Biopsychology Flashcards
What is the localisation of functions in the brain?
The theory that specific areas of the brain are associated with particular physical and psychological functions.
What are the 2 hemispheres in the brain?
The left and the right
(Each side being responsible for specific functions)
What is hemispheric lateralisation?
The dominance of one hemisphere of the brain for particular physical and psychological functions.
Where is language areas found?
It is present in the left side of the brain.
What is Broca’s area responsible for?
Converting thought to speech
What is Wernicke’s area responsible for?
Responsible for the understanding of language
What would occur if either Broca’s or Wernicke’s areas we damaged?
This would lead aphasia - inability to understand or produce speech.
What is the central core?
- Controls primitive, innate, involuntary behaviours - e.g. breathing, sleeping or sneezing.
- A.K.A brain stem - including structures, such as ‘Thalamus’.
- Also regulates eating and drinking, as well as regulating the endocrine system in order to maintain homeostasis.
What is the limbic system?
- Controls our emotions
- Around the central core of the brain, interconnected with thalamus, it contains structures such as hippocampus, key role in memory.
What is the cerebrum?
- Regulates our higher intellectual processes.
- It has an outermost layer called the ‘cerebral cortex’ - appears grey because of the location of cell bodies.
- Each of our sensory systems sends messages to and from the cerebral cortex.
- The cerebrum is made up of the left and right hemisphere which are connected by a bundle of fibres called the corpus callosum.
What is the corpus callosum?
A flat bundle of commissural fibres which connect the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere.
Where is Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area found?
The left hemisphere
What is the left hemisphere responsible for?
Language, logic, analysis and problem solving
What is the right hemisphere responsible for?
Spatial comprehension, emotions and face recognition.
What does the motor cortex do?
Control voluntary movement
What does the auditory cortex do?
Process information from our ears
What does the visual cortex do?
Process information from our eyes
What does the somatosensory cortex do?
- Processes information about touch, pain, temperature and proprioception (position of the body)
What is the frontal lobe?
The location for awareness of what we are doing within our environment and our consciousness.
What is the temporal lobe?
Location for the auditory ability and memory acquisition
- Auditory is responsible for speech-based information.
What is the parietal lobe?
Location for sensory and motor movements:
Motor - responsible for controlling voluntary movements (left hand side controlled by right hemisphere and vice versa)
Somatosensory - responds to heat, cold, touch, pain and our sense of body movements
What is the occipital lobe?
Location for visual processing
What are the 4 lobes each hemispheres divides into?
- Temporal lobe
- Occipital lobe
- Parietal lobe
- Frontal lobe
What is the procedure of severing the corpus callosum called?
Commissurotomy
What would happen directly after the corpus callosum were severed?
The hemispheres would not be able to communicate
What would happen long-term after a commissurotomy?
- Neuro-plasticity would lead to axons between hemispheres re-sprouting.
- Thos would lead to a gradual increase in communication between the 2 separate hemispheres.
What would happen if you had Broca’s aphasia?
Speech would be slow, laborious and lack fluency.
What would happen if you had Wernicke’s aphasia?
You would struggle with understanding language, meaning you would be able to speak fluently, but your words would be meaningless and nonsensical.
What was Sperry’s (1968) research?
Split-brain research
- 11 individuals who had undergone commissurotomies (severing of the corpus callosum) in order to treat their severe epilepsy were asked to perform tasks.
- These tasks aimed to research whether the two separate hemispheres of the brain could communicate after their commissurotomy.
What was the results of Sperry’s research?
- Information shown to only one hemisphere was only able to be recalled if shown to the same hemisphere again.
What were the conclusions of Sperry’s research?
There is some lateralisation of function between the hemispheres.
What are positive evaluations for Sperry’s research?
• High levels of control
• Clearly demonstrated the lateralisation of function between the left and right
hemisphere;
• Although it was a small sample, it was probably representative of the people who
have had this operation;
What are negative evaluations for Sperry’s research?
