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Biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the nervous system divided into

A

-Central nervous system
-Peripheral nervous system

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2
Q

What is the central nervous system

A

-Brain and spinal cord connections to PNS
-highly developed in humans
-reflex actions

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3
Q

What is the peripheral nervous system

A

-Autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic)
-Somatic nervous system (body)

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4
Q

What is the endocrine system

A

-Instructs glands to release hormones directly into the bloodstream
-These hormones are carried towards the target organs in the body
-Communicates via chemical

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5
Q

What is the Master gland

A

The Pituitary Gland

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6
Q

How are hormones distributed

A

Via the blood stream

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7
Q

Name the different types of neurons

A

-Sensory
-Relay
-Motor

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8
Q

What is the Sensory Neuron

A

-Carry messages from PNS to CNS
-Long dendrites
-Short axons

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9
Q

What us the Relay Neuron

A

-Connect the sensory neurons to motor neurons or other relay neurons
-Short dendrites
-Short axons

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10
Q

What is the Motor Neuron

A

-Connect the CNS to effectors such as muscles or glands
-Short dendrites
-Long axons

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11
Q

What is the structure of neurons

A

-Cell body contains the nucleus
-Dendrites
-Axon
-Myelin sheath covers the axons
-Myelin sheath divided by Nodes of ranvier

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12
Q

What do dendrites do

A

-Branchlike structures petruding from cell body
-Carry nerve impulses from neighbouring neurons to the cell body

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13
Q

What is the nucleus

A

-Contains all genetic information of the cell

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14
Q

What is the axon

A

-Carries impulses away from cell body down length of neuron

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15
Q

What is the Myelin sheath

A

-Fatty layer protecting the axon by covering it
-Speeds up electrical transmission of the impulse

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16
Q

What are the Nodes of Ranvier

A

-Divide up the myelin sheath to speed up transmission of electrical transmission by forcing it to jump across the gaps

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17
Q

Where are the majority of neurons found

A

-97% found in the brain

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18
Q

What is electrical transmission in neurons

A

-In resting state neuron is negatively charged
-When activated by stimulus neuron becomes positively charged
-This causes an action potential creating an electrical impulse that travels down the neuron

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19
Q

What is synaptic transmission

A

Process by which neighbouring neurons communicate with each other by sending chemical messages across the gap (synapse) that seperates them

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20
Q

What are neurotransmitters

A

-Brain chemicals released from synaptic vesicle
-Relay signals across synapse to one neuron to another
-Either excitatory or inhibitory

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21
Q

What is excitation

A

-When a neurotransmitter, such as adrenaline increases the positive charge of the postsynaptic neuron
-Increases likelihood for postsynaptic neuron to pass on the electrical impulse

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22
Q

What is inhibition

A

-When seratonin increases negative charge of postsynaptic neuron
-Decreases chance of passing on electrical impulse

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23
Q

What is summation

A

Action potential only reached if the sum of exhitory or inhibitory reaches threshold

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24
Q

Name the different ways of studying the brain

A

-Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
-Electroencephalogram (EEG)
-Event related potentials (ERG)
-Post mortems

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25
Q

Describe fMRI’s

A

Detects changes in blood flow to show active areas (where oxygen is consumed)

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26
Q

Describe EEG’s

A

Measure brainwave patterns from thousands of neurons vias electrodes

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27
Q

Describe ERP’s

A

Types of brainwaves triggered by particular events filtered out from EEG recordings

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28
Q

Describe post moterms

A

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

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29
Q

Evaluate fMRI’s

A

-Risk free
-Non invasive
-High spatial resolution
-Expensive
-Poor Temporal resolution

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30
Q

Evaluate EEG’s

A

-Real world uses (sleep stages, diagnosing epilepsy)
-High temporal resolution
-Comes from thousands of neurons so can’t identify a source

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31
Q

Evaluate ERP’s

A

-More specific than EEG
-Higher temporal resolution than fMRI
-No standardisation
-Background noise not easy to control

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32
Q

Evaluate post-mortems

A

-Provided early research (Broca)
-Causation an issue
-Consent ethical issues (H.M)

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33
Q

Name the different lobes of the brain

A

-Frontal lobe
-Parietal lobe
-Temporal lobe
-Occipital lobe

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34
Q

Outline the motor area

A

Region of frontal lobe involved in regulating movement

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35
Q

Outline the Somatosensory area

A

Area of parietal lobe processing sensory information e.g touch

36
Q

Outline the Visual area

A

Part of the occipital lobe that recieves and processes visual information

37
Q

Outline the Auditory area

A

Located in the temporal lobe and concerned with analysis of speech based information

