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A-Level Psychology AQA > Biopsychology > Flashcards

Biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

nervous system

A

based on electrical signals

specialised network of cells responsible for:

  • collecting, processing and responding to information in environment
  • co-ordinating different organs and cells to work

divided into:

  • central nervous system (cns)
  • peripheral nervous system (pns)
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2
Q

central nervous system

A

made up of brain and spinal cord

  • brain is centre of all conscience awareness and is divided into two hemispheres
  • cerebral cortex is 3mm thick and only found in mammals
  • spinal cord is extension of brain that passes messages to and from brain
  • connects nerves to pns
  • responsible for reflex actions such as moving hand from hot plate.
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3
Q

peripheral nervous system

A

transmits messages via neurons to and from cns

divided into:

  • autonomic nervous system(ans)
  • somatic nervous system(sns)
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4
Q

endocrine system

A

major information system that instructs glands to release hormones into bloodstream

  • communicates via chemicals
  • acts slower but with more widespread and powerful effects
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5
Q

autonomic nervous system

A

governs vital functions such as breathing, heart rate, digestion, sexual arousal and stress responses

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6
Q

somatic nervous system

A

governs muscle movement and receives info from sensory receptors

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7
Q

pituitary gland

A

master gland that controls the release of hormones from other glands in body

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8
Q

hypothalamus gland

A

-connected to pituitary gland so is responsible for stimulating release of hormones from it

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9
Q

thyroid gland

A

produces thyroxine

  • affects cells in heart and increases heart rate
  • aids digestion
  • increases metabolic rates
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10
Q

adrenal gland

A

produces adrenaline

-triggers physiological changes in the body to prepare for fight or flight

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11
Q

ovaries

A

produces oestrogen and progesterone

-used in menstrual cycle to prepare uterus for pregnancy

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12
Q

testes

A

produce testosterone

  • primary male sex hormone
  • produce sperm
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13
Q

fight or flight

A

endocrine system and ans work together when stressor perceived

  • hypothalamus activates pituitary gland which triggers sympathetic system
  • adrenal gland triggered to produce adrenaline
  • ans changes from resting parasympathetic state to aroused sympathetic state

immediate and automatic response to stimulus

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14
Q

adrenaline

A
  • released into bloodstream from adrenal medulla
  • triggers physiological changes such as increased hr, redirects blood flow to vital organs (inhibits saliva and digestion)
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15
Q

parasympathetic response

A

rest and digest response

works as antagonist to sympathetic by acting as a brake

-hr decreased
-breathing rate decreased
-constricts pupils
-stimulates digestion
stimulates saliva production
-relaxes rectum

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16
Q

sympathetic response

A

fight or flight

  • hr increases
  • breathing rate decreases
  • dilates pupils
  • inhibits digestion
  • inhibits saliva production
  • contracts rectum
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17
Q

neuron

A

signal sent makes cell positively charged when going through it. called action potential as going down

  • dendrites (tree branches) that receive signal at one end
  • cell body containing nucleus
  • axon (long string) covered in myelin sheath which speeds up signal
  • axon terminals at end to pass on signal
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18
Q

motor neuron

A

transmits messages from cns towards muscles and organs

long axons
short dendrites
looks like wheel

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19
Q

relay neuron

A

connect neurons together

short dendrites
short axons
looks like relay race with stuff either end

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20
Q

sensory neuron

A

carry messages to cns from senses processed by pns

long dendrites
short axons
sensitive octopus shape

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21
Q

neuron location

A
  • motor neurons may be stretched across both cns and pns
  • sensory neurons located in pns in ganglia clusters
  • relay neurons make up 97% of all neurons
22
Q

synaptic transmission

A

communicate in neural networks

each neuron separated by tiny gap called synapse, signals across these transmitted chemically

when impulse reaches end of neuron (pre synaptic terminal) it triggers release of neurotransmitters from tiny sacs (synaptic vesicles) its then taken up by postsynaptic receptor sites

23
Q

neurotransmitter

A

brain chemicals released from synaptic vesicles that relay signals across synapses

each neurotransmitter has a specific molecular shape that fits into a specific post synaptic receptor site

either perform:

  • excitatory function
  • inhibitory function
24
Q

excitation

A

neurotransmitter that increases positive charge, making it more likely to fire (dopamine)

25
Q

inhibition

A

neurotransmitter that increases negative charge, making it less likely to fire (serotonin)

26
Q

summation

A

the addition of positive and negative post-synaptic potentials
potentials are summed and if the net effect on the postsynaptic neuron is inhibitory, the neuron will be less likely to fire, if the net effect is excitatory, the neuron will be more likely to fire.

