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Biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

ways of studying the brain

post-mortem examinations

comparing brain to a neurotypical one

A
  • studying the physical brain of somebody who showed a particular behaviour whilst alive that suggested brain damage
  • can see which areas of the brain are damaged to determine th eneural basis of their abnormal behvaiour
  • comparing the brain of a neurotypical person to see how they differ- to identify abnormalities
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2
Q

ways of studying the brain

event-related potentials

focus on the brain activity linked to specific tasks

A
  • use EEG tech to measure how the brain responds to different specific stimuli
  • electrodes- attached to the scalp and a stimulus is presented to participant and resercher loks for activity related to that stimulus
  • averaging- reduces any extraneous neural activity which makes specific response stand out
  • neural responses to the stimulus= dhown in th eaveraged ERP
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3
Q

ways of studying the brain

what are sensory and cognitive ERP?

A
  1. any activity occuring at 100ms- represents the activity that occurs when the brain first perceives the stimulus
  2. the brain activity that occurs at 400ms- shows what brain activity occurs when the info is being processed and evaluated by the brain
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4
Q

ways of studying the brain

electroencephalogram

used to measure brain activity linked to states like sleep

A
  • use electrodes- attached to the participants scalp to measure the activity directly below (electrical activity within neurons)
  • active areas of the brain will have the most electrical activity
  • they generate brainwave patterns- giving an overall account of the brains activity ( can see how active neurons are and how intense the activity is)
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5
Q

ways of studying the brain

functional magnetic resonance imaging

does not directly measure brain activity

A
  • use large magnets to measure brain activity
  • scans show where oxygen is being transported to- based on the diffs in the magnetic signals given b oxygenated and deoxygenated blood
  • iron in blood= distortions in magentic field but when bound to oxygen= no longer causes disortions= oxygenated blood produces a different magnetic signal than deoxygenated blood
  • participant often completes a taskin the scanner
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6
Q

localisation of function

what is the localisation vs holism debate?

A

l- different areas of the brain have different specific functions
h- the whole brain is respnsible for all the brains functions

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7
Q

localisation of function

where is the visual cortex located?

A

in the occipital lobe
* each eye collects info from the right and left visual field
* right visual cortex processes all info from the left visul field
* left visual cortext processes all info from the right visual field

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8
Q

localisation of function

where is the auditory cortex located?

A

temporal lobe
* processes acoustic info
* info from the left ear is processed in the left auditory cortex
* info from the right ear is processed in the left auditory cortex

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9
Q

localisation of function

where is the motor cortex located?

A

back of the frontal lobe
* responsible for the bodys voluntary movement by sending signals to the muscles
* right motor cortex is responsible for the movement of the left side of body
* left motor cortex is responsible for the movement of the right side of body

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10
Q

localisation of function

where is the somatosensory cortex located?

A

in the parietal lobe
* recieves incoming sensory info from the skin to produce sensations related to pain temp etc
* diff parts of the area= specifically recieve input from diff parts of the body
* left sc recieves sensory info from the right side of body
* right sc recieves sensory info from the left side of body

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11
Q

localisation of function- language centres

what are the two language centres in the brain?

A

brocas area
wernickes area

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12
Q

localisation of function- language centres

brocas area

A
  • location- left frontal lobe
  • function- speech production
  • if damaged- slow,simple and short sentences
  • comprehension still intact- able to undersatnd and produce meaningful sentences
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13
Q

localisation of function- language centres

wernickes area

A
  • location- top of left temporal lobe
  • function- processing and comprehending language
  • if damaged- difficulty understanding speech, may make up words
  • can still produce fluent speech but lacks meaning
  • wernicke concluded that- motor region is located in brocas area and sensory region located in wernickes area
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14
Q

hemispheric lateralistion

what is this and what does the left and right sides responsible for?

A

the idea that the two halves of the brain are functionally different and each hemisphere has functional specialistaions
right- focuses on visuo-spatial tasks, controls left hand and recieves info from the left field
left- the language centre of the brain, controls the right hand receieves info from the right visual field

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15
Q

hemispheric lateralistion- split brain research

what was sperrys aim

A
  • examine the extent to which the two hemispheres are specialised to certain functions
  • quasi experiment
  • 11 participants- were epileptics had a cut corpus collosum
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16
Q

hemispheric lateralistion- split brain research

what is the importance of the corpus callosum?