38
Q

Outline Broca’s area

A

Located in temp[oral lobe in the Left hemisphere responsible for speech production

39
Q

Outline Wernicke’s area

A

Area of the temporal lobe in the Left Hemisphere responsible for language comprehension

40
Q

What is the debate over localisation versus holistic theory

A

Are brain functions in specific areas or across the whole brain

41
Q

What divides up the hemispheres of the brain

A

The Cerebrum

42
Q

What is lateralisation

A

Each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body

43
Q

Evaluate localisation of function in the brain

A

-Evidence from brain scans: Broca and Wernick’es area identified, semantic and episodic areas identified
-Case study evidence: Phineas Gage supports localisation COUNTERPOINT: lacks generisability
-Language localisation question (right hemispheres and hypothalamus), so not just Broca and Wernicke’s area

44
Q

What is localisation and lateralisation

A

Some functions are localised (e.g vision) or localised and lateralised (language)

45
Q

What is in the left and right hemispheres

A

-Language areas in the LH
-Motor areas contralateral
-Visual areas contralateral and ipsilateral
-LVF both eyes RH, RVF to LH with the same for auditory areas

46
Q

What are the roles of left hemisphere and the right hemisphere

A

LH is the analyser, RH is the synthesiser

47
Q

Evaluate hemispheric lateralisation

A

-Research support: Fink et al used PET scans to identify active areas of brain during a visual processing task, when looking at whole picture RH more active, LH more active on specific details suggesting hemispheric lateralisation
-Idea if synthesiser and analyser may be wrong: certain hemispheres dedicated to certain task but no dominant RH or LH (Nielsen et al)

48
Q

Outline split brain research

A

-Sperry (1968)
-11 Participants who had split brains due to epilepsy
-Object shown to RVF (LH), person describes object, shown to LVF (RH) says “Nothing there”
-Oject shown to LVF (RH): cannot name but slect item with hand
-Pinup picture to LVF: participant giggles but reports nothing
-Conclusion: lateralised bran with LH verbal and RH silent but emotional

49
Q

Evaluate Sperry’s split brain research

A

-Research support: Split brain participants faster at some LH tasks like cognitive strategies (luck et al)
-Generisability issues: Epilepsy is a confounding variable when comparing participants to “normal controls” and small sample size

50
Q

What is brain plasticity

A

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

51
Q

Outline two researches into brain plasticity

A

-Hippocampus in taxi drivers changes structures after learning the knowledge (Maguire et al)
-Changes om hippocampus and the parietal cortex before and after exams (draganski et al)

52
Q

Evaluate brain plasticity

A

-Negative plasticity: drugs may cause neural changes (medina et al), phantom limb syndrom due to reorganisation in somatosensory cortex
-Does not sharply decline with age, bezzola et al showed how golf training caused neural changes in over 40s.

53
Q

What happens to the brain after trauma

A

Functional recovery: healthy brain ares take over lost functions after trauma happening quickly

54
Q

What happens in the brain during recovery from brain trauma

A

-New syanptic connections
-Secondary pathways unmaksed
-Axonal sprouting
-Denervation supersensitivity
-Recruitment of homologous brain areas

55
Q

Evaluate functional recovery after brain trauma

A

-Real world application: knowledge of axonal growth leads to constraint induced movement therapy
-Cognitive reserve: 40% recovery for those with 16 years education, 10% for those with less than 12 year education

56
Q

What are circadian rhythms

A

Bodily rhythms that take 24 hours to complete

57
Q

What are infradian rhythms

A

Bodily rhythms that take more than 24 hours to complete

58
Q

What are ultradian rhythms

A

Bodily rhythms that take less than 24 hours to complete

59
Q

What are biological rhythms

A

Controlled by internal body clock (endogenous pacemakers) and external cues (exogenous zeitgebers)

60
Q

Outline the sleep/wake cycle

A

-Governed by daylight and by biological clock (supercharismatic nucleus)
-Gets light information from the eyes

61
Q

Outline one research on circadian rhythms

A

Siffre’s cave study: his free running rhythm extended to 25 hours when deprived of light

62
Q

Evaluate research into circadian rhythms

A

-Medical treatment: timing of drugs, aspirin more effective at night for heart attack (chronotherapeuties)
-Cycle length may vary (13-65 hours Czeukser et al) so generalisations may be meaningless
-Shift work: reduced concentration at 6am, more accidents, heart disease three times more likely COUNTERPOINT: studies are correlational, effects may be due to disruptive social routines

