Biological Psychology Flashcards
1
Q
Nervous system contains
A
- Central Nervous System (CNS)
- Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
2
Q
Central Nervous System (CNS) contains
A
- Brain
- Spinal Cord
3
Q
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) contains
A
- Somatic Nervous System
- Autonomic Nervous System
4
Q
Both Somatic Nervous System and Autonomic Nervous System contain
A
- Afferent Nerves
- Efferent Nerves
5
Q
Neuroscience
A
- The scientific study pf the nervous system
- Includes Biological psychology, neuroanatomy, neuropathology etc
6
Q
Biological psychology can be viewed as a bridge
A
- Between psychology and neuroscience
7
Q
Biological Psychology aim
A
- To discover how biological fundamentals produce psychological phenomena such as learning, memory, emotion and perception
8
Q
Ancient thoughts about the brain
A
- The surgical papyrus contains the first know descriptions of the cranial sutures, the meninges, the external surface of the brain, cerebrospinal fluid and intracranial pulsation
- Function of the brain wasn’t understood and was discarded in the mummification process
9
Q
Hippocrates (-460 - 380BC) view on the brain
A
- The source of emotion, knowledge, vison and mental illness
10
Q
Galen (-129-200AD) view on the brain
A
- The brain is important for sensation and thought
11
Q
Galen found when looking at animal brain
A
- Noticed fluid in the centre of the brain
- Found hollow chambers in the brain and what we call ventricles, these spaces are filled with fluid (believed these were very important for brain function)
12
Q
Renaissance (15th century)
A
- Visual system by Leonardo da Vinci
- Felt that the chambers were important as they were present in his drawing
- Illustration shows fibres from the eye projecting to the lateral ventricles
13
Q
Renaissance (15th century): soul
A
- Leonardo da Vinci wrote in 1490 that the soul seems to reside in judgement and judgement seems to be in the part of the brain where all the senses meet at the common sense
- Seen the soul as a spiritual thing and present in the chambers of the brain
14
Q
Descartes (17th century)
A
- Reflex action (fire e.g.)
- Flames affect skin and travels up the nerve tube until a cavity of the brain opens
- This realises animal spirts which travel down the tube to the muscles in order to pull the foot away from fire
- Cartesian Dualism: the division of the mind and the body
15
Q
Phrenology (19th century)
A
- Gall (1758-1828) founded Phrenology
- The idea that personality and abilities are revealed by the bumps on the skull (false)
- However highlighted that different parts of the brain have different functions
16
Q
Paul Broca (19th century)
A
- Able to examine patients who perhaps had a stroke
- He was able to find some problems that these patients had from their injury
- He examined a patient that lost their ability to speak and could only say ‘tan’ (couldn’t produce words they wanted to say
17
Q
Paul Borca (19th century) - Detailed description of patients
A
- Once the patients died he could do a post-mortem to see which area of the brain was affected
- The patient that couldn’t produce speech the damage was localised in a particular area which is known as ‘Borca’s area’
18
Q
Broca’s area located
A
- Left frontal lobe (brain)
19
Q
Broca’s area is involved in
A
- Speech production
20
Q
Carl Wernicke (19th century)
A
- Famous for analysing a patient with difficulties understanding speech
- They could understand what others were saying but couldn’t speak
- Carried out a post-mortem and found out it affected a certain area of the brain which is now know as ‘Wernicke areas’
21
Q
Wernicke area located
A
- Left temporal lobe
22
Q
Brodmann’s areas (20th century)
A
- Used histological and cytoarchitecture techniques to make a map (Brodmann’s map) of different areas of the brain which are associated with different abilities and different behaviours
- Looked at cells in the brain and how they communicated with each other
- All the different colours on the brain have a corresponding number (also names)
23
Q
Techniques over time
A
- Observations of behaviour after head injuries
- Animal brain dissection
- Post-mortem dissection of human brain
> with or without prior clinical (behavioural) observation - Microscopic examination of nerve cells
- Neuroimaging techniques
24
Q
Neuroimaging techniques - Brain structures
A
- CAT (or CT) scan
- MRI scan
25
CAT (or CT) scan
