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biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

what is the nervous system and what does it control?

A

made up of all the neurons and nerves in the body, controls the mind and body
as it takes information from the environment and the body and coordinates a function that is conscious or unconscious

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2
Q

what systems are in the nervous system?

A

CNS - brain and spinal cord
PNS - autonomic and somatic nervous system, autonomic splits again to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system

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3
Q

what is the brain responsible for?

A

perception, motor control, regulating bodily processes and maintain homeostasis, sleep

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4
Q

what is the spinal cord responsible?

A

connects the brain with the peripheral nervous system, connects the brain with the external world, responsible for unconscious movements e.g., reflexes

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5
Q

what is the somatic nervous system?

A

responsible for voluntary movement, transmits information between the CNS and the sense and is conscious

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6
Q

what is the autonomic nervous system?

A

responsible for transmitting information between the CNS and internal organs, involuntary, unconscious movements

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7
Q

what does the sympathetic nervous system do?

A

response to fight or flight system, increases heart rate, stops digestion, pupils increase, breathing rate increases, oxygen levels increase to allow for rapid planning for escape or fighting

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8
Q

what does the parasympathetic nervous system do?

A

after the threat has gone, parasympathetic returns the body back to resting state, rest and digest, lowers heart rate and blood pressure

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9
Q

what is a sensory neuron?

A

transmit neurons from the sense to the central nervous system

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10
Q

what is a motor neuron?

A

transmits information between the central nervous system and the organs and muscles

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11
Q

what is a relay neuron?

A

connects sensory and motor relay, allow communication to pass

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12
Q

what is the structure of a neuron?

A

dendrite - receives an electrical signal
cell body - contains the nucleus
axon - protected by a myelin sheath carry the electrical signal to the axon terminal
terminal buttons - at the end of an axon the electrical signal to the vesicles
signal to chemical message across the synapse
receptor sites at the post synaptic transmission carry on.

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13
Q

what is synaptic transmission?

A

starts with the pre-synaptic neuron
neurons are separated by synapses, and this is the process of sending information from one neuron to another
electrical signal reaches the axon terminal, neurotransmitters are released from the vesicles an cross over the synapse where taken up by receptor on the dendrite of the other neuron. post synaptic neuron

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14
Q

what is an excitatory neurotransmitter?

A

increase the likelihood of the neuron firing
adrenaline/noradrenaline

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15
Q

what is an inhibitory neurotransmitter?

A

decreases the likelihood of the neuron firing
serotonin and dopamine

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16
Q

what is summation?

A

the sum of all the EPSP and IPSP together and see whether the neuron will fire an action potential or not.

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17
Q

what is the endocrine system?

A

system of glands that are responsible for the release of hormones
the pituitary gland is linked to the nervous system via the hypothalamus which co-ordinates and regulates the release of hormone from glands

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18
Q

what are hormones?

A

chemicals that communicate information throughout the body, different hormones are produced and released by different glands in the body

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19
Q

name glands, their hormone and their effect?

A

pituitary - growth hormone
testes - testosterone, responsible for male sex characteristics
ovaries - eostrogen and progesterone, responsible for female sex characteristics
thyroid - thyroxine, increases metabolism regulates temperature
pineal - melatonin, sleep cycle
adrenal - adrenaline and cortisol, maintain blood sugar, immune response

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20
Q

what is the difference between the nervous system and endocrine system?

A

NS - nerves, quick response, short lasting
ES - chemical, slow response, long lasting relief

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21
Q

what is the SAM pathway

A

acute stress
starts with the sympathetic nervous system which triggers the adrenal medulla to release adrenaline and noradrenaline

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22
Q

what is the HPA axis?

A

chronic stress
hypothalamus triggers the pituitary gland to let the adrenal cortex to release cortisol to keep energy levels going

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23
Q

what is hemispheric lateralisation?

A

brain divided laterally, each half the brain has a different role, split further into four lobes:
frontal, temporal, occipital, parietal
hemispheres are not symmetrical
left - language processing
right - motor and spatial relationships

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24
Q

what research is there to support hemispheric lateralisation?

A

split brain research, Sperry

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25
Q

what is split brain research?

A

the hemispheres are connected by corpus callosum
in extreme epilepsy, surgeon may cut it separating the hemispheres to reduce the severity of the epilepsy

26
Q

what was Sperry’s research for split brain?

A

lab study
split brain patients were shown an image to their right visual field, they were able to describe in words what they saw
when shown the same image to their left visual field they were not able to describe what they saw.
however, despite not being able to use words the image shown to the left visual field, the patients could use their hands to pick an object associated with the image.

