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AQA A Level Psychology > Biopsych > Flashcards

Biopsych Flashcards

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1
Q

\What is the nervous system?

A
  • A specialised network of cells in the human body and is our primary internal communication system
  • Divided into the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system
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2
Q

What is the role of the nervous system?

A
  • To collect, process and respond to information in the environment
  • To coordinate the working of different organs and cells in the body
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3
Q

What is the Central Nervous System?

A
  • Made up of the brain and spinal cord
  • The origin of all complex commands and decisions
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4
Q

What is the brain?

A
  • The centre of all conscious awareness
  • Cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the brain + distinguishes human mental functions from those of animals
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5
Q

What is the spinal cord?

A
  • An extension of the brain
  • Responsible for reflex actions
  • Passes messages to and from the brain and connects nerves to the PNS
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6
Q

What is the Peripheral Nervous System?

A
  • Transmits messages via millions of neurons to and from the central nervous system
  • Subdivided into autonomic and somatic nervous system
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7
Q

What is the Autonomic Nervous System?

A
  • Governs vital functions in the body such as breathing, heart rate and stress responses (involuntary effect)
  • Subdivided into sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system
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8
Q

What is the Sympathetic Nervous System?

A

Activates internal organs and increases bodily activities

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9
Q

What is the Parasympathetic Nervous System?

A

Relaxes internal organs and decreases bodily activities

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10
Q

What is the Somatic Nervous System?

A
  • Transmits information from receptor cells in the sense organs to the CNS
  • Receives information from the CNS that direct muscles to act voluntary
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11
Q

What is the endocrine system?

A
  • One of the body’s major information systems that instructs glands to release hormones directly into the blood stream
  • These hormones are carried towards target organs in the body
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12
Q

What is a gland?

A

An organ in the body that syntheses substances such as hormones

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13
Q

What is a hormone?

A
  • Chemical substances that circulate in the bloodstream and only affect target organs
  • Produced in large quantities but disappear quickly
  • Effects are very powerful
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14
Q

What is the pituitary gland?

A
  • Release lots of hormones
  • Master gland: hormones released control and stimulate the release of hormones from the other glands in the endocrine system
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15
Q

What is the pineal gland?

A
  • Melatonin is released
  • Responsible for important biological rhythms
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16
Q

What is the thyroid gland?

A
  • Thyroxine is released
  • Responsible for regulating metabolism
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17
Q

What are testes?

A
  • Releases testosterone
  • Responsible for the development of male sex characteristics during puberty
  • Promotes muscle growth
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18
Q

What are the ovaries?

A
  • Releases oestrogen
  • Controls the regulation of the female reproductive system including pregnancy and the menstrual cycle
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19
Q

What is the adrenal gland?

A
  • Releases adrenaline
  • Responsible for the flight or fight response: stimulates heart rate, contracts blood vessels and dilates air passages
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20
Q

What is the pancreas?

A
  • Releases insulin
  • Allows the body to use glucose from carbohydrates in food for energy or store energy for future use
  • Helps keep blood sugar levels stable
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21
Q

Fight or Flight Response

A
  • The way an animal responds when stressed
  • Body body becomes physiologically aroused in readiness to fight an aggressor or flee
  • Reflexive: occurs without conscious awareness
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22
Q

What is a neuron?

A
  • Basic building blocks of the nervous system
  • Nerve cells that process and transmit messages through electrical and chemical signals
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23
Q

What is adrenaline?

A
  • A hormone produced by the adrenal glands (part of the body’s stress response system
  • Has a strong effect on the cardiovascular system (stimulates the heart rate, contracting blood vessels and dilating air passages
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24
Q

What are sensory neurons?

A
  • Carry nerve impulses from sensory receptors to the spinal cord and brain (PNS to the CNS)
  • Receptors of sensory neurons are located on/near the body’s surface
  • Short axon
  • Long dendrites
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25
Q

What are relay neurons?

A
  • Allow sensory and motor neurons to communicate with eachother
  • Most common type of neuron in the CNS
  • Located in the brain, spinal cord and visual system
  • Short axon
  • Short dendrite
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26
Q

What are motor neurons?

A
  • Carry nerve impulses from the spinal cord and brain to the effectors from the CNS to the PNS
  • Its axons are directly or indirectly linked to muscles
  • Long axon
  • Short dendrites
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27
Q

What is the cell body?