A

a bundle of nerve fibres which joins the two halves of the brain allowing them to communicate
* this means if an image is processed in the right side- can be transfered to the left side of the brain

BUT WHEN SEVERED THEY CAN NO LONGER COMMUNICATE

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16
Q

hemispheric lateralistion- split brain research

what was sperrys say what you see procedure?

A

p’s looked at a screen which had an image either come up on the left or right they had to say what they saw

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16
Q

hemispheric lateralistion- split brain research

what were the findings for sperrys say what you see?

A
  • right visual field- processed byleft visual cortex = COULD descrbe what they saw because the vc could communicate with the langauge centres in the left as they are both in the same hemisphere so did not need to cross the cc ( severed)
  • left visual field- processed byright visual cortex= COULD NOT describe what they saw because the right vc could not communicate with the lang centres on the left of brain as the cc was severed= no longer connected= could not articulate what they saw
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17
Q

hemispheric lateralistion- split brain research

what was sperrys draw what you see procedure?

A

had to draw something presented to either the left vf or right vf

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18
Q

hemispheric lateralistion- split brain research

what was the findings from the draw what you see?

A
  • presented in left vf= processed by the right vc = COULD draw what they saw easily as the right hemisphere is responaible for visual-motor tasks
  • presented in right vf= processed by the left vc= COULD NOT draw a clear image of what they saw because left vc could not communicate with the right (has significant role in visual-motor tasks)
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19
Q

hemispheric lateralistion- split brain research

what does the draw what you see condition suggest?

A

right= visual motor tasks
when info is processed by the left cannot be transfered to right due to severed cc

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20
Q

hemispheric lateralistion- split brain research

what is sperrys conclusion?

A
  • hemispheres have diff functionsleft only= language and right visual- motor tasks
  • right can understand stimuli but cannot verbalise it
  • hemispheres have independent perception, awareness and memory
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21
Q

plasticity + functional recovery

what is neuroplasticiy?

A

the brains ability to structurally and functionally change because of experience
this ability plays an important role in brain development and behaviour

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22
Q

plasticity + functional recovery

when does neuroplasticity occur?

A

peaks at apx 15,000 by 2-3 years old
* BUT - recent research suggets that even older brains have consiberable plasticity and is still able to change and adapt through experience e.g stroke patients ( neural bleed or blood clot= loss of behavioural function) they can recover with therapy
* this shows that older people do have np but not as much as infants and may require therpay when recovering from trauma

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23
Q

plasticity + functional recovery

how does np work?

A

synaptic pruning
* once brain forms synapse can either be strengthened or weakened this depends on how often the synapse is used
* synapses that are more active are strengthened and synapses that are less active are weakenedand eliminated
* this is how the brain adpats based on our experiences- nerve pathways that are used most develop stronger connections where as rarely used= dies

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24
Q

plasticity + functional recovery

what causes np?

A

the brain is in a continual state of change from growth in early years to change and refinement’s in adulthood as we learn and experience

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25
Q

plasticity + functional recovery

what is functional recovery?

an example of np

A

after trauma or damage unaffected parts of the brain are often able to adapt and compensate for the areas that are damaged
* healthy brain areas may take over the functions of those that are damaged, destroyed or even missing
* this process can occur quily after trauma then slow down after several weeks or months

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26
Q

plasticity + functional recovery

how does fr occur?

A

neural unmasking
* secondary neural pathways ( may have laid dormant) that would not typically be used to carry out certain functions are unmasked to enable functioning to continue
* these synapses may be ineffective because the rate of neural input to them is too low for them to be activated
* however increasing the rate of input to the synapse= they can then unmask the dormant synapses- can open connections to reigions of the brain that are not normally activated= development of new structures

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27
Q

plasticity + functional recovery

what are the three structural changes from nueronal unmasking?

A
  1. axon sprouting- new nerve endings grow and connect with undamaged areas
  2. reformation of blood vessels
  3. recruitment of similar areas- on the opposite hemisphere to specific tasks
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28
Q

plasticity + functional recovery

does age matter with fr?