• The tasks are low in ecological validity- the problems participants faced in the task would probably not be a problem in real life;
• It may not be possible to compare the brains of severe epileptics who have undergone brain surgery to the brains of ‘normal’ people;
• There were only 11 participants which is a small sample to generalise from.
What are the 4 ways of studying the brain?
- fMRI
- EEG
- ERP
- Post-mortem examinations
Define temporal resolution
The amount of time needed to revisit and acquire data from the exact same location.
What does fMRI stand for?
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
What can fMRIs show?
- 3D scan providing structural and functional information.
- Shows changes in brain activity using a strong magnetic field and radio waves.
How do fMRIs show brain activity?
- More oxygenated blood flows to active areas of the brain.
- Molecules in oxygenated blood (iron) responds differently to a magnetic field than those in deoxygenated blood.
- More active areas of the brain can be identified.
What is a haemodynamic response?
Where there are high levels of electrical activity - neural activity requires a rapid delivery of oxygenated blood.
What are positive evaluations of fMRIs?
- fMRI provides a high resolution moving picture of Brain activity. This means that patterns of activity can be compared rather than just the physiology of the brain.
- Non-invasive/virtually risk free
- Doesn’t rely on radiation
What are negative evaluations of fMRIs?
- Poor temporal resolution (5 second time-lag behind the image on the screen and the initial firing of neuronal activity.
- Expensive and can only capture a clear image if the person stays still.
- Can only measure blood flow in the brain - it cannot hone in on activity of individual neurones.
What does EEG stand for?
Electro-encephalo-gram
When can EEGs be used?
- Sleep studies
- Studies on depression and schizophrenia
- Able to identify patients suffering from anorexia nervousa.
- Can potentially be a diagnostic tool.
What was Boutros (2008) research into EEGs?
Meta-analysis that showed patients suffering from schizophrenia displayed abnormal EEG wave patterns compared to controls.
What are positive evaluations of EEGs.
- Massively useful to diagnose conditions such as epilepsy.
- Contributed to research into ultradian rhythms of sleep.
- Extremely high temporal resolution - can accurately detect brain activity at a resolution of a single millisecond.
What are negative evaluations of EEGs?
- The main drawback is that the EEG lies in the generalised nature of the information received (thousands of neurones).
- Not useful for pinpointing the exact source of neural activity and does not allow researchers to distinguish between activities originating in different but adjacent locations.
What does ERP stand for?
Event-related potentials
What do ERPs do?
- ERPs record activity in response to a stimulus introduced by the researcher. This data can be compared to the individuals previously taken EEG to identify differences between the two graphs.
- All extraneous brain activity from original EEG recording is filtered out leaving only those responses that relate to the specific stimuli.
Where are ERPs used?
- Memory research
What research did Miltner do in relation or ERPs?
- Found that people with phobias had an ERP of a greater amplitude in response to images of the object they feared.
What are positive evaluations of ERPs?
- Much more specificity to the measure of neural processes than raw EEG data.
- Excellent temporal resolution.
- Researchers have been able to identify different types of ERP and describe their role of these in cognitive functioning - P300 component is thought to be involved in the allocation of attention resources and the maintenance of the working memory.
What are negative evaluations of ERPs?
- Lack of standardisation in ERP methodology between different research studies which makes it difficult to confirm findings.
- To ensure pure data, background noise and extraneous material must be completely eliminated.
What is a post-mortem examination?
Analysis of the brain after death.
What are positive evaluations of post-mortems?
- Vital in providing an early understanding in key processes in the brain - e.g. Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas used in post-mortem studies.
- Improves medical knowledge and helps generate hypotheses for further study.
What are negative evaluations of post-mortems?
- Causation is difficult, as observed damaged may not be linked to deficits under review but some other trauma or decay.
- Ethical issues - patients may not be to give consent. For example, the case of HM, who lost his ability to for, empires and was not able to provide consent, however post-mortem research has been conducted on his brain.