A
  • Factory of the neuron
  • Consists of the nucleus and produces all proteins a neuron needs in order to function
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28
Q

What is the nucleus?

A

Contains the genetic material within the neuron

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29
Q

What are dendrites?

A
  • Branch like features protrude from the cell body
  • Carry nerve impulses from neighbouring neurons towards the cell body
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30
Q

What are axons?

A
  • Carries the electrical impulse from the cell body, down to the length of the neuron
  • Covered in myelin sheath
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31
Q

What is the myelin sheath?

A
  • Fatty layer surrounding and protecting the axon
  • Helps speed up electrical transmission of the impulse
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32
Q

What are the nodes of ranvier?

A
  • Gaps between the myelin sheath
  • Speeds up the transmission of the impulse, forcing it to jump across the gaps along the axon
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33
Q

What are terminal buttons?

A
  • Located at the end of the axon
  • Communicate with the next neuron that is on the other side of the synaptic cleft
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34
Q

What is synaptic transmission?

A

Process in which neighbouring neurons communicate with eachother by sending chemical messages across the synaptic cleft then separates them

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35
Q

What are neurotransmitters?

A
  • Brain chemicals released from synaptic vesicles that relay signals across the synapse of one neuron to another
  • Can perform an inhibitory or excitatory function
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36
Q

What is excitation?

A
  • When a neurotransmitter (e.g. adrenaline increase the positive charge of the postsynaptic neuron)
  • Increases the likelihood the neuron will fire + pass on the electrical impulse
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37
Q

What is inhibition?

A
  • When a neurotransmitter e.g. serotonin makes the charge of postsynaptic neuron more negative
  • Decrease the likelihood of the neuron passing on an electrical signal
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38
Q

What is a synapse?

A
  • Junction between two neurons
  • Includes the presynaptic neuron, synaptic cleft and postsynaptic receptor site
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39
Q

What is the synaptic cleft?

A

The space between the pre and postsynaptic neuron

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40
Q

What are vesicles?

A

Small sacs at the end of a presynaptic neuron that contain neurotransmitters that will be released into a synapse

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41
Q

What is the presynaptic neuron?

A

The transmitting neuron, before the synaptic cleft

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42
Q

What is the postsynaptic neuron?

A

A neuron receiving the information at the synapse

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43
Q

What is the postsynaptic receptor site?

A
  • A receptor on the postsynaptic neuron
  • A neurotransmitter locks into a specific receptor on the postsynaptic neuron, triggering an electrical impulse in the postsynaptic neuron
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44
Q

What impact do drugs have on synaptic transmission?

A
  • Increase amount of neurotransmitter - block reuptake channels
  • Decrease amount of neurotransmitter - clock the receptors
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45
Q

What are the 4 ways of studying the brain?

A
  • fMRIs
  • EEGs
  • ERPs
  • Post Mortems
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46
Q

What are fMRIs?

A
  • Detects changes in blood oxygenation and flow that indicate increase neural activity
  • Asked to do a task and it’s observed where brain activity is
  • As the brain area is more active, it consumes more oxygen and blood flow is therefore directed to the active area (haemodynamic response)
  • Produces activation maps showing which parts of the brain are involved in particular mental processes (imp. for localisation of function
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47
Q

What are the advantages of using fMRIs?

A
  • Non invasive - doesn’t rely on the use of radiation and is safe and therefore an appropriate method to study the brain
  • High spatial resolution - Shows detail by the millimetre and therefore provides a clear picture of how brain activity is localised
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48
Q

What are the disadvantages of using fMRIs?

A
  • fMRIs are expensive - Expensive compared to other techniques and can only capture an image if the persons stays still, limiting the appropriateness of fMRIs
  • fMRIs have poor temporal resolution - 5 second lag between initial neural activity and image so doesn’t represent moment to moment brain activity
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49
Q

What are EEGs?

A
  • Records changes in electrical activity using electrodes attached to the scalp
  • Scan recording shows brain wave patterns generated from the action of millions of neurons, providing an account of the brain activity
  • Often used as a diagnostic tool as unusual arrhythmic patterns may indicate neurological abnormalities
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50
Q

What are the advantages of using EEGs?

A
  • EEGs are invaluable in diagnosing conditions - e.g. identifying epilepsy and understanding the stages of sleep, making them an appropriate way to measure brain activity
  • EEGs have high temporal resolution - detect brain activity as a resolution of a single millisecond, making it able to represent moment to moment bran activity
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51
Q

What are the disadvantages of using EEGs?

