biopsychology

Question 1

what is the nervous system?

Answer 1

the network of nerve cells which transmit nerve impulses between the brain and the body

Question 2

what is the central nervous system?

Answer 2

the complex nerve tissues that control the activity of the nerves in the body. it consists of the spinal cord and the brain.

Question 3

what is the peripheral nervous system?

Answer 3

nerves that branch of from the CNS to the rest of the body

Question 4

what is the somatic nervous system?

Answer 4

a sub division of the PNS that stretches through every part of the body.

Question 5

what is the autonomic nervous system?

Answer 5

the nerve system that controls our life sustaining functions

Question 6

what is the function of a sensory neuron?

Answer 6

transmit electrical impulses from the senses to the CNS. when they reach the brain they are translated into sensations.

Question 7

what is the function of relay neurons?

Answer 7

allows sensory and motor neurons to communicate. they lie in the brain and the spinal cord.

Question 8

what is the function of motor neurons?

Answer 8

neurons located in the CNS that project their axons towards muscles. they carry information from the brain to the muscles.

Question 9

name all features of a synaptic transmission?

Answer 9

vesicle
receptor site
neurotransmitter
diffusion
synapse

Question 10

name the parts of a neuron.

Answer 10

dendron
myelin sheath
nodes of Ranvier
axon
cell body
nucleus

Question 11

what is the synapse also known as?

Answer 11

the synaptic cleft

Question 12

what are neurotransmitters?

Answer 12

chemical messages

Question 13

what is the endocrine system?

Answer 13

it is a series of glands which release chemicals (hormones) which influence our behaviour

Question 14

what are the glands involved in the endocrine system?

Answer 14

pituitary gland
thyroid gland
pancreas
ovaries
testes
adrenal glands

Question 15

what is the pituitary gland?

Answer 15

the master gland, it influences all other glands in the endocrine system

Question 16

what is the 2 parts of the adrenal gland?

Answer 16

adrenal medulla
adrenal cortex

Question 17

what is the adrenal medulla?

Answer 17

it is what creates our fight or flight response. it releases adrenaline and noradrenaline.
it is the inner part of the gland.

Question 18

what is the adrenal cortex?

Answer 18

the outer part of the gland.
it releases aldosterone which is responsible for blood pressure.

Question 19

what are the testes role in the endocrine system?

Answer 19

they release the male sex hormone testosterone.

Question 20

what are the ovaries role in the endocrine system?

Answer 20

it releases oestrogen, responsible for menstruation and pregnancy.

Question 21

give 4 AO3 points for fight or flight.

Answer 21

Aaylor et al: it is a male response, women tend to make an alliance to protect offspring

Androcentrism and beta bias

freeze response

ansestrial differences: it can cause physiological harm in modern day society

Question 22

what are hormones?

Answer 22

a regulatory substance produced in an organism and transported in tissue fluids such as blood or sap to stimulate specific cells or tissues into action.

Question 23

what is Brocas area?

Answer 23

a region of the brain concerned with the production of speech, located in the cortex of the dominant frontal lobe.

Question 24

what is localisation of function?

Answer 24

as the idea that different brain areas are responsible for specific functions.

Question 25

what is the motor cortex?

Answer 25

the part of the cerebral cortex in the brain in which originate the nerve impulses that initiate voluntary muscular activity.

Question 26

what is the somatosensory cortex?

Answer 26

a region of the brain that is responsible for receiving and processing sensory information from across the body, such as touch, temperature, and pain.

Question 27

what is wernicke’s area?

Answer 27

concerned with the comprehension of language, located in the cortex of the dominant temporal lobe.

Question 28

what is hemispheric lateralisation?

Answer 28

the idea that the brain’s hemispheres are not entirely alike; they are functionally different. These functions are divided up and performed by the different hemispheres, and the brain’s hemispheres specialise in certain functions.

Question 29

what is split brain research?

Answer 29

Sperry

An image/word is projected to the patient’s left visual field (which is processed by the right hemisphere) or the right visual field (which is processed by the left hemisphere). When information is presented to one hemisphere in a split-brain patient, the information is not transferred to the other hemisphere (as the corpus callosum is cut).

In the describe what you see task, a picture was presented to either the left or right visual field and the participant had to simply describe what they saw.
In the tactile test, an object was placed in the patient’s left or right hand and they had to either describe what they felt, or select a similar object from a series of alternate objects.
Finally, in the drawing task, participants were presented with a picture in either their left or right visual field, and they had to simply draw what they saw.

Question 30

what is brain plasticity?

Answer 30

throughout life and involves brain cells other than neurons, including glial and vascular cells. Plasticity can occur as a result of learning, experience, and memory formation, or as a result of damage to the brain.

Question 31

what is functional recovery?

Answer 31

Healthy brain areas may take over the functions of those areas that are damaged.

Question 32

what is an EEG?

Answer 32

A test to monitor the electric sensitivity of the brain and thereby detect disorders if any, using electrodes.

Question 33

what is an ERP?

Answer 33

The ERP amplitude is usually smaller than the amplitude of background EEG so that the reliable ERP is obtained by averaging EEG fragments in multiple trials. Each ERP represents a sum of potentials generated in widely distributed cortical sources.
Event related potentials (ERPs) are scalp recorded voltage fluctuations that are time-locked to an event. The ERPs reflect stages of information processing in the sensory-related hierarchical neuronal networks.

Question 34

what is an FMRI?

Answer 34

It works by detecting the changes in blood oxygenation and flow that occur in response to neural activity when a brain area is more active it consumes more oxygen

Question 35

what is post-mortem examination?

Answer 35

when the brain is examined after death to evaluate the cause of death or behaviour while the individual was alive

Question 36

what are circadian rhythms?

Answer 36

a 24-hour internal clock that controls sleep-wake cycles as well as metabolism, cognition, and more. It uses clues such as lightand darkness to help determine when it’s time to shift into sleep mode and when the body should wake up.

Question 37

what are Infradian rhythms?

Answer 37

In basic terms, infradian rhythms are naturally occurring cycles in the human body that last longer than 24 hours

Question 38

what are ultradian rhythms?

Answer 38

is a recurrent period or cycle repeated throughout a 24-hour day.

Question 39

what are endogenous pacemakers?

Answer 39

internal mechanisms that govern biological rhythms, in particular, the circadian sleep-wake cycle. Although endogenous pacemakers are internal biological clocks, they can be altered and affected by the environment.

Question 40

what are exogenous pacemakers?

Answer 40

these can be described as environmental events that are responsible for resetting the biological clock of an organism. They can include social cues such as meal times and social activities, but the most important zeitgeber is light, which is responsible for resetting the body clock each day, keeping it on a 24-hour cycle.