What is a biological rhythm?
A change in the body processes or behaviour in response to cyclical changes within the environment.
What is the suprachiasmatic nucleus?
The SCN is a bilateral structure that is composed of a group of approx. 20,000 neurones and uses direct input from the eyes to act as a central pacemaker and regulates most of the circadian rhythms in the body. It can be found in the anterior part of the hypothalamus.
What are photosensitive cells?
Cells that contribute to the regulation of pupil size and other behavioural responses to ambient lighting conditions.
What are two processes that aid our body clock?
- Endogenous pacemakers
- Exogenous Zeitgebers (EZ)
What are endogenous pacemakers? - give an example
The body’s INTERNAL body clocks that regulate biological rhythms e.g. suprachiasmatic nucleus - detects light even when the eyes are closed.
What are exogenous zeitgebers? - give an example
External factors in the environment which reset our biological clocks - e.g. light, social cues.
What are Circardian rhythms?
- A type of biological rhythm, subject to a 24-hour cycle, which regulates a number of body processes.
Define ‘Infradian’
- Less than once a day - menstrual cycle
Define ‘Ultradian’
- More than once in 24 hours - sleep cycle (which is 90 mins in length)
What are 2 examples of circadian rhythms?
- Sleep/Wake cycle
- Core body temperature
Describe the sleep/wake cycle
- Feeling drowsy at night time and alert during the day demonstrates the effect of daylight.
- Not affected by constant darkness, but confused by constant lightness.
Describe the core body temperature cycle
- Our body temperature varies by about 2 degrees during the day.
(Lowest approx. 4am)
(Highest approx. 6pm)
- The warmer we are, the better we perform - Folkard (1977) and Gutpa (1991).
Describe Michael Siffre’s Cave study
- Lived in cave for 6 moths.
- Settled in a sleep/wake cycle for 25hours.
- Supports the assumption that the endogenous pacemakers exert an influence on circadian rhythms.
Describe the relation between melatonin and breast milk.
Melatonin can be secreted through breast milk, but it varies throughout the day to help the baby to know when to sleep or be awake.
- Babies who are formula fed find it harder to regulate their sleep.
How can Circadian rhythms affect body function and health? (What influence can it have)
Circadian rhythms can influence:
- Hormone release
- Eating habits and digestion
- Body temperature
How does the SCN (Suprachiasmatic nucleus) influence sleep?
The SCN controls the production of the hormone ‘melatonin’. When produced in high levels, it can lead to a person feeling drowsy, and when in low levels, can encourage a person to feel awake.
Describe The Nervous System
Human nervous system
I I
PNS CNS
I I I I
somatic autonomic spinal cord brain
nervous nervous
system system
I I
Sympathetic Parasympathetic
What is the function of the PNS (Peripheral Nervous System) in the nervous system?
Transport information from the CNS to the rest of the body, via millions of neurons nerve cells).
- This can take place via two systems:
• Somatic Nervous System (SNS)
• Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
What is the CNS made up of?
- Brain
- Spinal Cord
What is the function of the brain in the nervous system?
- Ensure life is maintained
- Involved in problem-solving & vital processing
What is the function of the spinal cord in the nervous system?
- Facilitates the transfer of messages to and from the Brain and the PNS.
- Involved in reflex actions.
What is the role of the Somatic Nervous System (SNS)?
- Controls conscious activity e.g. running
- Carries sensory and motor information
- Connects the CNS with the senses.
What is the Somatic Nervous System (SNS) made up of?
- 12 pairs of cranial nerves from the brain
- 31 pairs of spinal nerves from the spinal cord
What is the function of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)?
- Controls unconscious activities e.g. digestion
- Divided in sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
What is the role of the sympathetic nervous system?
- Gets body ready for action
- “FIGHT OR FLIGHT”
What is the role of the parasympathetic nervous system?