A
  • EEG info is received from many neurons - they produce a generalised signal from thousands of neurons, making it difficult to know the exact source of neural activity - cannot therefore distinguish different but adjacent neurons
  • EEGs do not provide a clear picture of brain activity - only monitor electrical activity in outer layers of the brain, therefore cannot reveal electrical activity in deeper brain sites
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52
Q

What are ERPs?

A
  • Records changes in electrical activity using electrodes attached to the scalp but uses a specific stimulus (sensory, cognitive or motor) to see where the activity is
  • Using a statistical averaging technique, all extraneous brain activity from the original EEG recording is filtered out, leaving the responses related to the stimulus
  • Many forms of ERP are related to cognitive processes
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53
Q

What are the advantages of using ERPs?

A
  • ERPs uses a specific measurement of neural processes - more specific that what can be achieved using raw EEG data making it a better method of investigating the brain
  • ERPs have a high temporal resolution - can detect brain activity as a resolution of a single millisecond, making it more able to represent moment to moment brain activity
54
Q

What are the disadvantages of using ERPs?

A
  • Lacks standardisation in methodology between studies - makes it difficult to confirm findings in studies including ERPs and therefore the reliability of the info regarding the brain’s function and structure is lowered
  • ERPs have background noise which must be eliminated - limits the appropriateness of the method for studying the brain
55
Q

What are post mortems?

A
  • Examine abnormalities in the structure of the brain which try to explain psychological abnormalities people have before death
  • May involve a comparison with a neurotypical brain to ascertain the extent of the difference
56
Q

What are the advantages of using post mortems?

A
  • PMs provide the foundation of understanding the brain - Broca and Wernicke both relied on PM studies, showing that they have improved medical knowledge and helped generate hypotheses for further study
  • PMs allow for in-depth study of the brain - Detailed examinations + measurements of deep brain structures (e.g. hypothalamus) that are not measurable by brain scans can occur, providing us with knowledge of the brain that can’t be gained from less invasive options
57
Q

What are the disadvantages of using post mortems?

A
  • Causation may be an issue - observed damage in the brain may not be linked to deficits under review but some other related to trauma or decay, limiting its appropriateness
  • Unethical - before death, patients need to give informed consent but there’s a reason psychologists wanted to investigate their brains in the first place, meaning they may not be able to provide consent e.g. HM
58
Q

Localisation of function - What happened to Phineas Gage?

A
  • Had an iron pole through his left cheek, passing behind the left eye, making most of this left frontal lobe
  • Survived the damage but left a mark on his personality - became rude and quick tempered
  • Landmark case in science - change in temperament suggested the frontal lobe is responsible for regulating the mood
59
Q

What did the localisation of function theory argue?

A
  • Argued that specific areas of the brain are associated with particular physical and psychological functions
  • Damage to these areas can cause consequences for behaviour
60
Q

What is the cerebral cortex?

A
  • Brain is separated in two hemispheres and is surrounded by the cerebral cortex which is 3mm thick and covers the inner parts of the brain
  • The cortex of both hemispheres is subdivided into four lobes which are named after the bones beneath which they lie
61
Q

What are the 4 lobes within the cortex?

A
  • Frontal lobe
  • Parietal lobe
  • Occipital lobe
  • Temporal lobe
62
Q

What is the motor cortex?

A
  • Location: at the back of the frontal lobe
  • Role: control voluntary movement in the contralateral side of the body
  • Damage: loss of fine movements
63
Q

Where is the motor cortex located?

A

At the back of the frontal lobe

64
Q

What is the role of the motor cortex?

A

Controls voluntary movement in the contralateral side of the body

65
Q

Damage to the motor cortex can cause what?

A

Loss of fine movements

66
Q

What is the somatosensory cortex?

A
  • Location: at the front of the parietal lobe
  • Role: represents sensory info from the skin (touch, heat, pressure) / the sensitive an area, the more space it takes up in the somatosensory cortex
  • Damage: loss of senses
67
Q

Where is the somatosensory cortex located?

A

At the front of the parietal lobe

68
Q

What is the role of the somatosensory cortex?

A

Represents sensory info from the skin (touch, heat pressure) / the more sensitive an area, the more space it takes up in the somatosensory cortex

69
Q

Damage to the somatosensory cortex can cause what?