- Uses x-rays to take pictures of the brain
- Produces an image of tissues density
- Computerised (axial) tomography
- Problem: radiation is involved
26
MRI scan
- Much higher resolution picture of the structures in the brain
- Much less invasive: radio waves are admitted in the presence of a magnetic field and this changes the behaviour of water molecules in the brain
- Computer gives a very highly detailed picture of the brain
27
Neuroimaging techniques - Brain functions
- EEG
- PET
- fMRI
- MEG
- TMS
28
EEG
- electroencephalography
- Person wearing a cap containing many different tiny electros
- Electros record small currents of electricity which is associated to brain activity
- Looks like squiggly lines
29
PET
- Position emission tomography
- Creates a picture of the brain showing the activity through colours like red, orange, blue and green
- Invasive: radioactive tracer being injected into the patient (small dose)
- The areas of concentration of the radioactive tracer are associated with high activity in the brain
- Limited for research can only be carried out once every year (recommend)
30
fMRI
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging
- Shows very high resolution of the brain of areas when people are doing particular tasks
- None invasive: works on neurons are firing and what times (detects)
31
How fMRI works
- As neurons fire they meabolish oxygen
- fMRI picks up approximately 6 seconds after neuron fires
- To see activity you look at the difference from oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood and there is you can localise where the activity is taking place
32
MEG
- Magnetoencephalography
- Non invasive
- Increasingly used in research
33
How MEG works
- By detecting small magnetic fields which are created as a result from brain activity
- A magnetic subjective coil gets placed round the subjects head and the brains magnetic field produces a current within these coils when activity occurs
34
TMS
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation
- Stimulating the brain directly seeing the effect it can have
- Temporarily 'turns off' a part of the brain (function of brain)
35
TMS importance
- Enables you to test out experimentally hypothesis that you many have developed from studying brain injury on the basis of studying areas that are associated with preforming certain tasks
- Turn area off and on to see if the person can still preform the task
- Important for verifying findings
36
Disorders of consciousness
- Coma
- Vegetative State
- Locked-in syndrome
37
Coma
- No signs of wakefulness or awareness of self or environment
- Eyes closed and no response to commands
38
Vegetative state
- Awake but unaware of self or environment
- Can open eyes, demonstrate sleep-wake cycles and basic reflexes
- Cannot respond to commands
39
Locked-in syndrome
- Damage to the brainstem (bottom of brain)
- Awake and aware but unable to respond because paralysed and unable to speak
- Only able to communicate via eye movements
40
Monty (2010) - Assessment task
- Suggested that this new technology/technique using neuroimaging perhaps in a small number of patients - ---- Could uncover people who were suffering from locked-in syndrome and not vegetative state
41
Monty (2010) - Assessment task
- fMRI
| > shows which parts of the brain function during an activity
42
Monty (2010) - Assessment task: Two imagery tasks
- Motor imagery
> instructed to imagine still on a tennis court and to swing an arm to 'hit the ball' back and fourth to an imagined instructor
- Spatial imagery
> instructed to imagine walking from room to room in their home and to visualise all that they would 'see' if they were there
- Repeated to build a picture
43
Monty (2010) - Assessment task: cues
- Tennis: Motor imagery
- Navigation: Spatial
- Rest periods: Relax
44
Monty (2010) - Assessment task: results
- This particular patient areas of activity were very similar to the healthy control
- Could see however they had experienced severe damage in the areas of activity but still similar to healthy picture
45
Monty (2010) - Assessment task: use these tasks for
- Cues to other questions
- Use tennis as (yes)
- Use navigation as (no)
46
Conclusion about 'vegetative state'
- Clinical assessments based on behavioural responses may not reveal awareness if motor skills are severely impaired
- fMRI can detect covert signs of residual cognitive function and awareness consistent with locked-on syndrome