63
Q

Outline two infradian rhythms

A

-Menstrual cycle: oestrogen regulations ovulation, progesterone readies body for pregnancy
-Seasonal effective disorder (SAD): form of depression triggered in winter months regulated by melatonin, circannual rhythm

64
Q

What is synchronisation

A

-Menstrual cycles synchronised through pheromones, exogenous factor

65
Q

Evaluate synchronisation

A

-Evolutionary basis: synchronisation may have an adaptive function, leads to shared care of babies
-Methodological limitations: many confounding variables not controlled, so synchronisation may occur by chance

66
Q

Outline the stages of sleep

A

5 Stages occur in a 90 minute cycle:
-Stage 1 and 2: Alpha waves and sleep spindles
-Stages 3 and 4: Deep sleep, delta waves
-Stage 5: REM sleep, theta waves

67
Q

Evaluate the stages of sleep

A

-Lab studies of sleep control lack extraneous variables e.g noise COUNTERPOINT: may not represent ordinary sleep patterns
-Improved understanding: slow wave sleep reduced with age, explains impariness with old age e.g reduced alertness (cauter et al)

68
Q

What are endogenous pacemakers

A

Internal body clocks regulating biological rhythms e.g the supercharismatic nucleus and the sleep/wake cycle

69
Q

What is the supercharismatic nucleus (SCN)

A

SCN recieves information about light from the optic chiasm

70
Q

What is the role of the pineal gland and melatonin related to the SCN

A

SCN passes information to pineal gland that controls melatonin

71
Q

Outline animal studies related to the SCN

A

-Sleep/wake cycle disappeared when SCN destroyed in chipmunks (Decoursey et al)
-SCN transplanted from mutant hamsters with 20 hour sleep cycle (Ralph et al)

72
Q

Evaluate the SCN

A

-Mammals use very sleep/wake cycles
-Interactionist system: research looks at pacemakers/zeitgebers in isolation so approach lacks validity

73
Q

What are exogenous zeitgebers

A

External factors that affect or entrain our biological rhythms e.g influence of light on sleep/wake cycles

74
Q

What is the role of light related to exogenous zeitgebers

A

Light shone on back of knees changed rhythm by up to three hours (Campbell and Murphy)

75
Q

What is the role of social cues related to exogenous zeitgebers

A

Babies rhythms are jet lagged and are entrained by bedtimes and mealtimes

76
Q

Evaluate exogenous zeitgebers

A

-Enviromental observations: EZ’s do not have same effect on people who live in darkness in summer and little light in winter (inuit)
-Case study evidence: man blind from birth sleep/wake cycle of 24.9 hours could not adjust despite social cues

77
Q

What is the automatic nervous system

A

-Governs vitals functions in the body such as breathing, heart rate, digestion, sexual arousal and stress response
-Involentary (automatic)

78
Q

What is the Somatic nervous system

A

-Governs muscle movement
-Recives information from sensory receptors

79
Q

What is the autonomic system divided into

A

-Sympathetic nervous system
-Parasympathetic nervous system

80
Q

Outline the fight or flight response

A

-Sympathetic arousal results in hypothalamus activating the pituitary gland triggering the sympathetic state
-Adrenaline is released into the bloodstream from the adrenal medulla
-Trigger of the sympathetic if state is immediate and automatic
-Go back to a parasympathetic state once the threat has passed

81
Q

Outline the sympathetic state

A

-Immediate and automatic
-Increased heart rate
-Increasing breathing rate
-Inhibits digestion
-Dilates pupils
-Contracts rectum

82
Q

Outline the parasympathetic state

A

-Branch of the ANS
-Returns the body to its resting state
-Decreases heart rate
-Decreases breathing rate
-Constricts pupils
-Stimulates digestion
-Stimulates saliva production
-Relaxes rectum

83
Q

What is adrenaline

A

-Hormone produced by adrenal glands part of humans who mmediate stress response system
-Stronf effect on cells and cardiovascular system: stimulating heart rate contracting blood vessels and dilating air passages

84
Q

What are the two main functions of the nervous system

A

-Collect process and respond to information in the environment
-Co ordinate the workings of different organs and cells in the body

85
Q

What is a gland

A

An organ in the body that synthesis substances such as hormones

86
Q

What is a hormone

A

-Biochemical substance that circulates in the blood but only affects larger organs
-Proruced in large quantity and disappear very quickly
-Effects are very powerful

psychology (12 decks)

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