27
Q

what evaluation points are there for split brain?

A

strengths of methodology - standardised and controlled procedure
issues with generalisation - small unrepresentative sample with no control group
differences in function may be overstated

28
Q

what is localisation of brain functions?

A

refers to identifying specific areas of the brain that correspond to specific functions. damage to the auditory cortex in the brain can damage hearing, whereas damage to the motor cortex may reduce a person’s ability to move. suggests these functions are localised within these areas of the brain.

29
Q

what is the role of the motor cortex?

A

responsible for voluntary movement, located in the frontal lobes of each hemisphere

30
Q

what is the role of the somatosensory cortex?

A

respsonsible for sensing physical sensations on the skin, like pressure and heat, located in the parietal lobes of each hemisphere

31
Q

what is the role of the visual cortex?

A

responsible for processing visual information from the eyes, located in the occipital lobes of each hemisphere

32
Q

what is the role of the auditory cortex?

A

responsible for processing sound, located in the temporal lobe of each hemisphere

33
Q

what is the role of Broca’s area?

A

speech production and fluency, located in the frontal lobe, left hemisphere
damage to Broca’s area causes Broca’s aphasia - slow speech, lack of fluency, inability to find the right words

34
Q

what is the role of Wernicke’s area?

A

responsible for language comprehension, located in the temporal lobe
damage causes Wernicke’s aphasia, typically no problems with speech production, however effects the content of what say lacks meaning

35
Q

what evaluation point are there for localisation of function in the brain?

A

brain scan evidence
Peterson showed Broca and Wernicke areas active
Tan - case study
Neurosurgical evidence - Dougherty 1/3 of people with OCD responded to cingulotomy supporting localisation
case study - Phineas Gage personality change, frontal lobe
Lashley’s research - Rats’ maze learning unaffected by removal of cortical material
law of equipotentiality

36
Q

what is neuroplasticity?

A

the ability of the brain to change its physical structure to perform different functions

37
Q

how does neuroplasticity work?

A

in a child the brain can easily change its structure as new neurons are being formed with the new information they learn and skills. children are able to recover from brain damage and trauma much quicker with better outcomes
unused neuron pathways are weakened while common pathways are strengthened.

38
Q

what evidence is there to support functional recovery after trauma?

A

other areas of the brain adapt to take over the function of damaged areas. Danelli et al 2013 - 2 1/2 year old damaged to left hemisphere could not speak but after 2 years could speak again
unused neural pathways are recruited, dormant pathways - Wall 1977, previously dormant synapses activate and form new connections to compensate for the damaged ones.
Axon sprouting - damage to the axon of the neuron can break its connections to other neurons. therefore extra nerve endings grow to reconnect with these damaged neurons.

39
Q

what research is there into plasticity?

A

Maguire study - hippocampus in taxi drivers changes structure after learning the knowledge, bigger posterior hippocampus than the control group
Draganski - changes in hippocampus and the parietal cortex before and after exams
video games
Tibetan monks

40
Q

what evaluation points are there for plasticity and functional recovery?

A

practical application - neurorehabilitation required to maintain improvement because spontaneous recovery slows down
Negative plasticity - Drug use may cause neural changes - Medina
Phantom limb syndrome due to reorganisation in somatosensory cortex - Ramachandran
plasticity reduces with age though Bezzola showed how golf training caused neural changes in over 40s
support from animal studies - Hubel and Wiesel - pioneering research into kitten’s cortical response caused permanent damage
Schneider - the more time spent in education, the greater the brain’s capacity to heal

41
Q

what are the ways of studying the brain?

A

fMRI
EEGs
ERPs
post-mortem

42
Q

how is fMRI used to study the brain?

A

measures blood flow and oxygenated blood in the brain

43
Q

what are the strengths of fMRI?

A

high spatial resolution - able to identify where the activity in the brain is, provides a detailed and accurate picture of the brain activity

44
Q

what are the weaknesses of fMRI?

A

very expensive to buy and maintain, limits their use as psychological research tools
therefore smaller sample sizes are used for research
low temporal resolution - not up to date activity in the brain

45
Q

how is EEGs used to study the brain?

A

detect electrical activity in the brain cells by attaching electrodes to the scalp

46
Q

how are ERPs used to study the brain?

A

close to EEGs, measures changes in brain activity in response to a stimulus,
EEG could provide baseline data, then researchers introduce a stimulus and use ERPs to determine how brain activity changes in response

47
Q

what are the strengths of EEGs and ERPs?

