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biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

What is Broca’s Area and where is it found?

A

This area is found in the left frontal lobe and is thought to be involved in language production

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2
Q

What is Wernicke’s Area and where is it found?

A

This area is found in the left temporal lobe and is thought to be involved in language processing/understanding

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3
Q

What is the Auditory Area and where is it found?

A

This area is found in the temporal lobe in both hemispheres and is responsible for analysing and processing acoustic information

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4
Q

What is the Motor Area and where is it found?

A

This area is found in between the frontal lobe and parietal lobe and is responsible for voluntary movements by sending signals to the muscles in the body

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5
Q

What is the Visual Area and where is it found?

A

This area is found in the occipital lobe and receives/processes visual information. This area contains different parts that process different types of information including colour, shape or movement

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6
Q

What is the Somatosensory Area and where is it found?

A

This area is also in between the frontal lobe and parietal lobe and it receives sensory information from the skin to produce sensations related to pressure, pain, temperature, etc

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7
Q

What is Lateralisation?

A

The idea that the brain is two halves, each having different functions

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8
Q

What is the left hemisphere in control of?

A

The right side of your body

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9
Q

What is the right hemisphere in control of?

A

The left side of your body

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10
Q

What is the middle part of your brain called that allows communication between the two hemispheres?

A

Corpus Callosum

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11
Q

What is the difference between split-brain patients and none split-brain patients?

A

Split brain patients have undergone a Corpus Callosotomy, often done to prevent frequent and sever epileptic fits

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12
Q

What was Sperry’s research in regards to Lateralisation?

A

Compared split-brain patients to individuals with no hemispheric split and had then try different activities: visual tasks and tactile tasks, to see how each hemisphere would perform

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13
Q

Who is Karen Byrne?

A

CASE STUDY:

She had her Corpus Callosum severed due to having epilepsy and after her surgery she began to show signs of Alien Hand Syndrome (AHS - where the hand isn’t under control of the brain and moves as if it has a mind of its own)

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14
Q

Evaluation of Lateralisation

A

Limitations:
- Lacks validity as it suggests that certain actions/functions are houses in certain lobes and in those places alone - which doesn’t explain how patients who suffer brain trauma, like having a section of their right hemisphere removed, is still able to move their left side of the body
- Lacks temporal validity as medicine is used instead for epilepsy instead of invasive surgery meaning that there won’t be patients to study with this condition anymore

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15
Q

What is Plasticity?

A

The brains ability to change and adapt its connections or rewire itself for new learning

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16
Q

What is Synaptic Pruning?

A

When the brain deletes connections that are rarely used and strengthens those that are

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17
Q

What did Maguire do in regards to Plasticity?

A

She studied the brains of London taxi drivers and found that they had a higher level of grey matter in their hippocampus (the area linked with the development of spatial and navigation skills) in comparison to a matched control group and that they had a different brain structure due to ‘The Knowledge’ test

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18
Q

What is Axonal Sprouting in relation to Plasticity and brain damage? (Doidge)

A

When new nerve endings sprout and connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neural pathways

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19
Q

What is Reformation of blood vessels in relation to Plasticity and brain damage? (Doidge)

A

When new blood vessels form to replace damaged ones

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20
Q

What is Recruitment of Homologous areas in relation to Plasticity and brain damage? (Doidge)

A

When an area of the brain is damaged so the original function is handed over to a similar area in the opposite hemisphere - functionality may then shift back to the original side

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21
Q

What are the two aspects of the Kennard Principle in regards to Plasticity?

A

Older patients brains will seek out strategies to cope with the loss of function instead of changing itself to solve it

Younger patients brains will reorganise itself easily, putting common processing structures in places where they aren’t usually found

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22
Q

Evaluation of Plasticity?

A

Limitations:
Negative plasticity:
- Has maladaptive consequences in regards to drug problems, shows poorer cognitive functioning as well as an increased risk of dementia later in life
- 60-80% of amputees have been known to develop phantom limb syndrome which is a continued sensation in the missing limb

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23
Q

What is an EEG?

