning
Essentially what makes us humans; most recently evolved structure
What does the forebrain consist of?
Cerebrum Thalamus Hypothalamus Basal ganglia Lambic system
Explain the cerebrum
Divided into two hemispheres (left and right)
What are the hemispheres of the cerebrum separated by?
Fibres called the corpus callosum
What is the outer layer of the cerebrum called?
The cortex
What are the four components of the cortex?
Frontal lobe
Temporal lobe
Parietal lobe
Occipital lobe
What does the thalamus do?
Gathers/relays sensory and motor info to the cortex
Helps regulate consciousness, sleep and alertness
What does the hypothalamus do?
Links the NS to the endocrine system, helping regulate homeostasis in body
What does damage to the hypothalamus result in?
Problems with regulating body temp, growth and weight
What is the basal ganglia involved in?
Performing voluntary motor responses and regulating muscular contractions
Disorders related = Parkinson’s/cerebral palsy etc
What does the limbic system do?
Collect interconnected structures from cerebrum and midbrain
Hippocampus and amygdala are part of this system
What are the functions of the limbic system?
Processing and expressing emotion, motivation, long term memory and smell
What are the two main cell types of the NS?
Neurones
Glial cells
What do glial cells do?
Provide nutrients, structural support and regulate ion concentration
Protect against invading microorganisms triggering inflammatory responses
For, myelin sheaths around neurons in CNS and PNS
Produce cerebrospinal fluid
What are neurons?
Cells that are specialised for reception, conduction and transmission of ELECTROCHEMICAL signals
Who was Luigi Galvani? (1737-98)
The pioneer of electrophysiology
What did Herman von helmholtz do?
Investigated conduction speed in nerves - discovered electrochemical signals
What are the 3 types of neuron?
Multipolar
Bipolar
Unipolar
What is the most abundant neuron type?
Multipolar neurons (99%)
What do dendrites do?
Receptive surface
Pick up neurochemical signals from other neurones and pass info on to cell body
What is the soma?
(AKA cell body) - metabolic centre of neuron which provides life support
What is the nucleus? (Neuron)
Control centre - contains genetic info and controls the function of the cell
What is the axon?
Long structure of the neuron which transmits AP’s away from the soma towards other cells
What do the myelin sheaths do?
Insulate axon and increases speed/efficiency of neural signal
What do the nodes of ranvier do?
Help speed up neural transmission by allowing signal to ‘jump’ along axon
What are the terminal buttons?
End points of neuron which transmits signal to the next neuron
What is the presynaptic neuron?
The cell sending the signal
What is the postsynaptic neuron?
The cell receiving the signal
What are the pre/post synaptic neurons separated by?
Synaptic cleft
What did franz josef gall (1758-1828) believe?
The shape of the skull could infer personality and psychological attributes
What did mark dax believe?
The LH was responsible for speech and thus damage to this area caused speech impairments
What patient is associated with Broca’s area of language?
Patient Tan
What is Broca’s aphasia also known as?
Expressive aphasia
What are the aspects of expressive aphasia? (Broca’s)
Patients have great difficulty producing grammatical sentences
They also struggle to find right words to express themselves
What are the results of expressive aphasia? (Broca’s)
Slow/disfluent speech
Difficult/often impossible to understand
What is wernickes aphasia also known as?
Receptive Aphasia
What are the aspects of wernickes aphasia?
Patients often have great difficulty reading and writing
Also struggle to speak clearly (different to expressive aphasia)
Patients are able to produce sentences with correct syntax and grammar but the words they use don’t make sense
Where is the primary motor cortex located?
The precentral gyrus at the most posterior portion of the frontal lobe
What is the primary motor cortex important for?
Important area in the execution of voluntary movement
Where is the primary somatosensory cortex located?
The post-central gyrus
What is the primary somatosensory cortex responsible for?
Processing somatic sensations e.g. Touch, proprioception, temperature
What is the association cortex responsible for?
Function to produce a meaningful perceptual experience of the world
Enables us to interact efficiently and support abstract thinking and language
Organised in distributed networks