A

brain= more plastic while it still matures= can happen more quickly for children than adults
* but adults (older) can still recover from trauma stroke= therapy= can recover

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29
Q

biological rhythms

what are the three off them?

A

circadian
infradin
ultradian

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30
Q

biological rhythms

what are circadian rythms and its three examples?

A

a bio rythm that occurs once every 24 hours
sleep/wake cycle and body temp
* driven by our body clocks found in all cells in our body and synchrionised by the SCN

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31
Q

biological rhythms- circadian

what is the sleep wake cycle?

A

describes how we go from being awake during day and asleep at night
* light detected= SCN sends signal to the pineal glad which responds by inhibiting melatonin= wakefulness
* no light detected= SCN sends signal to the pineal gland which responds by increasing the production of melatonin hormone into blood stream = sleep inhibiting wakefullness

32
Q

biological rhythms- circadian

what is the body temperature?

A

core body temp= lowest at 4:30 am ( 36c) and higest at 6pm ( 38c)

33
Q

biological rhythms- circadian

what is hormone production?

A

cortisol is lowest around midnight and peaks at 6am as this helps us stay alert and wake up= if wake up at like 4am= not as awake
melationin also

34
Q

biological rhythms

what are infradian rhythms and what are the two examples?

A

bio rythm that occurs LESS THAN ONCE EVERY 24 HOURS
menstural cylce
seasonal affective disorder
governed by exogenous (external other womens pheromones) and endogenous factors (internal hormones)

35
Q

biological rhythms- infradian

what is the menstural cycle?

A

lasts 28 days on average
1. bleeding- the thickened lining starts to shed
2. rising levels of oestrogen hormone= ovary to develop and release an egg ( ovulation)
3. after this the hormone progestorne helps the uterus linning to grow thicker preparing body for pregnancy
4. if egg not fertilised the egg is absorbed into body and linning comes away = menstural flow

36
Q

biological rhythms- infradian

what is the research into other womens pheromones effect on mentural cycle?

A
  • 29 women with irregular periods- collected pheremones from 9 of them from pits and rubbed onto the upper lip of the other ps
  • 68% of the women experienced changes which made their cycle more similar to their odour donor
37
Q

biological rhythms- infradian

what is seasonal affective disorder?

A

SAD= a depressive disorder that occurs when daylight hours become shorter ( lack of interest in life and low mood)
melotonin is implicated in its cause
* during winter mornings due to lack of light secretion process is longer = effcet on the production of st a nt linked to depression

38
Q

biological rhythms

what are ultradian rhythms and an example of it?

A

a rhythm that occurs more than once in a 24 hour period
* stages of sleep in sleep cycle- an eeg is used to record electrical activity in the brain= measuring sleep

39
Q

biological rhythms- ultradian

what is the sleep cycle- stages of sleep?

A
  • each cycle last 90 mins
  • there are 5 stages- continues throuought the course of the night occurring multiple times
  • the first four stages = non rapid eye movement
  • final stage= rapid eye movement
40
Q

biological rhythms- ultradian

what are stages 1 and 2?

A

both light sleeping can be easily woken up
1. brain waves start to become slower and more rhythmic (alpha waves)
2. burts of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity (sleep spindles)- become slower as sleep becomes deeper (theta waves)

41
Q

biological rhythms- ultradian

what are stages 3 and 4?

A
  • deepest period of sleep lasting 20-40 mins
  • heartbeat and breathing slows to lowest level + muscles relaxed= hard to wake up
  • waves= slower and deeper (delta)
42
Q

biological rhythms- ultradian

what is stage 5 called?

A

REM sleep- a much deeper sleep
* defined by rapid eye movement and is like complete paralysis of body + dreams
* the brain is very active but the body is not
(paradoxical sleep)
* brain activity speeds up= similar to the awake brain

43
Q

what is the nervous system and what to sub-systems is it divided into?

A

specialised network of cells in the body which make up our primary internal communication system
* central ns + peripheral ns

44
Q

what are the two main functions of the nervous system?