- fMRI and other techniques give patients a way of communicating with the outside world (some)
47
Hidden brain signatures of consciousness
- EEG recording can be used to investigate brain activity in vegetative state
- Healthy brains show rich and diversely connected networks which support awareness
- Some vegetative state patients looked to have well preserved brains like a healthy one
- Those vegetative state patients showed hidden awareness by these techniques
48
Areas of the cerebral cortex
- Frontal Lobe
- Parietal Lobe
- Temporal Lobe
- Occipital Lobe
49
Frontal Lobe
- Motor activity
- Speech
- Planning
- Impulse control
50
Parietal Lobe
- Integrating sensory information
| - Spatial tasks
51
Temporal Lobe
- Auditory perception
- Memory
- Emotion
52
Occipital Lobe
- Visual perception
53
Lateralisation of function
Left Hemisphere
- Language
- Computation
- Logical Reasoning
54
Lateralisation of function
Right Hemisphere
- Spatial Reasoning
- Face Recognition
- Music
55
Sperry (1981)
- Nobel Prize winner
- Interested in the difference between the left and right hemisphere in how they process information and how they linked to our behaviour
56
Left handed
- Your hemispheres may be reversed
57
Corpus collosum
- Structure of fibres that connects the two hemispheres that sends information between the two hemispheres
58
Contralateral Organisation
- The cross over of vision, movements, senses (information)
- Relationship between our movement and senses and the brain
- Muscles and limb control are also organised contralaterally (opposite side)
- Visual processing
- Right hand side of the brain controls our left arm, leg etc
59
Contralateral Organisation see the most
- When there is damage to the brain
60
Contralateral Organisation in action & vision
- Stroke for example
- Can see it has effected one side of the brain and that there are signs of them not having full control over their mouth, eye (muscle control)
- They wont be able to lift both arms to the same height
61
Special group of people Sperry studied
- Patients who had their corpus callosum cut as they had a sever form of epilepsy
- Doctors didn't want it to spread to both hemispheres
- Interesting to study their performance and their brain function
62
Split brain
- Corpus callosum cut
63
Split brain patients: information flashed in front of them
- Information is only taken to one side of the brain as they can transfer information to the other hemisphere
- Has to be flashed quickly so they can't look around
64
Sperry's experiment: set up
- Someone sits at a screen where an image of a hairbrush is flashed on the screen (one side of screen) quickly
- Asked to say what they seen
- Then asked to use their left hand and select the object they have seen
65
Sperry's experiment: procedure (talking)
- Right hand side of the brain controls things from the left visual field
- Picture shown left of screen so only went to the left visual field then sending the information to the right hemisphere
- Left hemisphere: crucial for talking
- Can't say what they have seen
66
Sperry's experiment: procedure (movement)
- Right hand side of the brain controls things from the left visual field
- Asked with their left hand to pick up the object that they have seen
- Left hand is controlled by the right hemisphere so the patient can pick up the hairbrush
- Can show this was the object they had seen
67
Proprioception
- Action planning
| - Knowing where your limbs are in the world
68
Efferent Nerves
- Responsible for carrying signals from the brain to our limbs in order to carry out the action
- e.g. pick up a fork
69
Afferent Nerves
- Carry signals from part of your body back to your brain in order so you can monitor what's happening in the body and surroundings
- e.g. where your hand is
70
Basal ganglia
- A collective term which includes
> Caudate nucleus
> Putamen
> Globus Pallidus
71
Basal ganglia involved
- In the control of movement
| - Damaged in Parkinson's disease
72
Autonomic Nervous system
- Involved in emotion
- Has before afferent and efferent nerves
- Rest and restore (parasympathetic)
- Fight or flight (sympathetic)
73
Autonomic Nervous system: Nerves
- Both Afferent and Efferent nerves control our behaviour but we are also getting the signals back that helps us to monitor our behaviour
- Efferent nerves: CNS to internal organs
74
Autonomic Nervous system: Rest and restore
- Parasympathetic
- Acts like a balance
