Biopsychology

Question 1

Outline the role of the central nervous system
(4 marks)

Answer 1

• The brain receives and processes information from the senses eg; visual cortex processes visual info, responsible for higher mental functions such as hearing
• The spinal chord sends messages to and from the brain, controls reflex actions eg; removing a hand when it touches a hot plate

Question 2

Identify the two components of the peripheral nervous system and explain two differences in their organisation and/or functions
(4 marks)

Answer 2

• ANS responsible for involuntary responses for vital functions eg breathing WHEREAS SNS responsible for voluntary movements eg: walking
• ANS controls smooth and cardiac muscles and glands WHEREAS SNS transmits info from the brain to control skeletal muscles
• ANS control centres in brain stem WHEREAS SNS carries commands from motor cortex

Question 3

what’s the location, function and structure of the sensory neuron

Answer 3

L - The PNS in clusters known as the ganglia

F - send info from senses (PNS) to the brain (CNS)
- receptors found in the eyes, ears ,tongue,skin

S - long dendrites, short axons cell, body in middle

Question 4

what’s the location, function and structure of the relay neuron ?

Answer 4

L - in brain and visual system

F - carry nerve impulses between neurons allowing sensory and motor to communicate

S - short dendrites , short axons no myelin sheath

Question 5

what’s the location, function and strucure of the motor neuron ?

Answer 5

L - cell body found in the brain (CNS) but the axons are found in the PNS

F - send info via long axons from brain/spinal cord (cns) to effectors such as muscles or glands

S -short dendrites, long axons

Question 6

what is the terminal button ( pre synaptic membrane) ?

Answer 6

• the end of neuron they send info through to the next neuron, through release of neurotransmitters

Question 7

what’s the myelin sheath for?

Answer 7

• protect axon and helps to speed up transmission of message

Question 8

what is the nodes of ranvier?

Answer 8

• speeds up transmission of the impulse by forcing it to “jump” across the gap along the axon

Question 9

what is an axon?

Answer 9

• sends nerve impulse (action potential) through the neuron to transmit message to the next neuron

Question 10

Describe the process of synaptic transmission

Answer 10

• begins in the presynaptic neurone ,action potentials sent down axon until they reach presynaptic terminal
• causes neurotransmitters to be released into the synaptic cleft
• neurotransmitters diffuse across the synapse, bind with specific receptor sites only present on the postsynaptic neuron
• once neurotransmitters attached to receptor sites on post syn neuron two outcomes :
  a) next neuron ready to fire and impulse if it’s excitatory or inhibitory
  b) next neurotransmitter recycled to be stored back in vesicles in the pre synaptic neuron (reuptake)

Question 11

Describe the effects of a excitatory neurotransmitter

Answer 11

• binds to post syn receptors post synaptic cell becomes (+) charge ,
• more likely the post syn cell will fire so impulse will travel down its axon,
• increasing brain activity in the CNS

Question 12

Describe the effects of an inhibitory neurotransmitter

Answer 12

• binds to post syn receptor the post syn becomes (-) charged
• reduced the likelihood the post syn cell will fire
• decrease brain activity in the CNS

Question 13

Describe summation

Answer 13

• when inhibitory + excitatory
• if overall mainly (-) reduces likelihood
  neuron will fire an impulse down the post syn neuron
• if mainly (+) will fire impulse down post syn neuron

Question 14

Describe the function of the endocrine system

Answer 14

• provides chemical system of communication within the blood stream to regulate the activity of cells and organs in the body
• slower than NS but effects more widespread
• these chemical messengers are hormones which are released by the glands within the endocrine system to regulate body functions

Question 15

Describe the role of the testes

Answer 15

• anterior pituitary gland releases LH & FSH encouraging the testicles to release testosterone which is involved in creating male characteristics and production of sperm

Question 16

Describe the role of the adrenal gland

Answer 16

• releases adrenaline causes physiological changes involved in ForF response such as increases blood flow to transport oxygen to the brain for rapid response planning.