A
  1. collect, process and respond to info around us
  2. co-ordinate the working of diff organs and cells in body
45
Q

nervous system

what are the two parts of the cns?

A

spinal cord
brain
connected by the brain stem- controls involuntary movements like breathing

46
Q

nervous systems

what is the brains role in the cns?

A

provides conscious awareness + involved in all psychological processes
* it processes visual,auditory info making decisions about how we should act based on this
* cerebral cortex= highly developed

47
Q

nervous systems

what is the role of the spinal cord?

A

to transfer messages to and from the brain and the rest of the body
* also responsible for simple reflex actions that do not involve the brain like the knee-jerk reaction

48
Q

nervous systems

what is the role of the pns and what are its two main components?

A

to relay messages from the cns to the glands and muscles in the body
* the somatic ns
* the autonomic ns

49
Q

nervous systems- pns

what is the somantic ns?

sensing and moving

A

carrys sensory info from the outside world to the brain and provide muscle responses via motor pathways

50
Q

nervous systems- pns

what is the autonomic ns?

A

important role homeostasis in maintains internal processes like body temp, bp etc
* actions= involuntarily and consists of motor pathways only and two components
* sympathetic ns- activated when we are in a stressful situation ( fight or flight)
* parasympathetic ns- activated when we are no longer in a stressful situation- relaxation

51
Q

nervous system- communication

what is a neuron and what are the three types?

A

nerve cells in the system
transmits signals electrically within the neuron and chemically bewteen neurons
1. sensory
2. relay
3. motor

52
Q

nervous system- communication

what are sensory neurons?

senses- long dendrites short axons

A
  • found in receptors like skin eyes etc and carry nerve impulses from the pns to the cns
  • not all reach the brain as some stop at the sc to allow quick refelx actions
53
Q

nervous system- communication

what are relay neurons?

short dendrites and short axons

A
  • found between sensory in and motor output/response- allow the sensory and motor neurons to communicate
  • in the cns
  • many dendrites- recieve electrical impulse from sensory neuron then transmits this to motor neurons via axon
54
Q

nervous system- communication

what are motor neurons?

movement

A

control muscle movements
* receieve info from relay neurons via dendrites= electrical impulses that travel down the axon into axon terminals= realease nts that bind to receptors on muscle to trigger response= movement

55
Q

nervous system- communication

what is the role of the dendrites, cell body and axon?

A
  1. carry electrical signals from the neighbouring neurons to the cell body
  2. contains nucleus= contains DNA
  3. carries electrical signal away from cell body down neuron
56
Q

nervous system- communication

what is the role of the mylein sheath, nodes of ranvier ad axon terminal?

A
  1. protects axon acting as an electrical insulator increasing speed impulse travels
  2. gaps that make the signal go faster as it jumps across gap
  3. connect with the next neuron’s in the chain across synapse
57
Q

nervous system- communication

what are the steps of synaptic transmission?

A

1.receptor sites of pre-synaptic neuron recieves nt from previous neuron
2.this creates a positive charge in membrane of dendrite- charge is transmitted to cell body
3. positive charge high enough creates action potential, electrical impulses travel down the axon to the axon terminal ( end of neuron)
4. signal needs to cross a gap ( synapse) nts are pushed towards cell membrane= vesicles nts are in to burst releasing them into the synapse
5. nt diffuse across the synapse and then bind onto the receptors on post- synaptic neuron

58
Q

nervous system- communication

what is the direction of travel for nts and why?

A

one direction in synapse
* bc the vesicles with them in are only present on the end of the presynaptic neuron
* the receptors are only on present on the post synaptic neuron
diffusion= from a high to low conc.

59
Q

nervous system- communication

what does it mean when a nt has an excitatory effect on the next neuron in the chain?

A

increases neurons positive charge = more likely to fire

60
Q

nervous system- communication

what does it mean when a nt has an inhibitory effect on the next neuron in the chain?

A

increases negative charge of the post synaptic neuron = neuron less likely to fire

61
Q

nervous system- communication

when can neural communication occur?

A

only if there is an action potential and this ap can only occur if there is enough positive charge within the neuron

62
Q

nervous system- communication

what is summation?

