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Psychology Paper 2 > Biopsychology > Flashcards

Biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

What are Neurons?

A

cells that conduct nerve impulses

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2
Q

How fast is a neuron?

A

can be up to 268 miles per hour

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3
Q

What is the nervous system?

A

A specialised network of cells in the human body.

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4
Q

What is the PNS?

A

Peripheral nervous system

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5
Q

What is the CNS?

A

Central nervous system

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6
Q

What are the two components of the CNS?

A

Brain

Spinal cord

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7
Q

What does the PNS do?

A

Transmits messages via millions of neurons to and from the CNS

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8
Q

What does the CNS do?

A

Passes messages to and from the brain and connects nerves to the PNS

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9
Q

What are the two components of the PNS?

A
  • Autonomic nervous system

- Somatic nervous system

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10
Q

What does the autonomic nervous system do?

A

Governs vital functions such as breathing, heart rate, stress reactions and digestion

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11
Q

What does the somatic nervous system do?

A

Carries sensory and motor info to and from the spinal cord

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12
Q

What are the two components of the autonomic nervous system?

A
  • sympathetic nervous system

- parasympathetic nervous system

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13
Q

What does the sympathetic nervous system do?

A
  • slows digestion
  • dilates pupils
  • increases heart rate
  • relaxes bladder
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14
Q

What does the parasympathetic nervous system do?

A

Increase digestion
Decreases heart rate
Constricts pupils

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15
Q

What are the different types of neurons?

A

Sensory
Motor
Relay

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16
Q

What is the function of the sensory neuron?

A

Carried messages from the PNS to the spinal cord and brain.

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17
Q

Length of the fibres of a sensory neuron?

A

Long dendrites

Short axons

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18
Q

What is the function of a relay neuron?

A

Transfers messages from sensory neurons to other interconnecting neurons

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19
Q

Length of the fibres of a relay neuron?

A

Short dendrites

Short/long axons

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20
Q

What is the function of the motor neuron?

A

Carries messages from the CNS to the effectors such as muscles and glands.

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21
Q

Length of the fibres of a motor neuron?

A

Short dendrites

Long axons

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22
Q

What are neurotransmitters?

A

Chemicals that are released from a synaptic vesicles into the synapse by neurons.

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23
Q

What happens next to the neurotransmitters?

A

They cross from the pre synoptic neuron and are taken up by the post synaptic neuron.

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24
Q

When does action potential occur?

A

When a neuron sends information down an axon away from the cell body.

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25
Q

What are the different effects of a neurotransmitter?

A
  • excitation

- inhibition

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26
Q

Excitation

A

increasing the post-synaptic neuron’s positive charge and the likelihood of the message being passed on

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27
Q

Inhibition

A

increasing the post-synaptic neuron’s negative charge and decreasing the likelihood of the message being passed on

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28
Q

Synaptic transmission

A
  1. nerve impulse travels down an axon
    2 - nerve impulse reaches synaptic terminal
    3 - this triggers the release of neurotransmitters
    4- the neurotransmitters are fired into the synaptic gap
    5- neurotransmitter binds with receptors on the dendrite of the adjacent neuron
    6 - if successfully transmitted the neurotransmitter is taken up by the post-synaptic neuron
    7- the message will continue to be passed in this way via electrical impulses
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29
Q

An example of an excitatory neurotransmitter?

A

Acetylcholine

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30
Q

An example of an inhibitory neurotransmitter?

A

GABA

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31
Q

Localisation of brain function?

A

Discovered that certain areas of the brain held particular functions.

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32
Q

What is localisation?

A

Theory that specific areas of the brain are associated with particular physical and psychological functions.

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33
Q

What is the hippocampus involved in?

A

Memory

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34
Q

What is the brain divided into?

A

Left

Right

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35
Q

What is lateralisation?

A

Dominance of one hemisphere of the brain for particular physical and psychological functions.

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36
Q

What is found in the left hemisphere?

A

Language

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37
Q

What can damage on the left hemisphere result in?

A

Aphasia

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38
Q

What is aphasia?

A

Inability to understand or produce speech.

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39
Q

What can an overactive hypothalamus lead to?

A

Increased aggression and causes people to experience heightened sexual feelings.

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40
Q

Evidence of what an overactive hypothalamus leads to.

A

Hess (1957) found by stimulating the hypothalamus in cats they behaved aggressively.

41
Q

What is the motor cortex responsible for?

A

Generation of voluntary motor movements

42
Q

Where is the motor cortex located?

A

Rear frontal lobe along the precentral gyrus

43
Q

What does the somatosensory cortex do?

A

Detects sensory events arising from different regions of body.

44
Q

Where is the somatosensory cortex located?

A

Parietal lobe ladling the postcentral gyrus

45
Q

What does the somatosensory cortex produce and how?

A

Sensations of touch, pressure, pain and temp.

Does this through using sensory info from skin

46
Q

What does the somatosensory cortex do after receiving info?

A

Localises it to specific body regions

47
Q

What do both hemispheres have?

A
  • motor cortex

- somatosensory cortex

48
Q

Where is the primary visual centre located?

A

In the visual cortex in the occipital lobe.

49
Q

Where does visuals processing begin?

A

Retina, in the back of the eye where light enters and strikes photo receptors.

50
Q

What does the thalamus act as?