A

A skull cap that is covered in electrodes that attach to an individuals skull and measures electrical activity patterns

Often used as a diagnostic tool for epilepsy, tumours and sleep disorders

24
Q

Evaluation of an EEG

A

Strengths:
- Useful in the diagnosis of epilepsy as the disorder is categorised by random bursts of activity
- Has extremely high temporal resolution, being able to detect brain activity in milliseconds

Limitations:
- Takes the raw activation information from the whole brain and can’t examine singular regions
- The electrodes that information from thousands of neurons so can’t pinpoint the exact source of the neural activity, meaning low spatial resolution

25
Q

What is a fMRI?

A

A scan that produces a 3D model of the brain structure and functional information

Does this while a participant is performing a task

Uses changes in magnetic fields caused by an increase of oxygen in certain parts of the brain that is activated due to the blood flow to that part

26
Q

Evaluation of a fMRI

A

Strengths:
- Doesn’t involve radiation making it a healthier scan
- Is non-invasive
- Has high resolution imaging of the brain (localisation)

Limitations:
- Is expensive
- It requires the patients to be completely still
- Has low temporal resolution as the image appears 5 seconds behind
- Cannot distinguish between types of activity in the brain

27
Q

What is an ERP?

A

The same as an EEG but this measures electrical activity in the brain in response to a stimulus

28
Q

Evaluation of an ERP

A

Strengths:
- Provides a continuous measure of processing in response to a particular stimulus, showing how processing is affected by a specific experimental manipulation
- Measures the brain activity ‘covertly’ as responses can be monitored even with the absence of behavioural responses

Limitations:
- Requires large numbers of trails to gain meaningful data
- It will only pick up significantly strong voltage changes in the brain so misses important electrical activity occurring deep in the brain

29
Q

What is a postmortem?

A

Where the brain is examined after death. It can help determine whether behaviour, when individuals were alive, were due to brain abnormalities

30
Q

Evaluation of postmortems

A

Strengths:
- Allows examination into the brain and its deeper regions like the hippocampus and hypothalamus
- Harrison (2000) claims that it helped understand the origins of schizophrenia as in the postmortems researchers discovered structural abnormalities and found a change in neurotransmitters

Limitations:
- As the patient is dead it’s a very limited as it’s retrospective. Meaning that findings can’t be followed up to help distinguish the relationship brain abnormalities and cognitive functioning

31
Q

What is a Biological Rhythm?

A

Distinct patterns of change in activity of the body that conform to regular and cyclical time periods

32
Q

What is a Circadian Rhythm?

A

A biological rhythm that cycles every 24 hours

33
Q

What does SCN stand for?

A

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus

34
Q

How does our sleep-wake cycle work?

A

The SUPRACHIASMATIC NUCLEUS (SCN) must reset to keep us in time with the outside world - light sensitive cells in out eyes tell the SCN whether it is night or day which then allows it to reset and co-ordinate our circadian rhythm

35
Q

What does the Endogenous Pacemaker do?

A

Internally helps us regulate our sleep-wake cycle

36
Q

What does the Exogenous Zeitgeber do?

A

Externally helps us regulate our sleep-wake cycle

37
Q

What is Siffre’s study?

A

He spent 6 months in a cave underground with no clocks and no natural zeitgebers. His sleep-wake cycle remained intact, however it extended to a 25.5 hour cycle

38
Q

What is Aschoff and Wever’s study?

A

They studied a group of participants confined to a WW2 bunker for 4 weeks, deprived of light and other possible zeitgebers. All but one participants sleep-wake cycle remained at 24-25 hours, the anomaly being 29 hours!

39
Q

What is Folkard’s study?

A

They studied a group of 12 people in a dark cave for 3 weeks - the cave contained a single clock which was set to a 22 hour day. Despite this time difference only 1 participant changed their circadian rhythm with the other 11 maintaining their natural ones

40
Q

Evaluation of Circadian Rhythms

A

Strengths:
- The importance of zeitgebers (light) as 4 participants stationed at the British Antarctic Station were studied. It was found that their cortisol levels followed a familiar pattern in the Antarctic summer (meaning high levels of cortisol in the morning when they woke and low levels in the evening as they were settling down to rest) - however, after 3 months of darkness their patterns changed, with their cortisol levels peaking at noon

Limitations:
- Most studies removed variables thought to affect circadian rhythms (clocks, radios, daylight), but they kept artificial light which they believed wouldn’t effect the rhythms. However, it was found that isn’t the case meaning studies that used artificial light are flawed as participants in a study has their circadian rhythms altered from 22-28 hours using dim artificial light

41
Q

What is an Infradian Rhythm?

