Biopsychology Flashcards
Petersen et al (1988)
Used brain scans to show that Wernickes area was active during a listening task and Broca’s area was active during a reading task. Supports localisation in Wernike and Broca’s areas.
Lashley (1950)
Removed area’s of rats brains, ranging from 10-50% and found that no area was more needed to navigate and learn a maze than another. This criticises localisation and says that functions are processed holistically. This could be a reponse to in that parts of the brain all work together and can produce actions, but still have primary functioning in specific areas. Rats are also not humans, and localisation could still be linked to the specific higher functioning in humans.
Maguire et al (2000)
Studied London taxi drivers, finding that they had more grey matter in their hippocampus than non-taxi drivers. This area is associated with spatial and navigational skills. Supports the idea of plasticity of the brain in that the job of a taxi driver has altered their brain for more effective functioning. It is more present the longer the job is done, suggesting causation.
Draganski et al (2006)
Recorded the brains of medical students before and after exams. Found changes in the posterior hippcampus and parietal cortex. Suggests learning affected the brain, and supports plasticity.
Mechelli et al (2004)
Large parietal cortex in bilingual people, supporting plasticity in the brain.
Bezzola et al (2012)
40 hours of golf training produced changes in the neural representation of movement in fMRi scans of participants aged 40-60. Plasticity continues to work with age, however is slower and tends to reduce.
Sperry (1968)
Patients who had had the corpus collosum split naturally were tested due to the split between the left and right hemispheres. Shown images or words on screen for a 1/10 of s second in each visual field. Done to prevent looking with both eyes . When something was shown on the right visual field (left brain) they could describe it audibly, but on the left visual field they could not. They could match it though, so they had taken in the information, but could not audibly describe it. When given a composite word with each part on different visual field they would identify seperate words. In left visual field facial expressions could be matched, but in the right they were ignored. This supports the theory that the left an right brain have differnt functions and this is highlighted when the two halves cannot communicate. The brain can be lateralised.
Siffre (1962)
Spent two months in a cave isolated from the world to record how his sleep cycle changed without any external factors. He continued in regular cycles but it shifted to a bit less than 25 hours instead of 24. Shows we have endogenous pacemakers to determine biological rythyms.
Aschoff and Wever (1974)
Participants spent 4 weeks in a bunker and their sleep cycle extended to about 25 hours. Extra supporting evidence to Siffre.
Folkard et al (1985)
12 people in a cave for 3 weeks were told to sleep when the clock said 11:45 and wake up when the clock said 7:45, however the clock was gradually sped up to be on a 22 hour cycle. All but one of the pps found it difficult to assimilate to the cycle. Suggests strong interal factors in sleep schedule.
Knutsson (2003)
Shift work results in a 3x higher chance of developing heart disease
Campell and Murphy (1998)
Found that light affected the sleep/wake cycle even when not shown to the eyes.
DeCoursey et al (2000)
Removed the SCN of chipmunks before putting them in the wild, found sleep/wake cycle was destroyed and many died to predators.
McClintock (1998)
Of 29 women with a history of irregular menstrual cycles 9 had samples of the pheromones taken. These were then given to other participants and 68% of them experienced changes in their cycle moving it to be more in sync with the original participant’s odour they received. This shows external factors have an impact on infradian rhythms (the menstrual cycle).
Dement and Kleitman (1957)
Used EEGs to monitor the brains of participants while they slept. Brain activity was correlated with dreaming in REM sleep. The activity varied based on how vivid the dream was. Supports distinct stages of sleep.