A

Loss of senses

70
Q

What is the visual cortex?

A
  • Location: in the occipital lobe
  • Role: Info from the right visual cortex is sent to the left visual cortex and vice versa
  • Damage: Loss of specific areas of the visual field
71
Q

Where is the visual cortex located?

A

In the occipital lobe

72
Q

What is the role of the visual cortex?

A

Info from the right visual field is sent to the left visual field and vice versa

73
Q

Damage to the visual cortex can cause what?

A

Loss of specific areas of the visual field

74
Q

What is the auditory cortex?

A
  • Location: in the temporal lobe
  • Role: analyses speech based information
  • Damage: partial hearing loss
75
Q

Where is the auditory cortex located?

A

In the temporal lobe

76
Q

What is the role of the auditory cortex?

A

Analyses speech based information

77
Q

Damage to the auditory cortex can cause what?

A

Partial hearing loss

78
Q

What is Wernicke’s area?

A
  • Location: in the left temporal lobe
  • Role: responsible for language comprehension
  • Damage: producing nonsense words i.e. they can speak fluently but the words are meaningless to them
78
Q

Where is Wernicke’s area located?

A

In the left temporal lobe

79
Q

What is the role of Wernicke’s area?

A

Responsible for language comprehension

80
Q

Damage to Wernicke’s area can cause what?

A

Producing nonsense words i.e. they can speak fluently, but the words are meaningless to them

81
Q

What is Broca’s area?

A

Small area of the left frontal lobe

82
Q

Where is Broca’s area located?

A

Small area of the left frontal lobe

83
Q

What is the role of Broca’s area?

A

Responsible for speech production

84
Q

Damage to Broca’s area can cause what?

A

Slow speech that lacks fluency

85
Q

Which hemisphere is Wernicke and Broca’s area located?


A

In the left hemisphere

86
Q

What are the names of the different cortexes (and areas)?

A
  • Motor cortex
  • Somatosensory cortex
  • Visual cortex
  • Auditory cortex
  • Wernicke’s area
  • Broca’s area
87
Q

What is plasticity?

A
  • The brain’s tendency to change and adapt as a result of experience and new learning
  • Infancy - brain experiences a growth in the number of synaptic connections, peaking at 15,000 at 2-3 years old
  • Synaptic pruning - rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened
88
Q

What is synaptic pruning?

A

When rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened as humans age

89
Q

Plasticity and functional recovery: Maguire’s study

A
  • Studied the brains of London taxi drivers + found more volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus than in the control group
  • PH’s associated with the development of spatial + navigation skills
  • “The Knowledge Test” - assesses recall of city streets // altered structure of brains, the longer in the job, the more pronounced the structural difference
90
Q

Plasticity and functional recovery: Kuhn’s study

A
  • Control compared to video game group who played Super Mario for 30mins a day for 2 months
  • Increase of grey matter in numerous brain areas for the video game group (brain areas associated with spatial navigation, working memory + motor performance
  • Increase not found in the control group, demonstrating plasticity within the brain
91
Q

Plasticity and functional recovery - Mediation: Lazar’s study

A
  • Used MRI scans to show how experienced mediators had a thicker cortex than non-mediators, in areas relating to attention
  • The cortex is associated with higher level functions e.g. thought, emotion and reasoning
92
Q

What is functional recovery?

A
  • A form of plasticity, following damage through trauma
  • Where the brain is able to redistribute/transfer functions usually performed by a damaged area to other undamaged areas
93
Q

What happens during functional recovery?

A
  • Brain learns how to compensate for the area that has lost the function
  • Process can occur quickly (spontaneous recovery) + slow down after several weeks + may go to rehabilitation therapy to further recovery
  • Brain reorganises itself by forming new synaptic connections close to the area of damage
  • Secondary neural pathways that wouldn’t typically be able to carry out certain functions are activated to enable functioning to continue
94
Q

What structural changes can occur during functional recovery?

A
  • Axonal sprouting
  • Reformation of blood vessels
  • Recruitment of homologous areas on the opposite side of the brain to perform specific tasks
95
Q

What is axonal sprouting?

A

The growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathways

96
Q

What factors affect functional recovery?

A
  • How much people want to recover
  • How tired people are
  • How stressed people are
  • How much alcohol/drugs people are having
  • Age - younger individuals recover more quickly
  • Gender - women recover more quickly
97
Q

What is hemispheric lateralisation?

