Biopsychology

Question 1

what are the two main divisions of the nervous system

Answer 1

peripheral nervous system- this refers to the parts of the nervous system that do not include the brain and spinal cord
central nervous system

Question 2

describe the somatic nervous system

Answer 2

unlike ANS this is part of the PNS and is responsible for carrying sensory and motor information to and from the CNS

Question 3

define synaptic transmission

Answer 3

this refers to the process by which a nerve impulse passes across the synaptic cleft from one neuron to another

Question 4

what are hormones

Answer 4

the body’s chemical messengers that influence many different process including mood, the stress response and bonding between mother and newborn baby

Question 5

describe the fight or flight response

Answer 5

this is a sequence of activity within the body that is triggered when the body prepares itself for defending/ attacking or running to safety. this activity involves changes in the nervous system and the secretion of hormones that are necessary to sustain arousal

Question 6

why does the trend and befriend response occur in females

Answer 6

this is due to the presence of oxytocin in females, which tends to induce a nurturing response. the effect of oxytocin are negated by testosterone which is why the tend and befriend response occurs largely in females

Question 7

what are axons

Answer 7

carry the electrical impulse down the length of a neuron covered in a fatty layer called myelin sheath

Question 8

describe research into localisation of brain function

Answer 8

brocca carried out a postmortem on the brain of a patient and found that he had a part of his left frontal lobe missing, leading to language function being associated with this area of the brain

Question 9

how can driving a taxi help with functional recovery

Answer 9

it can help because it increases brain plasticity. Maguire et al found that taxi drivers had a significantly higher volume of grey matter in their posterior hippocampus than the control group

Question 10

describe split brain research

Answer 10

Sperry studied patients whose corpus callosum was severed for some reason, these patients had to watch as a word or image was projected to the RVF (processed by the LH) or vice versa.
when objected projected to RVF they were able to describe what was seen but when shown to LVF nothing was there for them. able to match images better with LVF
Sperry believe language is lateralised in LH

Question 11

why are young people more likely to recover from brain trauma

Answer 11

the other areas of the brain can take on the role of damaged parts of the brain following a brain trauma

Question 12

what is Wernicke’s area

Answer 12

this is apart of the brain that deals with language comprehension, it is located in the temporal lobe

Question 13

what is an electroencephalogram

Answer 13

this is a recording of brain activity. during the test small sensory s are attached to the scalp to pick up the electrical signals produced when brain cells send messages to each other

Question 14

give example of infradian rhythms

Answer 14

are those that last longer than 24 hours e.g. menstrual cycle and SAD

Question 15

describe siffre’s research

Answer 15

spent a long time in a cave to examine the effects of free running biological rhythms without the influence of exogenous zeitgebers. Siffre’s free running circadian rhythm settled at about 25 hours just above the usual 24

Question 16

what is an endogenous pacemaker

Answer 16

the suprachiasmatic nucleus is an example of this, it helps to set our circadian rhythms by interacting with other parts of the body. these are essentially internal biological clocks

Question 17

give examples of circadian rhythms

Answer 17

are this lasting 24 hours e.g. sleep wake cycle

Question 18

what is the suprachiasmatic nucleus

Answer 18

this is a bundle of nerves that act like the body’s internal clock, within the hypothalamus. this helps to regulate our sleep wake cycles

Question 19

what are the pros and cons of postmortem examination

Answer 19

pro- postmortems allow for anatomical studying of the brain that cannot be done on live subjects
con- the subject is dead so now follow up studies or questions can be asked to the patient base on findings from the post mortem

Question 20

describe the autonomic nervous system

Answer 20

this is the part of the nervous system that controls the brain’s involuntary activities and self regulating. this is further divided into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems

Question 21

Petersen et al- localisation evidence

Answer 21

• used brain scans to demonstrate how Wernicke’s are was active during a listening task and Broca’s area was active during a reading task
• suggests areas of the brain have different functions

Question 22

Dougherty et al

Answer 22

• reported on 44 people with OCD who had undergone a neurosurgical procedure that involves lesioning of the cingulate gyrus
• post surgery- 1/3 met the criteria of successful response to the surgery and 14% for partial response
• suggest that symptoms and behaviours associated with serious mental disorders are localised

Question 23

Lashley’s research

Answer 23

• suggest that higher cognitive functions such has process involving learning are not localised but distributed in a more holistic way in the brain
• removed areas of cortex in rats that were learning a maze
• no area was proven to be more important than any other area in terms of the rats’ ability to learn the maze
• process of learning appeared to require all parts of the cortex rather than confined in one area
• suggests that learning is too complex to be localised and requires the involvement of the whole brain

Question 24

Eleanor Maguire et al- taxi drivers

Answer 24

• studied brains of London taxi drivers and found significantly more volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus than matched control group
• learning of taxi routes can alter brain structure
• longer they have been in the job the more pronounced the structural difference was

Question 25

Recovery in the brain

Answer 25

• axonal sprouting- the growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathways
• reformation of new blood cells
• recruitment of homologous areas- opposite sides of the brain perform the tasks that are damaged

Question 26

Ladina Bezzola et al

Answer 26

• 40 hours of golf training produced changes in the neural representation of movement in participants aged 40 to 60
• using fMRI they observed reduced motor cortex activity in the novice golfers compared to a control group
• suggests more efficient neural representations after training
• shows that neural plasticity does continue throughout the lifespan

Question 27

Hubel and Wiesel - sewing eyes

Answer 27

• sewing eye of a kitten shut and analysing the brain cortical responses
• found that the area of the visual cortex associated with the shut eye was not idle but continued to process information from the open eye

Question 28

Aschoff and Wever

Answer 28

• participants spent 4 weeks in a W2 bunker deprived of natural light
• all but on of the participants displayed a circadian rhythm between 24 and 25 hours
• suggests that the natural sleep/ wake cycle may be longer than 24 hours

Question 29

Simon Folkard et al

Answer 29

• studied a group of 12 people who agreed to live in a dark cave for 3 weeks and retiring to bed when the clock said 11.45pm and rising when it said 7 45am. over the course of the study the researchers sped up the clock gradually- eventually the 24 hour day became 22 hours
• only one participants adjusted comfortable
• suggests the existence of a strong free running circadian rhythm that cannot easily be overridden by changes in the external environment

Question 30

McClintock- periods

Answer 30

• 29 women with history of irregular periods
• samples of pheromones were gathered from 9 of the women at different stages of their cycles
• rubbed on the upper lip of the other participants
• on day one pads from the start of the menstrual cycle were applied to all 20 women, on day two they were all given a pad from the second day of the cycle and so on
• found 68% of women experienced changes to their cycle which brought them closer to the cycle of their odour donor