A

enable researchers to measure changes in brain activity as they happen
less expensive than fMRI
high temporal resolutions - record several pictures of the brain per second

48
Q

what are the weaknesses of EEG and ERPs?

A

low spatial resolution - unable to provide detail view of where the activity is happening, cannot pin point exact area of the brain

49
Q

how is post-mortem used to study the brain?

A

physical examination of the brain after a person has died, physically analysing a brain, dissecting, weighing
learn more about the causes of behaviours and psychological disorders
analysis of the brains of patients with speaking difficulties

50
Q

what are the strengths of post-mortem?

A

enable research to study deeper of the brain that cannot be reached, such as the hypothalamus

51
Q

what are the weaknesses of post-mortem?

A

ethical issues - can those with brain damage consent to having a post-mortem
no brain activity - lead the researchers to speculate about connections between physical brain and their psychological character when they were alive

52
Q

what are circadian rhythms?

A

Biological rhythms – controlled by internal body clocks, endogenous pacemakers and external cues, exogenous zeitgebers
lasts approx. 24 hrs

53
Q

what was Siffre’s cave study/what did it show about the circadian rhythm?

A

Caveman, spent several extended period of underground to study the effects on his own rhythm
Deprived of exposure to natural light and sound.
Siffre resurfaced in September after two months in caves, but he thought it was August.
His free-running biological rhythm settled down to around 25hrs
But continued to fall asleep and wake up on a regular schedule

54
Q

what other evidence is there to support circadian rhythms?

A

Aschoff and Wever :
Ppt spent 4 weeks in WWII bunker, deprived of natural light
Sleep/wake cycle extended to 24-25 hours
One ppt extended it to 29 hours

Folkard:
12 ppt agreed to live in the dark for 3 weeks
Changed the clocks, speeding up time
24 hours days turned into 22 hour days
Only one ppt was able to adjust to the new regime
Suggest the existence of a strong free-running circadian rhythm that cannot be easily overridden by external environment changes.

55
Q

what are infradian rhythms

A

last longer than 24hrs
menstrual cycle, SAD

56
Q

what evidence is there to support infradian rhythms?

A

McClintock
demonstrated how menstrual cycles may synchronise as a result of female pheromones.
Procedure – 29 women with a history of irregular periods
Samples of pheromones were gathered from 9 women at different stages of their cycles from their armpit.
Then the pheromones collected rubbed on the upper lip of ppt.
McClintock found that 68% of women experienced changes to their cycle which brought them closer to the cycle of their odour donor.

57
Q

what are ultradian rhythms?

A

last less than 24hrs
sleep cycle 90 minutes
Stages of sleep
Stages 1 and 2 – light sleep where the person is easily woken, brain waves become slower and rhythmic.
Stages 3 and 4 – involve delta waves which are slower, this is a deep sleep and difficult to arouse someone
Stage 5 REM – body is paralysed by brain activity speeds up, fast, jerky eye movements, REM activity during sleep is correlated to dreaming.

58
Q

what are endogenous pacemakers?

A

internal body clocks that regulate biological rhythms, such as the SCN and sleep/wake cycle

59
Q

what evidence is there to support endogenous pacemakers?

A

DeCoursey
destroyed the SCN connections in the brain of 30 chipmunks
then returned to natural habitat
sleep/wake cycle disappeared
end of the study many of the chipmunks had been killed by predators because they were awake and vulnerable

Ralph
bred mutant hamsters
20 hour sleep/wake cycle
SCN cells were transplanted into normal hamsters
Their cycles defaulted to 20hrs as well

60
Q

what are exogenous zeitgebers?

A

external cues that may affect or entrain biological rhythms, such as the influence of light on sleep/wake cycle

61
Q

what evidence is there to support exogenous zeitgebers?

A

Campbell and Murphy demonstrated that light may be detected by skin receptor sites on the body even when the same information is not received by the eyes.
15 ppt took part
were woken at certain times
a light was shone on the back of their knees
research managed to change the sleep/wake cycle by 3 hours

62
Q

how do social cues help with exogenous zeitgebers?

A

infant sleep/wake cycle in random,
6 weeks of age, circadian rhythm begins, 16 weeks, most babies are entrained.
Schedules imposed by parents are a key influence
Adult-determined mealtimes and bedtimes
Research suggests that adapting to local times for eating and sleeping is an effective way of entraining circadian rhythms
As well as beating jet lag when travelling long distances

psychology (11 decks)

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