27
Q

localisation of function

A

different parts of the brain are responsible for specific behaviours, processes or activities

28
Q

brain hemispheres

A

cerebrum of brain divided into two hemispheres

some physical and psychological functions are controlled by one specific side - lateralisation

right hemisphere controls right side of body and left hemisphere controls left side of body-linked to language too

29
Q

motor area

A

located in frontal lobe

controls voluntary movement on opposite side of body

30
Q

somatosensory area

A

located in parietal lobe

sensory information from skin is recognised

amount of somatosensory area devoted to area equates to sensitivity of area

31
Q

visual area

A

located in occipital lobe

eyes send info from one sides visual field to opposite visual cortex

32
Q

auditory area

A

located in temporal lobe

analyses speech-based information

33
Q

broca’s area

A

responsible for speech production

1880’s paul broca identified area, located in temporal lobe

damage cases brocas aphasia which is slow + nonfluent
gcse language speaking

34
Q

wernickes’s area

A

responsible for language comprehension

1880’s karl wernicke found area in temporal lobe

wernickes aphasia causes difficulty understanding language or meaningful sentences
foreign language

35
Q

dougherty et al (2002)

A
  • reported on 44 people with ocd that had a cingulotomy
  • 30% has successful response
  • 14% had partial response

neurosurgery sometimes used to treat mental disorders- targeting specific areas of brain

success shows some mental disorders are localised

36
Q

petersen et al (1988)

A

used brain scans to show wernicke’s area active during listening tasks and broca’s during reading task

brain scans are objective methods of measuring brain activity that provide scientific evidence

37
Q

buckner and petersen (1996)

A

long term memory study that revealed semantic and episodic memories are in different parts of the prefrontal cortex

localised areas for everyday behaviours

38
Q

karl lashley (1950)

A

removed 10-50% of cortex in rats learning maze route

  • no area proven to be any more important for rat to learn the route
  • learning needed all part of cortex for optimum

higher cognitive processes like learning aren’t localised but more holistic

39
Q

dick and tremblay (2016)

A

found only 2% of researchers now believed language is only controlled by brocas and wernickes area

development of fmri means neural processes can be studies more clearly to show more holism
some language streams identified in right hemisphere such as thalamus

40
Q

phineas gage (ao3)

A

case study of man with metal pole through left side of his head, taking out most of frontal lobe

changed his personality from calm and reserved to quick tempered and rude

41
Q

hemispheric lateralisation

A

two sides of brain called hemispheres

certain processes lateralised to one side
left side is analyser - language
right side is synthesiser - emotional context to words

42
Q

contralateral wiring

A

cross wiring of the brain

left hemisphere controls right side of body
right hemisphere controls left side of body

43
Q

split brain research

A

operation severing connection between LH and RH (corpus callosum)

used to reduce epilepsy as during epileptic fit excessive electrical activity sent between hemispheres

44
Q

sperry (1968)

A

11 people who had split brain surgery

see how split brain reacted without communication across hemispheres

  • image projected to rvf (processed by lh)
  • image projected to lvf (processed by rh)when object shown to rvf (lh) they could describe object
    on lvf (rh) couldn’t describe anything as no link to language centre
    lvf could match object out of sight using left hand and could produce emotional reaction

lh is verbal and rh is ‘silent’ but emotional

45
Q

fink et al (1996)

A

hemispheres process info differently

pet scans to identify which areas where active in visual processing task

  • when looking at whole picture rh more active
  • when looking at finer detail lh more active

in visual processing - hemispheric lateralisation

46
Q

lateralisation vs plasticity (ao3)

A

lateralisation is adaptive as it allows two tasks to be performed at once with greater efficiency
-rogers et al (2004) lateralised chickens could find food and watch for predators

plasticity could also be seen as adaptive because after damage some functions taken over by non specialist areas on opposite hemisphere

47
Q

luck et al (1989)

A

split brain perform better than connected on some tasks
-faster at identifying odd one out
in normal brain lh’s better cognitions are watered down by rh

48
Q

generalisation (ao3)

A

sperrys control group were neuro-typical and none had epilepsy

confounding variable as any differences could have been due to epilepsy rather than split brain

hard to generalise to the general population

49
Q

lateralisation changes with age (ao3)

A
  • appears not to stay exactly the same throughout lifetime, but changes with age
  • across types of tasks and brain areas, lateralised patterns found in younger individuals tend to switch to bilateral patterns in healthy older adults.

szaflarski et al (2006) found that language became
more lateralised to the left hemisphere with increasing age in children and adolescents, but after 25, lateralisation decreased

this implies that a lateralised brain is in fact only a feature of young adults and not true for everyone.

50
Q

brain plasticity

A

brain changing and adapting as a result of new experiences and learning

during infancy brain has around 15,000 synaptic connection’s aged 2-3 - double of adult brain

51
Q

synaptic pruning

A

rarely-used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened

52
Q

maguire et al (2000)

A

studied brains of london taxi driver finding significantly more grey matter in hippocampus compared to control
-part of brain associated with navigation + spatial skills

maguire found the learning for the knowledge alters the structure of their brain - the long they had been doing it the larger their hippocampus got (positive correlation)

A-Level Psychology AQA (3 decks)

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