BIOPSYCH AO3 Flashcards
FOF
Taylor et al 2000.
TEND AND BEFRIEND
Argues that females would instinctively protect their offspring and make allies w others rather than fight or flight, as it would be counter intuitive for them to leave their spring
It is thought that this response is promoted by oxytocin, and testosterone normally counters oxytocin, hence this response being largely regarded as feminine
FoF
Gray.1988
FREEZE
He describes that humans natural instinct is to enter a state of hypervigilance where they asses the situation
FoF
Outdated
Explains how the FoF response would have been useful for our ancestors when they faced genuinely life threatening situations on a day to day basis.
Such intense biological reactions would be unnecessary and possibly taxing due to the constant stressors we have in our modern day lives
Anxiety and panic attacks are better explanations for the stress response
“Maladaptive to our modern day life”
FoF
Steve and Harley 2012
They found a type of Y chromosome is called SRY which releases a hormone similar to adrenalin that causes aggression in the FoF response
Females do not have a Y chromosome hence the FoF is not gender inclusive
Localisation
Lashely 1929
EQUAPOTENTIAL theory : that parts of your brain could take over specific functions of damaged part of your cortex following a brain injury
Argued that localisation was too simplified of an explanation for the complex functions of the brain
He believed it was applicable in simple motor and sensory functions but less applicable in the setting of complex functions such as learning.
He removed 10-50% of some rat’s cortex and observers their ability to complete a maze
- he found that variation was scares and that no particular area seemed more important in regards to the rats ability to complete the maze
Localisation
Phineas Gage 1848
After an accident when he had a iron rod take out part of his frontal cortex, he survived and was able to recover and life a functional life
Though his personality completely changed
Localisation
Dronkers et al 2007.
Broca’s patient TAN
Dronkers rescanned Tan’s brain in a fMRI
Discovered that there was in fact a lesion on his Broca’s area but he also had damage in other areas of his cortex
Proved that it Broca’s area may not be the only area responsible for speech.
Localisation
Herasty 1997
Women have a proportionally larger Wernicke’s and Broca’s area which isn’t explained in the localisation of function
Brain plasticity
Maguire et al 2000
Taxi drivers the correlation between the size of the hippocampus and spacial memory
Researched 16 right handed taxi drivers with over 1.5y of experience and compared them to 50 non taxi drivers
Found that there was an increased volume of grey matter on their posterior hippocampi, which was responsible for spacial memory
There was a positive correlation between the volume of grey matter on the right hippocampus and the length of experience
Brain plasticity
Kuhn et al 2014
Researched the impact of playing 30 minuets of super Mario everyday for 2 months, the size of the test groups hippocampus and cerebellum was bigger than that of the control group
Showing that new synaptic connections had been made
Localisation
Darison et al 2004
Tibetan monks
He researched the effects on meditation on the inner workings of the brain
Researched 8 Tibetan monks with a control group 10 of students volounteers
While fixed w electrical sensors they were tasked with meditation
Gamma waves present in both
But practitioners had higher and more intense waves even before meditation
Functional recovery
Laura Danelli et al 2013
17 yo Italian boy EB
- left hemisphere removed when he was really young due to a non cancerous tumour
- at 2 years old he was improving due to intensive rehabilitation
-at 17, other than some grammatical errors EB showed a normal ability to speak and comprehend.
Practical application of brain plasticity
It has helped us understand neurorehabillitation
We see how spontaneous recovery slows down after a couple weeks, needing further intervention to be fully complete
Inventions may include
Movement therapy and electrical stimulation
Animal research backing brain plasticity
Hube and weisal 1963
- sew the eye of a kitten while monitoring cortical response
- the corresponding cortex was expected to be inactive but showed the maintenance of brain activity as it processed the information given but the other eye
Brain plasticity and negative side effects
Brains ability to retire may evoke negative symptoms that weren’t present before
60-80% of amputees suffer from phantom limb syndrome
- extremely unpleasant and painful
- due to cortical reorganisation in the somatosensory area of the brain
Medina et al 2007: that excessive drug use may cause the brain to rewire and end up with a higher likely hood of dementia
Brain plasticity and old age
That the brains ability to rewire and be plastic, decreases as you get older, but it maintains present.
Brezzola et al 2012, Researched the brains for people ages 40-60 to try and become novice golfers by playing for 40hrs, comparing them with a control group inexperienced .
Showing us that they had less motor cortex activity than the control group
brain lateralisation
Sperry and Gazzinga 1967
11 split brain patients, corpus callosum severed as a treatment for severe epilepsy
hoping to see how the separate hemispheres have different functions
images flashed at a fixation point for 1/10 of a second
3 tests: describe what you see, tactile, drawing
concluded that your left side was your analyser and your right hemisphere was ur synthesiser
brain lateralisation
evaluation points
- low generalisability since the sample group was a small number only 11 and all had sever epileptic conditions
- low EV due to the fact that in real life both hemispheres would be working simultaneously so there is little use separating them in research.
> lacks mundane realism
+ High internal validly as sperry was able to create a controlled and standardised testing environment, decreased the influence of extraneous variables
+ promoted research on lateralisation: roger et al 2004 and his chickens, discovering how the use of two hemisphere increased their ability of multitasking.
Circadian Rhythms
Siffre
- 2 months in the southern Alps cave 1967
- 6 months in texan caves a decade later
discovered that your natural sleep-wake cycles falls just over 25hrs
concluded that your endogenous pacemakers are powerful enough to maintain that cycle wo the influence of EZ
Circadian Rhythms
Aschoff and Wever 1976
WW2 bunker
group of participant w o any EZ
free running cycles settled to just over 25 hrs
bar one who settled at 29
circadian cycles evaluations
+ positive impact of pharmacokinetics
> drug dosage and timings
>peak times where the drugs are most effective
>helped research looking into anti cancer, anti epileptic, repiratory, cardiovascular and antiulcer
+shift work,
> knusson 2003, increased chance of Heart disease
> Bolton et al 1996 ,night shift works have a lack of concentration at around 6am, causing more accidents and mistakes to be made
- don’t overestimate the impact of EZ
>folkland et al. 1985 12 people in a dark cave for 3 months and slowly sped up the clock
> they could not adjust
>showed the power you endogenous pacemakers - small sample size
> suffer repeated his study in 1999 when he was over 60 years old and his biological rhythm settled to a shorter time
> impact of age - individual differences
> early birds
> night owls
infradian Rhythms
stern and McClintok 1998
29 women
9 women w taken pheromones from
8hrs maintained
cotton buds rubbed on the upper lip of the other women
68% women had their cycle change closer to their odour donor
infradian rhythms evaluations
evolutionary advantages
- shared childcare, if birth is togeather and lactating is synced also
evolutionary disadvantages
- competition to find mates : schank 2004
-avoidance of synchronicity would be the most adaptive and evolutionary strategy
- too many other factors that would change a women’s cycles
evidence for SAD
- Terman 1988
-the rate of SAD is higher in northern countries where winter nights are longer
-10% vs 2%
therapies for sad
- light box but unable to confirm if this works
60% affectiveness
but 30% effective with a placebo