- e.g. contracts pupils, slows heart beat, dilates vessels
75
Autonomic Nervous system: Fight or flight
- Sympathetic
- Increases our phycological arousal
- e.g. dilates pupils, accelerates heart beat, contracts vessels
76
Emotional Responses
- Polygraph measures changes in emotional arousal which supposedly reflects lying versus truthfulness
77
Polygraph detects
- Galvanic skin Responses
- Heart Rate
- Blood pressure
- Fight or flight responses
78
Polygraph criticism
- Error rates range from 25-75%
| - Depends on the person: do they have a physiological reaction when they lie
79
Emotion: The case of Phineas Gage
- Harlow, (1848)
- Accident blew a mental rod in through left cheek and out through upper skull
- He couldn't return to work but survived accident
80
Emotion: The case of Phineas Gage: damage to
- Frontal lobe
| > orbitofrontal cortex
81
Emotion: The case of Phineas Gage: Before and after accident
- Before
> well-balanced, efficient, respectful
After
> fitful, irreverent, impatient
82
Cortex
- Inhibition of emotions
| - Directing emotions appropriately
83
Sub-cortical structures
- Production of emotional responses
| - Collectively known as the limbic System
84
Amygdala involvement in emotion (evidence)
- Important role in fear conditioning
85
Amygdala involvement in emotion (evidence): damage
- Create problems with recognition of facial expressions of fear
- Block fear conditioning
- Create lack of fear
86
Criminal Psychopaths
- Less activation of amygdala
- Impaired ability to feel emotion
- Poor at reading other people's emotional cues
- Impaired at learning from their mistakes
87
Abnormalities of Psychopaths
- May be lined to deficient or weakened input for limbic system
88
Neuron
- A nerve cell in a brain (100 billion in brain)
89
Cell body
- Contains cell nucleus
90
Dendrites
- 'Tree-like' structure
| - Receive information from other neurons
91
Axon
- Long fibre
| - Sends signals towards other neurons
92
Axon terminals
- Synaptic sites
| - End close to other neurons
93
Neural communication
- Signal transfer
- Pre-synaptic neuron >>>>>>>> post-synaptic neuron
>>>>>>>> Electrical conduction >>>>>>>>>>>
94
Electrical conduction
- Electrical chemical process
- Takes place within then neuron
- Rapid response
- Enables cells to register communication from other neurons and to transfer this communication on rapidly
95
Action Potential: start resting
- Sodium (NA+) ions outside the neuron
- Negative protein (A-) are inside the neuron
- Making the resting neuron (-)
96
Action Potential: neuron stimulated
- Sodium (NA+) ions channels open
- Sodium ions into the axon
- Potassium channels are still closed
97
Action Potential: process
- Positively-charged sodium molecules (NA+) move through membrane to produce a brief change to positive charge (depolarisation)
- Potassium ions exit neuron via potassium channels to restore (-) charge
- Sodium channels close up again and potassium channels open = restore resting
98
Action Potential: the next point
- Sodium channels are opening at the next point as the action potential moves down the axon
99
Myelination
- Speeds action potential
- Myelination continues into adolescence
- Coats the axon to help send signals at rapid speeds
- Made up fatty material called Myelin
100
Myelin
- Fatty material surrounding a neuron
101
Breaks in myelination
- Node of Ranvier
102
Node of Ranvier
- Help speed up as the nerve impulses jump across these breaks
- Helping to speed up the process of communication
103
Cell firing
- All or nothing
- Excitatory influences
- Inhibitory influences
- Absolute refracting period
104
Cell firing
Excitatory influences
- Lower firing threshold
| - Therefore cell is more likely to fire
105
Cell firing
Inhibitory influences
- Raise firing threshold
| - Therefore cell is less likely to fire
106
Cell firing
Absolute refractory period
- While the cell is recovering itself it can not actually fire again
107
Chemical transmission takes place
- Across the gap between the different neurons
| - As the two neurons are not in contact
108
Chemical transmission
- Across synaptic cleft
- Accomplished via the release of different chemicals into the synaptic cleft
- Chemicals = neurotransmitters
109
Neurotransmitters importance
- Communicating different kinds of chemicals
110
Chemical transmission process
- Nerve impulses travel down the axon terminal
- There are pockets of neurotransmitters in the terminal called vesicles which neurotransmitters join