A

A biological rhythm with a frequency of less than one cycle in 24 hours. Examples include the Menstrual Cycle and SAD

42
Q

What is an Ultradian Rhythm?

A

A biological t=rhythm with a frequency of more than one cycle every 24 hours. Examples include the stages of sleep

43
Q

What was McClinock’s study regarding the Menstrual Cycle?

A

She took samples of sweat from one group of women and rubbed it onto the upper lips of women in a different group. They were kept separate but their menstrual cycles still synchronised due to ‘odour donor’ as it can be effected by pheromones (exogenous zeitgebers) as it effects those close to you rather than the individual producing it themselves

44
Q

What is SAD?

A

A type of depression that follows the seasons, begins in early winter and normal mood returns in summer.

Related to the amount of melatonin produced by the pineal gland, in the summer less is produced whereas in winter more is produced.

It is suggested that it disrupts temperature and sleeping patterns

45
Q

What was Kleitman’s study into the sleep cycle?

A

He used an EEG to identify the Systematic change in the brain waves that occur at regular intervals (90 minutes) - 9 male participants (gender biased - androcentric) for up to 61 nights in a laboratory

He found that there were 2 main types of sleep, REM sleep (rapid eye movement occurs) and the NREM sleep (no rapid eye movement)

46
Q

What are the 5 stages of the Sleep Cycle?

A

1) The Wake Stage: dominated by Beta waves until Alpha waves take us into sleep
2) Non REM 1: a light sleep in which the person is easily woken. Muscle activity slows with occasional twitches. Those patterns involve Alpha waves
3)Non REM 2: a deeper sleep in which sleep spindles are produced. We consolidate memory. These patterns involve Alpha waves
4) Non REM 3: the deepest and most rhythmic sleep, breathing and heart rate slow. Very limited total muscle activity. The brain produces Delta waves
5) REM sleep: associated with dreaming, brain activity of individuals are similar to when awake. Beta waves are produced. Neurons in the brain forcibly inhibit muscles to restrict movement

47
Q

What are the two main components in The Central Nervous System?

A

The brain and the spine

48
Q

What are the two subgroups on The Peripheral Nervous System?

A
  1. Somatic Nervous System
  2. The Autonomic Nervous System
49
Q

What is The Somatic Nervous System?

(Part of The Peripheral Nervous System)

A

Carrying out very quick reflex actions without the involvement of the CNS. Messages do not reach as far as the brain but are instead relayed from the spinal cord

50
Q

What is The Autonomic Nervous System?

(Part of The Peripheral Nervous System)

A

It carries out involuntary actions without conscious awareness like digesting food or your heart beat

51
Q

What are the two subgroups of The Autonomic Nervous System?

(Part of The Peripheral Nervous System)

A
  1. The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) 2. The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS)
52
Q

What are the differences between the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems?

(Part of The Peripheral Nervous System)

A

Sympathetic: deals with emergencies like fight, flight and freeze. Increase in heartrate, blood pressure etc

Parasympathetic: relaxes the body, happens when a threat is eliminated

53
Q

What is the different between Afferent and Efferent Nerves?

A

Afferent: carries signals from the receptor organs to the CNS

Efferent: carries signals from the CNS to the muscles and glands

54
Q

What are the 3 neural structures?

A
  1. Motor Neurons
  2. Relay Neurons
  3. Sensory Neurons
55
Q

What is the Endocrine System?

A

A network of glands across the body that works alongside the CNS which secretes chemical messages (hormones)

56
Q

What are the main glands in the Endocrine System?

A
  • Pituitary
  • Thyroid
  • Adrenal
  • Reproductive

Psychology (11 decks)

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