Question 17

AO3 for localisation of function in the brain

Answer 17

RTS - by broca

• case study of man lost ability to speak except for 1 word “Tan” even tho he cud understand
• post mortem showed damage in 1 area left hemisphere “brocas area”
• shows language production is localised to one specific brain area

RTC - case study on patient called EB

• suffered brain damage resulted in removal of his L hemisphere (lang centres)
• despite EB managed to regain some of his lang ability that would not be possible if lang centres were completely localised to the left hemisphere
• demonstrates lang must be in more areas than left, hollistic approach more approp than localisation of function

however Lack pop val

• not appropriate to gen findings on the LOF to gen pop as there are some unique studies where brain damage may affect ways in which the brain functions and some individuals may process lang in other areas of the brain
• EG some research suggested brocas area not solely located in the left hemisphere, but found in dominant cerebral hemisphere opposite the dominant handedness
• therefore suggesting more research is needed with more samples before firm conclusions on the loc of lang areas are possible

Question 18

Describe the function of wernickes area

Answer 18

• involved in understanding of language
• damage could cause wernickes aphasia
• where an individual cant understand spoken language or produces nonsense words as part of their speech

Question 19

function of the brocas area ?

Answer 19

• involved in production of spoken and written language
• (damage produce Brocas aphasia where person show slow speech that lacks fluency or complete absence of speech, might produce short meaningful speech that requires great deal of effort)

Question 20

Define the somatoSENSory cortex

Answer 20

• processes info from senses into skin, includes touch, pressure, pain and temp from all areas in the body
  damage = produce problems in perceiving touch, failure to recognise object by touch

Question 21

define the VISUAL cortex

Answer 21

• receives info directly from the eyes
  RVisField - LH, LVF - RH
• damage = produce blindness, hallucinations or inability to see colour or motion

Question 22

Define the motor cortex

Answer 22

• involved in the creation of voluntary motor movements.
• Damage = loss of control over fine movements, small movements on the opposite side of the body (contralateral wiring e.g. picking up a small objects or paralysis)

Question 23

outline research into plasticity (ao1)

Answer 23

• Maguire et al (2000)
• brains of London taxi drivers studied
• greater volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus for those who had been a taxi driver for a long time
• compared to those who have only been a taxi driver for a short time
  -this difference due to their greater amount of experience of the roads which suggests the structure of their brain has been altered by their experience=plasticity

Question 24

definition of plasticity

Answer 24

• brains ability to change and adapt its structures and processes as a consequence of learning new things

Question 25

What is synaptic pruning

Answer 25

During birth brain experiences rapid growth of synaptic connection,
- ones that not regularly used are deleted ones regularly used are strengthened.

Question 26

Describe Hemispheric lateralisation

Answer 26

• left and right hemispheres of the brain are responsible for different functions.

Question 27

function of the left hemisphere

Answer 27

• responsible for language
• Brocas = speech production
• Wernickes = understanding language

Question 28

function of the right hemisphere

Answer 28

• recognition of faces, places and objects and creativity
• can only produce rudimentary words and phrases but contributes to the emotional context of what is being said

Question 29

what is the ultradian rhythm

Answer 29

• biological rhythm that occurs more frequently than once every 24 hours ( less than 24hr)
• each cycle usually lasts 90 minutes and consists of 5 stages and alternates between REM and NREM sleep.
• It is known as the sleep staircase, a person can experience unto 5 cycles per night that repeat in a rhythmic pattern.

Question 30

brain activity in each of stages of sleep

Answer 30

stage 1+2 ( light NREM) - light sleep where a person can easily be woken up
- Alpha waves experienced in stage 1
- stage 2 alpha waves still experienced but occasional random changes and have high frequency known as spindles

stage 3+4 - deep sleep or slow wave sleep
- the brain waves are delta waves w low frequency + high amplitude difficult to wake someone up at this point

stage 5+6- REM sleep
- body paralysed
- brain activity closely resembles that of an awake brain
- brain produces theta waves and random rapid movement of the eye which is occasional
- dreams are also more likely to be experienced but may occur in deep sleep too