A
  • The idea that the two hemispheres of the brain are functionally different
  • Some mental processes in the brain are mainly specialised to the left or right hemisphere
  • Left hemisphere dominant in language and speech
  • Right hemisphere dominant in recognising faces
98
Q

What does damage to the brain during hemispheric lateralisation mean?

A
  • We can assess which mental processes are mainly done by one hemisphere
  • As damage to a particular hemisphere means people will not be able to do that task
99
Q

What is the corpus callosum?

A
  • A broad band of fibres that joins the two hemispheres of the brain, allowing communication to occur
  • Cutting this has allowed brain lateralisation to be investigated
100
Q

Visual fields and hemispheres

A
  • Info from the left visual field is processed by the right hemisphere and vice versa
  • Language is lateralised to the left hemisphere
  • Right hand side of the body is controlled by the left hemisphere and vice versa
  • Cutting of the corpus callosum means info cannot be passed between hemispheres
101
Q

Split brain research: Sperry - Procedure

A
  • Investigated hemispheric lateralisation
  • Individual focuses on a central dot allowing info to be presented to the left visual field (processed by the right hemisphere) and vice versa
  • Means info can only be processed by one hemisphere + we can see what functions are controlled by each hemisphere
102
Q

Split brain research findings: Describing what you see

A
  • Left hemisphere (which has language centres) is responsible for speech and language
  • Image shown in right visual field, patient could describe what was being seen
  • Image shown in left visual field, they couldn’t due to lack of lang. centres
  • If patient draws image presented in visual field, they let left hemisphere in on the secret + word can be said
103
Q

Split brain research findings: Recognition by touch

A
  • Unable to say what was seen in the left visual field as info is processed by the right hemisphere (no lang.)
  • Using their left hand, they can pick out a matching object to the word shown
  • Means they’re able to identify the word that was shown in the left visual field in another way
104
Q

Split brain research findings: Recognising faces

A
  • Right hemisphere is for recognising faces
  • When asked to match a face from a series of other faces, picture processed by RH was consistently selected, while pic in the LH was ignored
  • When a composite pic made up of two halves of a face was selected, LH dominated verbal description + RH dominated in terms of a matching picture
105
Q

What are biological rhythms?

A
  • Cyclical changes in the way biological systems behave
  • Have evolved as the environment humans + other organisms live has cyclical changes
106
Q

What are biological rhythms controlled by?

A
  • Endogenous pacemakers
  • Exogenous zeitgebers
107
Q

What are endogenous pacemakers?

A

Internal body clock that regulate biological rhythms e.g. the influence of SCN on the sleep/wake cycle

108
Q

What are exogenous zeitgebers?

A

External cues that may impact/entrain biological rhythms e.g. influence of light on the sleep/wake cycle

109
Q

What is a circadian rhythm?

A
  • Cycle that lasts for 24hrs
  • Rhythms optimise an organism’s bodily functions + behaviour to best meet the demands of the sleep/wake cycle
  • Rhythm is regulated by an internal systems e.g. release of hormones, metabolic rate + body temperature
110
Q

What is the sleep/wake cycle?

A
  • Light + dark provide signals about when we should be awake/asleep // s/w cycle dips and rises at different times
  • Strongest sleep drive = 2-4am + 1-3pm
  • Homeostasis also controls the need to sleep
  • Factors combine, allowing individuals to sleep during the night + be awake during the day
111
Q

Hormone production as a circadian rhythm

A
  • Melatonin is produced and is released from the pineal gland
  • Peaks during the hours of darkness
  • Encourages feelings of sleep through activating synapses
112
Q

Indicator of the sleep wake cycle: body temperature

A
  • Lowest at 4am and highest at 6 pm
  • Temperature rises during the last hrs of sleep (feel alert in the morning)
113
Q

Sleep/wake cycle research: Siffre’s study

A

Aim: Studied the effects of exogeneous zeitgebers on his biological rhythms
Procedure: Deprived of natural light + sound w/ minimal food + drink (absence of ex. cues altered his BR)
Findings: resurfaced 2 months after being in the Southern Alp cave + believed it was a month earlier than it actually was // his BR settled to one that was beyond the 24hrs + fell asleep and woke up on a regular schedule

