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Psychology year 12 > Biopsychology > Flashcards

Biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

what is the CNS composed of?

A

The brain and spinal cord

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2
Q

How is the human brain different from any mammal brain?

A

The cerebral cortex.

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3
Q

What is the cerebral cortex?

A

A large structure at the back of the brain which has many deep folds

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4
Q

What is the spinal cord?

A

Long bundle of nerves that transmit messages between the brain and the rest of the body

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5
Q

What is the peripheral nervous system?

A

Part of the human NS that sends information to the CNS from the outside world and transmits messages from the CNS to muscles and glands in the body.

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6
Q

What is the role of automatic nervous system?

A

It takes care of the bodies vital functions; breathing and heart rate

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7
Q

What is the role of the parasympathetic NS within the automatic NS?

A

-Controls rest and digest
-Brings the body back to normal after a stressor has past

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8
Q

What is the role of the sympathetic NS?

A

Activates flight or flight when a stressor is detected

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9
Q

What is the role of the somatic NS?

A

Transmits info from the receptor cells to the CNS that then directs muscles to move

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10
Q

What is the Endocrine system?

A

-Works alongside the CNS
-Controls vital functions in the body
-Contains various glands that in turn contain hormones which are secreted into the bloodstream and affect any cells that has a relevant receptor.

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11
Q

Why is the Pituitary gland known as the ‘master gland’?

A

It controls the release of hormones from all other endocrine glands in the body

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12
Q

What is the effect of Thyroxine and what gland secretes it?

A

it is released from the thyroid gland and effects cells throughout the body increasing metabolic rates and in turn effects growth rates

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13
Q

What is the effect of Adrenaline and what gland secretes it?

A

It is released from the Adrenal gland and creates a psychological change necessary for ‘fight or flight’

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14
Q

What are the 5 steps involved in the ‘fight or flight’ response?

A
  1. A stressor is detected by the hypothalamus
  2. This activates the pituitary gland
  3. Sympathetic NS is now aroused
  4. Adrenaline from the adrenal medulla is released into the bloodstream
  5. Fight or flight!!
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15
Q

What effect does the release of Adrenaline into the blood have during ‘fight or flight’?

A

-Heart rate increases
-Pupils dilate
-Saliva decreases
-Contracts rectum

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16
Q

What is the definition of a hormone?

A

A biochemical substance that circulates in the blood but only affects target organs.

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17
Q

What is a neuron?

A

Neurones are nerve cells that process and transmit messages through electrical and chemical signals.

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18
Q

What are sensory neurones and their structure?

A

-These carry messages from the receptor to the CNS.
-Long dendrites and short axons

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19
Q

What are relay neurones and their structure?

A

-These connect the sensory neurons to the motor neurons
-They have short dendrites and short axons

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20
Q

What are motor neurons and their structure?

A

-These connect the CNS to effectors such as muscles and glands
-Short dendrites and long axons

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21
Q

How would neurones communicate when a hand comes into contact with heat?

A

When skin comes into contact with heat, the receptors detect this and send signals to the sensory neurones in turn sending a signal to the CNS that your in danger. From here you relay neurones continue this message to the motor neurones which triggers an effector in your arm muscles, leading to a reflex/ fast movement guiding your hand away from the heat.

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22
Q

What is excitation?

A

Neurotransmitter increases the positive charge of the postsynaptic neuron, increasing the likelihood that the postsynaptic neuron will pass on the electrical impulse

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23
Q

What is inhibition?

A

Neurotransmitter increases the negative charge of the postsynaptic neuron, decreasing the likelihood of electrical impulses passing on

24
Q

What is meant by the ‘Holistic view’ in localisation?

A

Proposes the idea that all parts of the brain are involved in the processing of thoughts and action, all at once

25
Q

What are the four lobes in the brain?

A

Frontal lobe
Occipital lobe
Temporal lobe
Parietal lobe

26
Q

What is the role of the motor area in the frontal lobe?

A

A region that is involved with regulating movement.

27
Q

What is the role of the somatosensory area in the parietal lobe?

A

Processes sensory information such as touch

27
Q

What is the role of the visual area in the occipital lobe?

A

Each eye sends from the right visual field to the left visual cortex and vice versa. This means damage to the left hemisphere can produce damage to the right visual field in both eyes.

28
Q

What is the role of the auditory area in the temporal lobe?

A

Analyses speech based information. Damage to this area may cause partial hearing loss

29
Q

What is hemispheric lateralisation?

A

The idea that two halves of the brain are functionally different and that certain mental processes are controlled by one hemisphere rather than the other

30
Q

What hemisphere is language lateralised to?

A

Left hemisphere

31
Q

What does the localisation theory suggest?