Question 31

ao3 for ultradian rhythm

Answer 31

• strength is practice app
• growth hormone produced during stage 4 of sleep associated w sleep deficit in old age research found older ppl experience less stage 4 sleep
• medication + relaxation techniques been made to incr stage 4 sleep in older ppl
• therefore, prevent issues associated w old age eg reduced alertness ; important in applied pscyh
• strength scientific methods
• uses objective + empirical tech such as EEG to measure brain activity+controlled lab setting
• scientifically measure activity of brain thru stages to identify length + how many times rhythm occurs excluding EVs that might affect sleep like noise + temp
• thus ,psychologistst would argue that this inc internal validity ;raising psych scientific status

DISCUSSION- low eco val, artificial setting + sleep patterns may not be genuine due to unfamiliar setting + attached to electrodes may alter length of ultradian rhythm,
- diff to generalise

Question 32

flight or flight ao1

Answer 32

• stressor identified by hypothalamus + activates pituitary gland triggers symp branch of ANS
• adrenaline released by adrenal medulla into blood stream
• ForF response produced, preparing body sudden physical action produces physiological reactions
• parasympathetic branch returns body back to normal once stressor removed

2 EFFECTS OF ADRENALINE
- direct effect- inc heart rate ,inc blood plow + inc blood pressure.inc blood flow to skeletal muscles

-indirect effect- flight or flight prep
inc blood supply to skeletal muscles for physical action ,stops digestion + saliva prod, inc o2 to brain for rapid response planning

Question 33

flight or flight ao3

Answer 33

• doesn’t explain stress response in females.
• eg research shown women more likely to protect offspring + form alliances w other women than fight or run away.
• suggest gender bias as flight or fight assumes men +women respond inn same way to treating situation
• prior to research, thus limiting explanations of flight or flight

P-one issue w flight or fight is human behaviour is not limited to two repsonses.
E-some pshyclogosits argue first response to danger is to avoid confrontation all together thru “freeze’ response .
E-during this response humans consider the best course of action to deal w threat.
L-suggset flight or fight response doesn’t consider other factors such as thought processes.

Question 34

split brain ao1

Answer 34

• had surgery (normally to treat epilepsy) to cut area that connects the two hemispheres of the brain (corpus callosum).
  While the surgery may relieve epilepsy, it has a major side effect:
  the two hemispheres become functionally separate (they act as two separate, independent brains).

Question 35

axonal sprouting ?

Answer 35

• Unhealthy/damaged axon regenerates
• Healthy neurons that are close by to the damages axon grow new dendrites
• These attach to areas of the brain previously supplied by the damaged neurons
• This is more likely to result in functional recovery if the neurons are damaged rather than completely damaged.

Question 36

circadian rhythm ao1

Answer 36

• Our circadian rhythms, such as the sleep wake cycle, controlled by endogenous pacemakers (internal body clock).
• An example is the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) found in the hypothalamus.
• This pacemaker must be constantly reset so that we can be in synchrony with the outside world.
• It is thought to be reset by light an exogenous zeitgeber (an external factor from the environment) to maintain a rhythm of around 24 hours.

Question 37

circadian rhythm ao3

Answer 37

• limitation research by Siffre low pop val
• case study with Siffre as only ppt not appropriate to gen findings beyond Siffre as ppl may respond differently.
• EG, older people circadian rhythms may be slower + more easily influenced by exogenous zeitgebers, as in one of Siffre’s later replications found own circadian rhythm had slowed.
• Therefore, lowering the ext val of the research investigating circadian rhythms.
• research by Wever replicated research in bunker 400 times with 447 ppts .
• found if person’s circadian rhythm was left to be free running follow a 25-hour cycle.
• supports Siffre’s findings on endogenous factors maintaining circadian rhythms to around a 24 hour cycle
• suggests research and conclusions have good reliability.
• strength prac apps
• basic principles of theory, circadian rhythm is around 24 hours and maintained by endogenous pacemakers,
• given researchers better understanding of negative consequences that can occur as a result of disrupting their rhythm.
• EG, night workers have period of reduced concentration around 6am so mistakes and accidents are more likely can be used by employers to manage worker productivity, which improves the economy.
• Therefore, this research is an important part of applied psychology.