114
Q

Sleep/wake cycle research: Aschoff and Weaver

A
  • Group sent 4 wks in a WW2 bunker deprived of natural light
  • All but one displayed a circadian rhythm of 24-25hrs // anomalous had their cycle extended to 29hrs
  • Suggests the natural sleep/wake cycles may be longer than 24 hrs but EZs entrain the human circadian rhythm to 24hrs
115
Q

Endogenous pacemakers

A
  • Internal body clocks that regulate our biological rhythms
  • Impacted by the environment e.g. making individual sleep when there’s little light
  • Function without cues from the environment about what the body should be doing, but alters the circadian rhythm
  • Must be constantly reset so human bodies are in synchrony with the outside world
116
Q

Endogenous pacemakers: SCN and the pineal gland

A
  • Located in the hypothalamus in each hemisphere of the brain
  • Influential in maintaining circadian rhythms
  • Regulated by light from the environment + receives info about light even when the eyes are closed
  • Passes info on day lengths + light to the pineal gland
  • PG produces melatonin in the night, inducing sleep by inhibiting the brain mechanisms that promote wakefulness
117
Q

Exogenous zeitgebers

A
  • External cues that impact or entrain biological rhythms e.g. effect of light on the sleep/wake cycle
  • Set human body clocks thorough entrainment (synchronisation of the body to the environment)
118
Q

What is entrainment?

A

Synchronisation of the body to the environment

119
Q

Exogenous zeitgebers: light

A
  • Resets the SCN
  • Affects hormone secretion + blood circulation
120
Q

Exogenous zeitgebers: light - Campbell and Murphy’s study

A
  • 15 participants were woken at various times + a light pad shone at the back of their knees
  • Researchers produced a deviation in the participants’ usual sleep/wake cycle, was up to 3hrs in some cases
  • Suggests light is a powerful EZ that influences brains + bodies as it can be detected by skin receptor sites on the body, even when the same info is not received by the eyes
121
Q

What are examples of exogenous zeitgebers?

A
  • Light
  • Social cues
122
Q

Exogenous zeitgebers: social cues

A

Schedules imposed on us by society + are key influences on our sleep/wake cycle
- Entrainment of the body following jet lag is quicker when people eat and sleep when the local culture do

123
Q

What are infradian rhythms?

A
  • Infradian rhythms are rhythms that have a duration greater than 24 hours
  • E.g. female menstrual cycle
124
Q

Infradian rhythms: The menstrual cycle

A
  • Refers to the time between the first day of a woman’s period, when the lining is shed, to the day before her next period
  • Rising levels of oestrogen cause the ovary to develop an egg and release (ovulation)
  • Post-ovulation: progesterone levels increase, helping the womb line to grow thicker, reading the body for pregnancy
  • If pregnancy doesn’t occur, the egg is absorbed into the body ], the womb lining comes away and leaves the body
125
Q

Infradian rhythms: Seasonal Affective Disorder

A
  • Depressive disorder which has a seasonal pattern of onset
  • Symptoms: low mood and lack of activity + interest in life
  • Called a circannual rhythm (yearly cycle)
  • Melatonin is the cause of SAD - pineal gland secretes melatonin until morning when there’s an increase in light
  • Lack of light in the winter = secretion process continues for longer
126
Q

What are ultradian rhythms?

A
  • Ultradian rhythms are biological rhythms that last less than 24 hrs
  • Means there’s more than one cycle within the 24hr period e.g. sleep cycle and the wake cycle
127
Q

Stages 1 and 2 of the sleep cycle

A
  • Light sleep where the person can be easily woken
  • Start of sleep: brainwave activity become slower and more rhythmic (alpha waves) + become even slower as sleep becomes deeper (theta waves)
128
Q

Stages 3 and 4 of the sleep cycle

A
  • Involve delta waves which are slower still and have a greater change than earlier wave patterns
  • This is deep sleep + is difficult to rouse someone at this point
129
Q

Stage 5 of the sleep cycle

A
  • REM sleep
  • Body is paralysed yet brain activity speeds up significantly in a manner that resembles the awake brain
  • Rapid eye movement describes the fact activity of the eyes under the eyelids
  • REM activity during sleep is highly correlated with the experience of dreaming
130
Q

Basic Rest Activity Cycles

A
  • 90 min cycle that is found during sleep continues during the day
  • We move progressively from a state of alertness into a state of physiological fatigue
  • Human mind can focus for 90mins and then the body begins to run out of resources, resulting in loss of concentration

AQA A Level Psychology (6 decks)

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