A

decides whether a neuron does or doesn’t fire
the excitatory + inhibititory influences on post synaptic neuron are added together
* if net effect= excitatory= more likely to fire
* if net effect = inhibitory= less liekly to fire

63
Q

what is the endocrine system?

A

a network of glands that secrete hormones

64
Q

endocrine system

what are hormones?

A

chemical messages that travel around the body via the blood stream regulating activity of cells and organs

65
Q

what are the diffs between the endocrine and nervous system?

A

communication- n= electrical ( neural) e= chemical (hormones)
speed of transmission n= fast bc neurons interconnected e= slow bc travels through blood stream
length of effects- n= short
e= long

66
Q

endocrine system

what are some glands that make up the system?

A

adreanal
pancreas
pineal
pituitary
hypothalamus
ovary
testes
thyroid
thymus

67
Q

endocrine system

what does the hypothalamus do?

control system regulates endocrine system

A

responsible for stimulating or controlling the release of hormones from the pituitary gland

68
Q

endocrine system- anterior and prosterior

what does the pituitary gland do?

master gland

A

hormones relaeased by it control and stimulate the releases of hormones from other glands

69
Q

endocrine system

what hormones do the thyroid gland and ovaries realease and their effects?

A

thyroxine- increases heart and metabolic rates
oestrogen- controls regulation of female reproductive system

70
Q

endocrine system

what is the fight or flight response?

A

the way an organism responds when stressed
it allows us to quickly react to stressors= increased survival chances
the ans and endocroine system work together to manage this response

71
Q

endocrine system

what happens when body becomes stressed?

A
  1. hypothalamus triggers activity in the sympathetic branch of the ans
  2. ans changes from parasympathetic state to sympathetic state= adrenal medulla to stimulate release of adrenaline into the blood stream
72
Q

endocrine system

what happens when adrenaline is released into the blood stream?

A

circulates through the blood stream and targets cells in organs= physiological changes in body like:
increased heart rate, msucle contraction and breathing= increased o2 intake
constricts blood vessels, increasing rate of flow + raising bp
diverts blood away from skin, kidney sand digestive system, skeletal muscles increase respiration and sweating
* all above creates arousal needed for response e.g increasing o2 to brain for rapid response planning

73
Q

endocrine system

what happens when the stressor is gone?

A

the ans goes back to its parasympathetic state this results in activities that were increased by the sympathetic system to reduce e.g
decresed heart rate and brething rate stimulates digeston

74
Q

effect of ezs and eps on sleep wake cycle

what are endogenous pacemakers and what is the main one in mammals?

A

internal body clocks that regulate our bio rhythms
suprachaiasmatic nucleus

75
Q

effect of ezs and eps on sleep wake cycle

what is the SCN?

A

a bundle of nerve cells that lies just above the optic chiasm - it receives info from the chaism about the light visible to us through a astucture in the eye
* even when our eyes are shut, light penetrates through the eyelid enabling our bio rhythms to adjust to our environment even when asleep

76
Q

effect of ezs and eps on sleep wake cycle

what does the pienal gland do in the sleep/wake cycle?

A

it secretes the hormone melatonin into the bloodstream
melatonin induces sleep and is inhibited during wakefulness

77
Q

effect of ezs and eps on sleep wake cycle

what are exogenous zeitgebers and what is the key one in humans?

A

external factors which can reset our biological clocks to ensure they are consistent with the outside world through entrainment
* light- entrains s/w cycle as it ensures or bio clocks are consistent with outside world= main role in maintaining the sleep/wake cycle

78
Q

effect of ezs and eps on sleep wake cycle

what are social cues?

A

eating meals at socially determined times and go to bed and wake up at times appropriate for our age- these help to entrain babies bio rhythms

79
Q

effect of ezs and eps on sleep wake cycle

what are two examples of disruption to biological rhythms?

increased anxiety, irritation etc

A

when they are no longer in sync with putside world bodys daily s/w cycle is no longer consistent with outside world
shift work-working at night= sleeping in day moving from day to night shift, eps will try to make person carry on with 24 cycle but this is out of synchrony with the ez light
jet lag- cycle becomes out of sync with outside world if traveling between time zones= need to resent rhythm to fit location in

Psychology (12 decks)

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