biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

the nervous system

A

central nervous system

peripheral nervous system

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2
Q

central nervous system

A

brain - cerebral cortex is outer layer, highly developed in humans

spinal cord - connects brain to PLS, reflect actions

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3
Q

pheripheral nervous system

A

autonomic nervous system - sympathetic and parasympathetic

somatic nervous system

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4
Q

the endocrine system

A

glands and hormones

fight or flight

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5
Q

glands and hormones

A

hormones distributed in the blood steam

pituitary is the master gland

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6
Q

fight or flight

A

sympathetic arousal

pituitary -> adrenal gland -> adrenaline

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7
Q

localisation versus holistic theory

A

are brain functions in specific areas or across the whole brain

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8
Q

hemispheres of the brain

A

brain (cerebrum) divided in half

each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body - lateralisation

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9
Q

motor, somatosensory, visual and auditory centres

A

each of the four lobes of the brain (frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes) is linked to different functions

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10
Q

language centres of the brain

A

broca’s related to production (left frontal)

wernicke’s related to understanding (left temporal)

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11
Q

evidence from neurosurgery

A

isolation - severing connections of cingulate gyrus - improves OCD in 30% of participants

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12
Q

evidence from brain scans

A

broca’s and wernicke’s area identified - petersen et al
semantic and episodic areas identified - buckner and peterson

counterpoint - learning in rats is holistic not localised - lashley

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13
Q

language localisation questioned

A

multiple pathways eg RH and thalamus not just broca’s and wernicke’s dick and tremblay

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14
Q

case study of localisation

A

unique case studies support localisation eg phineas gage but lack generalisability

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15
Q

localisation and lateralisation

A

some functions localised eg vision or localised and lateralised eg language

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16
Q

left and right hemispheres

A

language areas in LH
LH is analyser
RH is synethesiser

motor areas are contralateral

visual areas are contralateral and ipsilateral
LVF of both eyes to RH and RVF to LH

same for auditory areas

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17
Q

lateralisation in the connected brain

A

global elements processed by RH and finer detail by LH - fink et al

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18
Q

one brain

A

certain hemispheres dedicated to certain tasks but no dominant RH or LH - nielsen at al

19
Q

lateralisation versus plasticity

A

lateralisation enables multitasking but plasticity allows recovery of lost lateralised functions

20
Q

split brain research

A

eleven participants, split-brain operation for epilepsy

object shown to RVF - person describes object - shown to LVF - nothing there

object shown to LVF - cannot name but can select item with left hand

pinup picture to LVF - giggles but reports nothing

lateralised brain, LH verbal and RH silent but emotional

21
Q

research support brain research

A

split-brain participants faster at some LH tasks - luck et al

normally slowed down by inferior RH

22
Q

generalisation issues split brain

A

epilepsy is a confounding variable when comparing participants to normal controls

23
Q

ethics for split brain

A

operation not done for the study and participants gave informed consent

but may not have fully understood and participation was stressful

24
Q

types of neurons

A

sensory, relay and motor neurons

25
Q

structure of neuron

A

cell body contains nucleus - has dendrites

axon covered in myelin sheath divided by nodes of ranvier

26
Q

electrical transmission

A

positive charge leads to action potential

27
Q

synapse

A

terminal buttons at synapse, presynaptic vesicles release neurotransmitter

28
Q

neurotransmitters

A

postsynaptic receptor site receives neurotransmitters from dendrites of adjoining neuron

specialist functions e.g. acetylcholine for muscle contraction

29
Q

excitation, inhibition and summation

A

adrenaline is excitatory, serotonin is inhibitory

postsynaptic neuron triggered if sum of excitatory and inhibitory signals reaches threshold

30
Q

psychotherapeutic drugs

A

SSRIs increase serotonin activity

31
Q

fMRi

A

detects changed in blood flow to show active areas

risk free, non-invasive and high spatial resolution

expensive, poor temporal resolution

32
Q

EEG

A

measures brainwave patterns from thousands of neurons via electrods

real world uses - sleep stages, epilepsy, high temporal resolution

comes from 1000s of neurons, can’t identify source

33
Q

ERP

A

types of brainwave triggered by particular events filtered out from EEG recordings

more specific than EEG - higher temporal resolution than fMRI

no standardised method, background noise not easy to control

34
Q

post-mortems

A

study of brain after death, in order to link brain areas to observed behaviour deficits

early research eg broca

causation an issue, consent issues eg HM

35
Q

brain plasticity

A

research suggests that neural connections can change or new connections can be formed

36
Q

research into plasticity

A

hippocampus in taxi divers changed structure after leaning

the knowledge - maguire et al

changes in hippocampus and the parietal cortex before and after exams - draganski et al

37
Q

negative plsticity

A

drug use may cause neural changes - medina et al

phantom limb syndrome due to reorganisation in somatosensory cortex - ramachandran and hirstein

38
Q

age and plasticity

A

plasticity reduces with age, though Bezzola et al showed how golf training caused neural changes in over-40s

39
Q

seasonal brain changes

A

songbirds’ SCN shrinks in spring and expends in autumn
- tramontin and brenowitz

40
Q

after brain trauma

A

healthy brain areas take over lost functions after trauma, happens quickly

41
Q

what happens in the brain during recovery

A

new synaptic connections, secondary pathways - unmasked

  • axonal sprouting
  • denervation supersensitivity
  • recruitment of homologous brain areas
42
Q

real world application of functional recovery

A

knowledge of axonal growth leads to eg constraint induced movement therapy

43
Q

cognitive reserve

A

40% recovery for people with 16 years’ education, 10% for those with less than 12 - schneider et al

44
Q

functional recovery - small sample

A

100% recovery from stroke using stem cells - banerjee - but small sample of 5 people