- Calms the body down
- “REST AND DIGEST”
What type of information is the Somatic Nervous?
Sensory and motor information
What is lateralisation vs localisation?
Localisation - certain areas in the brain are responsible for certain functions
Lateralisation - one side of the brain is more dominant than the other
What are the type of responses that the Autonomic Nervous System governs?
- Breathing rate
- Heart rate
- Digestion
- Stress responses
What are some physiological changes that would occur during a parasympathetic response?
- Constrict pupils
- Stimulate saliva
- Slow heartbeat
- Constrict airways
- Stimulate activity of stomach
- Stimulate gallbladder
- Stimulate activity of intestines
- Contract bladder
What are some physiological changes that would occur during a sympathetic response?
- Dilate pupils
- Inhibit salivation
- Increase heartbeat
- Relax airways
- Inhibit activity of stomach
- Inhibit gladder
- Inhibit activity of intestines
- Secrete epinephrine & norepinephrine
- Relax Bladder.
What are the different parts of the endocrine system?
- Pineal gland
- Pituitary gland
- Hypothalamus
- Thyroid gland
- Adrenal glands
- Kidneys
- Pancreas
- Testes
- Ovaries
What is the function of the pineal gland in the endocrine system?
Produces and secretes the hormones melatonin which regulates biological rhythms such as sleep and wake cycles.
What is the function of the pituitary gland in the endocrine system?
Pituitary gland is called the master gland as it controls the release of hormones from all other endocrine glands in the body.
What is the function of the adrenal glands in the endocrine system?
These release adrenaline directly into the bloodstream, which prepares the body for fight or flight by constricting blood vessels to the stomach. This inhibits digestion and increases your heart rate.
What is the function of the kidneys in the endocrine system?
Filtration of water and urea
What is the function of the testes in the endocrine system?
This facilitates the release of the male hormones - testosterone.
What is the role of the thyroid gland in the endocrine system?
Produce hormones that regulate the body’s metabolic rate, as well as heart and digestive function, muscle control, brain development and mood.
What is the role of the pancreas in the endocrine system?
Controlling of blood sugar levels
What is the role of the ovaries in the endocrine system?
This facilitates the release of female hormones - oestrogen and progesterone.
What is the endocrine system?
- One of the body’s major information system that instructs glands to release hormones directly into the bloodstream.
What are hormones?
Chemical substances that circulate in the bloodstream, their effect on behaviour can be very powerful.
Which cells do hormones affect?
Hormones affect target cells that have receptors for specific hormones
Where is the pituitary gland?
In the brain
What controls the pituitary gland?
Hypothalamus
What is the pituitary gland also known as?
Master gland
What are the two parts of the pituitary gland?
- Anterior lobe
- Posterior lobe
Which part of the pituitary gland releases ACTH as a response to stress?
Anterior pituitary releases ACTH in response to stress.
ACTH stimulates which glands to produce what hormone?
ACTH stimulates the adrenal glands to stimulate cortisol.
What does the posterior pituitary gland release that is important in childbirth?
Oxytocin (love hormone)
Where are the adrenal glands?
- Top of the kidneys
What is the outer part of the adrenal gland called?
Adrenal cortex
What is the inner part of the adrenal gland called?
Adrenal medulla
What hormone does the adrenal cortex produce and what is the hormone’s purpose?
Cortisol is produced in response to stress (chronic). It increases a person’s ability to deal with stress by increasing immune function. Too much can have a detrimental effect; memory impairment, poor cognition performance, lower immune functioning.
What does a low level of cortisol lead to?
Low blood pressure, poor immune function, inability to deal with stress.
What two hormones does the adrenal medulla produce and what does each one do in a stressful situation?
Adrenaline - leads to increased heart rate and blood flow, giving the body a boost of energy by converting glycogen to glucose.
What do ovaries produce?
Eggs
What hormone is produced by the testes?
Testosterone
What does the hormone testosterone do?
Causes male characteristics such as growth facial hair.
