Biopsychology Flashcards
LoF - What is it?
Localisation of function suggests specific brain areas control specific functions
LoF - What opposes it?
Lashley theory of holism; higher order thinking requires multiple parts of the brain.
LoF - What observable evidence do we have?
Neurological Evidence such as Tulving’s brain scans for memory stores.
LoF - What case evidence do we have?
Phineas Gage - severed frontal lobe; different personality suggests frontal lobe responsible for personality/consciousness.
LoF - What methodological refute can we think of?
Lab settings for brain scan studies; weak ecological validity; brain may act differenly in natural environments.
LoF - What case study refute do we have?
Phineas Case Study - hard to generalise case study to entire populations.
HL - What is it?
The dominance of one hemisphere for certain functions.
HL - example?
Language prod/understanding left hemisphere function only.
HL - Contralateral flow?
Hemispheres controlling the function of opposite sides of the body, e,g, left hemisphere controlling right arm.
HL - Famous contralateral opportunist?
Sperry with the split-brain studies. (1968)
HL - Describe split-brain studies: Who, How, What - use example of keyring.
11 epileptic patients who had their corpus callosum split.
Measured contralateral functioning using tachistoscope.
Hands hidden under screen, computer in front of them; stared at red cross in centre of screen.
Word such as ‘Key Ring’ displayed on screen. Joined brain would say they saw ‘keyring’.
Left controls speech: right eye contralaterally controlled by left hemisphere, so they could say ‘Ring’ and draw a ‘Key’ but not put the two together.
Evidence of contralateral functioning.
HL - What’s great about Sperry’s study?
Supporting evidence!
Lab high internal validity!
HL - What’s not so great about Sperry’s study?
Low population validity - 11 patients who all had Epilepsy, which could’ve affected their performance..
Lab - high control - low ecological validity.
PLAS & FR - What are they, how do they link?
Plasticity - the brain’s ability to bridge/prune synapses to adapt to functions carried out by individual.
Functional Recovery - ability of other areas in the brain to take over functions of damaged area through synaptic bridging.
PLAS & FR - Shit tonne of supporting studies, give 2.
Taijiri et al (2013):
Rats w/ lesions affecting their neural performance.
Addition of stem cell neurons allowed functional recovery - bridging between lesioned area and working area.
Maguire et al (2007):
Field exp. on London taxi drivers.
Significantly larger hippocampus than control.
Same routes travelled repeatedly longitudinally, bridging formed.
Hippocampus responsible for spatial awareness.
PLAS & FR - What refutes Taijiri’s study though?
Ethology - to what extent can we extrapolate animal studies to humans?
PLAS & FR - What other refutes can we think of?
Well, Hirstein found theoreticised negative plasticity:
Phantom Limb Syndrome in 60-80% amputees…
PLAS & FR is great at a young age but..
Declines with age.
BRAIN - What are the 3 concentric systems?
Cerebral cortex - higher order functioning
Limbic system - emotional intelligence
Central core - unconscious activity/primal drive
BRAIN - 4 Lobes and their functions?
Frontal - Conscious personality/motor cortex
Parietal - Somatosensory cortex
Occipital - Visual cortex
Temporal - Auditory cortex
BRAIN - Broca/Wernicke’s Area
BrOca’s area - Speech PrOduction
WErnickE’s area - Speech ComprEhEnsion.
BRAIN - Broca/Wernicke’s evidence?
Peterson et al Brain Scan’s:
Reading/Listening tasks:
Broca - production/reading highlights
Wernicke - understanding/listening highlights
BRAIN/LoF - Support for Peterson’s study?
Methodology on point
BRAIN/LoF - Refute for Peterson’s study?
Eco validity weak
NervousSys. - Break it down
Electrical Impulses CNS - brain and spinal cord PNS - eveything else e.g. motor/sensory neurons PNS -- SNS & ANS: SNS - Voluntary responses ANS - Involuntary response ANS -- Symp/Parasymp Symp - Fight/Flight Excitation Parasymp - Rest/Digest Inhibit.
NVS - 3 Nerve cell types an what it do.
Sensory/Motor/Relay
Sensory - senses stimuli
Relay - part of CNS, relays transmission to motor (used in reflex arcs)
Motor - Outputs signal to effector gland/muscle.
NVS - What does the relay neuron not have?
Myelin Sheath - v.short for impulse to travel so does not need to be insulated.
NVS - Synaptic Transmission: What is transmitted
Neurotransmitter chemicals
NVS - Synaptic Transmission:
Where does transmission occur
Between the pre & postsynaptic membrane: the synaptic cleft.
NVS - Synaptic Transmission:
How does it occur?
NTM Vesicles released upon receiving an action potential; fuse with the membrane and released into the cleft.
NVS - Synaptic Transmission:
What is summation and how is this relevant?
Summation occurs on the postsynaptic membrane when the ntm’s enter the receptors. - Excitatory and inhibitory ntm’s released by presynaptic.
- A summation is calculated to determine whether an action potential is sent along the
nerve.
- Excitatory e.g. noradrenaline
- inhibitory e.g. serotonin
ENDO - What it do
Hormones secreted by glands travel via bloodstream - have long-lasting effects on body.
ENDO - What controls it all; explain how it controls the adrenal gland.
Pituitary ‘master’ gland.
Releases hormones such as adrenocorticotrophic hormone, which zips to destinations (ACTH would go to the adrenal glands to stimulate release of adrenaline or cortisol).
Give some gland names, hormones released,
functions of hormones.
Adrenal Glands :
- Adrenal Medulla: release adrenaline - fight/flight.
- Adrenal Cortex: release cortisol - stress hormone/glucose release.
Testes/Ovaries: Sex organs release:
- Testosterone - aggression, sexual hormone.
- Oestrogen - fertility hormone.
Pineal Gland:
- Melatonin release: sleeeep.
BRAINSTUDY: What are the 4 ways of studying the brain we needa be familiar with?
- ERP’s
- EEG’s
- fMRI’s
- Post-Mortems
BRAINSTUDY: Explain EEG’s
Electroencephalograms: Measure neural activity of brain with electrodes attached to brain.
Stimulus given to patient and neural activity recorded.
Very fast recording ability.
Activity amplified and output: called an Evoke Potential.
+ great temporal resolution
+ real time imagery (PET not)
+ diagnosis of things such as sleep stages successful.
- Hard to pinpoint precisely due to all the neural activity going on.
BRAINSTUDY: Explain ERP’s
Evoke Related Potentials:
Same as EEG’s but uses repeated stimuli to calculate a mean; able to cut out any extraneous neural activity.
\+Temporal res. on point. \+ Real Time Imagery \+ Precise due to repetition. - Not easy to remove extra activity. - Time consuming to pick out extraneous from valuable..
BRAINSTUDY: Explain fMRI’s
fMRI’s measure oxygen level of areas of the brain; the more O2 used in a location means the more neural activity going on.
Provides 3D imagery.
+ Deeper understanding of localisation due to 3D imagery.
- Not so precise because measuring O2 levels in blood AROUND the neural areas.
+ Non-invasive; no harmful radiations.
BRAINSTUDY: Post-Mortem explanation..
Post-Mortem: conducted on brains of the deceased.
Brain cut up into slices to observe structure more thoroughly.
Structural abnormalities observed; can compare to neurotypical brain.
+ Used to understand disorders such as SZ: dopamine related structural abnormalities.
+ Tan’s brain (Evidence) used to theorise Broca’s area (area for speech production)
- consent… (HM did not give consent..)
- EV’s such as age, treatment, post-m delay.