- Due to the signal it moves the vesicles towards the synaptic cleft
- Vesicles release neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft
- They flow into the synaptic cleft and make connections with receptors on the next neuron (postsynaptic)
- Specific receptors for specific neurotransmitters
111
Major Neurotransmitters
- GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid)
- Acetylcholine (Ach)
- Noradrenaline (NE)
- Serotonin
- Dopamine (DA)
- Endorphins
112
GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid)
- Inhibition function on cell fire
113
Acetylcholine (Ach)
- Excitatory
| - Muscle movement
114
Noradrenaline (NE)
- Fight or flight (sympathetic)
115
Serotonin
- Mood
116
Dopamine (DA)
- Movement
- Tension
- Learning
- Pleasure
117
Controlling amount of neurotransmitter in synaptic cleft
- Mechanisms of deactivation
> Neurotransmitter reuptake
> Enzymatic degradation of neurotransmitter
118
Neurotransmitter reuptake
- The neurotransmitter is reabsorbed into the axon terminal that it came from (presynaptic neuron)
- Store for further use later
119
Enzymatic degradation of neurotransmitter
- Breaks down the neurotransmitter in the synaptic cleft
120
Pleasure (Neuronal mechanism)
How we experience it
- Sending neuron contains dopamine (brains pleasure chemical) and is released when something good happens to us into the synapse
- Dopamine (neurotransmitter) connects with receptor which activates the receiving neuron conveying the message onto the next neuron
- Causing a chain reaction
- After message is sent, dopamine is recycled by transporters to be reused
- Repeated conversation gives us the feeling of pleasure
121
The Dopamine (DA) system
- Cell bodies of neurons for DA system are in two midbrain nuclei
> Substantia Nigra (SN)
> Ventral Tegmental area (VTA)
122
DA neurons project along:
- Nigrostriatal Pathway
- Mescocortical Pathway (Pleasure)
- Mesolimbic Pathway (Pleasure)
123
Nigrostriatal Pathway
- Substantia Nigra (SN) >> Dorsal Striatum
124
Mescocortical Pathway (Pleasure)
- Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) >> Pre frontal cortex
125
Mesolimbic Pathway (Pleasure)
- Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) >> Nucleus accumbens
126
Pathways and pleasure
- Not all are involved in pleasure
| - Nigrostriatal Pathway is more associated with movement (Parkinson)
127
Psychoactive drugs
- Most affect synaptic transmission
| - Tend to increase the pathways that are involved in pleasure, and do this by increasing dopamine transition
128
Types of Psychoactive drugs
- Agonist
| - Antagonist
129
Agonist
- A drug that facilitates the action of neurotransmitter
130
Antagonist
- A drug that reduces the action of a neurotransmitter
131
Agonist receptor sites
- Binds to the receptor site as well as the natural substance (right shape)
- Enhances cellular activity
132
Antagonist receptor sites
- Blocks the receptor site (not right shape)
- Natural substance cannot bind
- Decreases cellular activity
133
Types of psychoactive drugs
- Depressants
- Opiates
- Stimulates
- Hallucinogens
134
Depressants
- Act to suppress bodily processes
| - Alcohol and Valium
135
Opiates
- Act as an analgesic or pain reliever
| - Morphine or heroin
136
Stimulates
- Acts to increase bodily processes
| - Methamphetamine and cocaine
137
Hallucinogens
- Produce sensory or perceptual distortions
| - LSD and cannabis
138
DSM- 5 Criteria
- Substance use disorder test
- Determined how severe their disorder is (withdrawal, tolerance etc)
- 2-3 = mild
- 4-5 = moderate
- 6 or more = severe
139
Tolerance
- Methamphetamine
- When the regular dose doesn't give the same rush you take more
- Now meth reaches the brain it finds a lot less dopamine
- Meth has also destroyed transporters and on the receiving neuron all that overstimulation we loved has caused receptors to withdraw
- So its harder to get high = wont ever have the same first rush
140
Physical dependence (tolerance)
- Effects of drug will diminish with repeated use
- Decreased responsiveness at the site of action
> fewer receptors
> decreased efficiency of binding at receptors
> receptors less responsive
- Body's attempt to return to homeostasis
- Increased amounts of drug must be taken to elicit the same effects
141
Brain power
- Neuronal Mechanisms
- Improving normal brain function
> diet/drugs
> Brain Training = train pathways in the brain
> Brain Stimulation