A

A relay station, passes info on to the visual cortex.

51
Q

What happens on the right hemisphere?

A

Receives info from left hand side of the visual field.

52
Q

What happens on the left hemisphere?

A

Receives info from right visual field

53
Q

What does the visual cortex contain?

A

Several areas of which each processes different types of visual info.

54
Q

What are the two language centres?

A

Broca’s area

Wernickes area

55
Q

Where is the Broca’s area located?

A

Posterior portion of the frontal lobe of left hemisphere

56
Q

What happens to patients with lesions in the Broca’s area?

A

They understand language but are unable to speak or express thoughts in writing

57
Q

What is Broca’s area critical for?

A

Speech production

58
Q

Where is wernickes area located?

A

Posterior portion of left temporal lobe.

59
Q

What happens with patient’s with a lesion in wernickes area?

A

Can speak but unable to understand language

60
Q

What did wernicken propose?

A

Language involves separate motor and sensory regions located in different cortical regions.

61
Q

What does plasticity mean?

A

The brains ability to change and adapt as a result of experience/learning.

62
Q

Functional recovery

A

A form of plasticity where brain can redistribute functions usually performed by a damaged area to other areas.

63
Q

What happens to the brain during infancy?

A

Experiences a rapid growth in synaptic connections.

64
Q

What happens to these synaptic connections formed in infancy?

A

Go through synaptic pruning.

65
Q

What does synaptic pruning refer to?

A

Deleting those that aren’t used and strengthening those that are used.

66
Q

Plasticity in blind people

A

They use echolocation, humans sense environment from echos.

67
Q

What have studies using fMRI scans shown?

A

Auditory info is processed by brain regions usually processing visual info.

68
Q

What happens following brain trauma?

A

Unaffected areas of the brain adapt and compensate for the damaged areas.

69
Q

What is an example of brain trauma?

A

A stroke

70
Q

How quick does brain plasticity occur?

A

Quickly after trauma and then slows down after weeks/months.

71
Q

How does the brain recover?

A
  • neural reorganisation

- neural regeneration

72
Q

Neural reorganisation

A

Transfer of functions to undamaged areas

73
Q

Neural regeneration

A

Growth of new neurons and/or connections to compensate for damaged areas

74
Q

What happens in the brain after damage?

A
  • axial sprouting
  • neural unmasking
  • reformation of blood vessels
  • recruitment of similar areas in the opposite side of the brain.
75
Q

Axons sprouting

A

Growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells

76
Q

Neural unmasking

A

Unmasking of dormant synapses can open connections to regions of the brain that aren’t normally activated

77
Q

Hemispheric lateralisation

A

The idea that two halves of the brain are functionally different and certain processes are controlled by one hemisphere rather than the other

78
Q

What does the right hemisphere deal with?

A
  • face recognition
  • spatial awareness
  • drawing ability
79
Q

Who are split brain patients?

A

Group of patients who have had their corpus callosum severed, 2 hemispheres are separated and don’t communicate with each other.

80
Q

What is it called when the corpus callosum is severed?

A

Commissurotomy

81
Q

Why is a commissurotomy performed?

A

To control frequent and severe epileptic fits.

82
Q

What does fMRI stand for?

A

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

83
Q

How does an fMRI work?

A

By detecting the changed in blood oxygenation

84
Q

What does an fMRI scan show?

A

Which areas of the brain are more active during encoding, maintenance and recognition

85
Q

Strengths of fMRIs

A

Risk free, non invasive and straight forward.

High spatial resolution images

86
Q

Weakness of fMRI scans

A

Expensive

Image only captured if perfectly still

Poor temporal resolution

Can’t tell exact activity of individual neurons

87
Q

What does EEG stand for?

A

Electroencephalogram

88
Q

What does an EEG do and how does it do this?

A

Measure electrical activity within the brain via electrodes that are fixed to a scalp with a skull cap.

89
Q

Strengths of EEGs

A

Valuable at helping diagnose conditions such as epilepsy

Extremely high temporal resolution

90
Q

Weakness of EEGs

A

Only general info is received.

91
Q

What does ERP’s stand for?

A

Event related potentials

92
Q

What does an ERP show?

A

The brains electrophysiological response to a specific sensory, cognitive, or motor event that can be isolated through statistical analysis of EEG data.

93
Q

How does an ERP show this?

A

Using a statistical averaging technique

94
Q

Strength if ERPs

A

Much more specific to the measurement of neural processes

Excellent temporal resolution

able to identify many different types if ERP and describe the precise role of these in cognitive functioning

95
Q

Weakness of ERPs

A

Lack of standardisation in ERP methodology between different research studies makes it difficult to confirm findings

Not always possible to completely eliminate background noise as extraneous material

96
Q

What does a post mortem show and how?

A

Involves an analysis of a persons brain following their death, areas of damage within the brain are examined after death as a means of establishing the likely cause of affliction the person suffered.

97
Q

Strengths of a post mortem

A

Evidence is vital in providing a foundation for early understanding of key processes in the brain

Studies improve medical knowledge and help generate hypotheses for further study.

98
Q

Weakness of post mortems

A

Causation is an issue, observed damage in the brain may not be linked to the deficits under review but to some other unrelated trauma or decay.

They raise ethical issues of consent from the patient before death.

Psychology Paper 2 (5 decks)

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