A

All areas of the brain are involved in carrying out different functions, behaviours and activities

32
Q

Role of Wernicke’s area?

A

Responsible for speech comprehension and located in the temporal lobe.

33
Q

What is Wernicke’s aphasia

A

Inability to make sense when forming sentences but can pronounce words without issues

34
Q

Role of Broca’s area?

A

responsible for speech production and located in the frontal lobe

35
Q

What is Broca’s aphasia?

A

Difficulty forming sentences as well as failing to understand the order of words in a sentence and who they are directed to

36
Q

What is involved during a split brain procedure?

A

It involves severing the connections between the left and right hemisphere, mainly the corpus callosum.

37
Q

Why are split brain procedures carried out?

A

To reduce epilepsy, stopping excessive electrical activity passing between the hemispheres

38
Q

what does the split brain procedure study?

A

How the hemispheres function when they can’t communicate with each other

39
Q

Explain the procedure of S.B.P

A

Eleven people who had the procedure were studied using a special set up in which an image is projected to the LVF produced by the right hemisphere.
In the normal brain, the Corpus Callosum would immediately share the information between both hemispheres giving a complete image. However presenting the image to one hemisphere of a split-brain patient cannot be transferred to the opposite hemisphere.

40
Q

What were the finding involved with split-brain procedures?

A

the image seen in the RVF allowed the ppt to explain what the saw as the information was processed by the left hemisphere containing the language centres.
However the image shown to the ppt left visual field meant they couldn’t explain what they saw as the info from the right hemisphere could not be transferred over to the language centres in the left hemisphere.

41
Q

What is the structure of a neuron?

A

Cell body which includes a nucleus
Branches are called dendrites and carry new nerve endings from neighbouring neurons towards cell body
Axon carries impulses away from the body and down the neuron
Myelin sheath insulates and protects the axon, speeding up impulse transmission
Nodes of ranvier are gaps that speed up transmission by forcing impulse to jump
Terminal buttons communicate with the next neuron across the synapse

42
Q

What is the location of a neuron?

A

Cell bodies may be in the CNS but they have long axons which form part of the PNS
Sensory neuron’s are located outside the cell
Relay neurones are found in the brain and visual system

43
Q

How is a neuron fired?

A

When a neuron is in its resting state, inside of the cell is negatively charged compared to the outside.
When a neuron is activated by a stimulus, the cell becomes positively charged for a split second causing an ACTION POTENTIAL to occur
This creates an electrical impulse that travels down the axon towards the end of the neuron

44
Q

What happens when an electrical impulse reaches the end of the neuron?

A

When it reaches the neuron end (presynaptic terminal) it triggers the release of neurotransmitter from tiny sacs called synaptic vesicles

45
Q

Movement of neurotransmitters

A

When released they’re taken up by the post synaptic receptor site in the dendrites
They can only move in one direction.

46
Q

What is summation?

A

the process that determines whether or not an action potential will be generated by the combined effects of excitatory and inhibitory signals

47
Q

What is brain placticity?

A

Ability to change throughout life, rapid synaptic connections forming

48
Q

What is synaptic pruning?

A

Connections that are frequently used are deleted and more commonly used connections are strengthened

49
Q

What did the London taxi driver research prove?

A

That there was more grey matter in the hippocampus of taxi drivers which meant they had the ability to navigate and have better spatial skills than the control group of normal drivers
This knowledge altered their brain structure

50
Q

What is functional recovery?

A

When areas of the brain are able to adapt to compensate for the damaged areas

51
Q

The electroencephalogram (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) both involve
recording the electrical activity of the brain.
Outline one difference between the EEG and ERPs.
(Total 2 marks)

A

EEG is a recording of general brain
activity usually linked to states such as sleep and arousal, whilst ERPs are elicited
by specific stimuli presented to the participant.

52
Q

Briefly evaluate the use of EEGs as a way of identifying cortical specialisation in the brain.
(Total 3 marks)

A

safe way of measuring brain activity; there is no surgery or invasive
process; helps to identify activity in various regions of brain; its use as a diagnostic
tool eg epilepsy; lacks precision in measuring individual action potential of
neurons / electrodes not sensitive enough, etc.

53
Q

describe the menstrual cycle

A

Rising oestrogen levels causes the ovary to develop an egg and releases it
Progesterone then helps womb lining to thicken ready for pregnancy
If pregnancy doesn’t occur then lining breaks down and leaves the body

54
Q

Explain the study of Mcclintock

A

29 women with irregular periods
Each woman had a pad placed under their armpit to collect pheromones at different points in their cycle
Each pad was then sterilised and frozen and rubbed on to the women’s lips.
Pads from day 1 were rubbed on the first day and so on.
Eventually it showed 68% of women and their odour donors cycles linked together

Psychology year 12 (6 decks)

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