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Biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

What two things make up the Nervous system?

A

The CNS (central nervous system) and the PNS (peripheral nervous system).

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2
Q

What does the CNS consist of?

A

Cerebral cortex and the Spinal Cord

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3
Q

Where is the cerebral cortex found?

A

Left and Right hemispheres

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4
Q

What does the Spinal Cord control?

A

Reflexes

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5
Q

What does the PNS consist of?

A

Autonomic nervous system (ANS) and Somatic nervous system (SNS)

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6
Q

What does the Endocrine system consist of?

A

Glands

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7
Q

What do glands produce?

A

Hormones

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8
Q

What is the theory of localisation of function in the brain?

A

Certain areas of the brain have certain tasks which they perform.

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9
Q

How has the theory of localisation of function in the brain been supported?

A

Post-mortems and brain scans.

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10
Q

Where is visual information processed?

A

Occipital lobe

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11
Q

Where is sensory information processed?

A

Parietal lobe.

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12
Q

Where is movement information processed?

A

Frontal Lobe.

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13
Q

Where is semantic and episodic memory located?

A

Temporal lobe.

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14
Q

Where is language processed?

A

Broca’s area.

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15
Q

Where is language comprehended?

A

Wernicke’s area

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16
Q

What did Paul Broca find and where?

A

Speech production in a small area of the left hemisphere of the frontal lobe.

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17
Q

What did Karl Wernicke find and where?

A

Comprehension of language in a different area of the temporal lobe

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18
Q

What is a prefrontal lobotomy?

A

Inserting a thin blade in the corner of the eye and then moving it side to side, severing the connection to the frontal lobe reducing the brain function dramatically.

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19
Q

What are thee supports related to brain scans for localisation of the brain theory?

A

+Peterson et al (1988)- use of brain scans to show activity of Wernicke’s area when engaged in listen and the Broca’s area when reading.
+Tulving et al (1994)- found that the semantic and episodic memory was stored within different areas of the prefrontal cortex.
+Braver et al (1997)- he found that the WMM in the left prefrontal cortex that as task difficulty increased so did the level of activity.

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20
Q

What is a support related to neurosurgical evidence for localisation of the brain theory?

A

+The use of lobotomy’s in the 1950’s to ‘permanently sedate’ the patients suffering from depression hyper activity or hallucinations. Showed that the brain doesn’t require all elements to function as despite the surgery people didn’t die or become brain dead.

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21
Q

What does brain plasticity refer to?

A

The brains ability to reshape and move after trauma.

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22
Q

What is synaptic pruning?

A

Where unused synapses are discarded and high frequency ones are strengthened.

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23
Q

Why does synaptic pruning go against Localisation of the brain?

A

Says that certain things happen in multiple different places of the brain.

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24
Q

What did Maguire et al (2000) do?

A

Studied the brains of London taxi drivers.

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25
Q

What did Maguire et al find?

A

There was significantly more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus than in matched controlled groups.

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26
Q

What happens in the posterior hippocampus?
Maguire et al

A

Associated with the development of spatial and navigational skills in humans and other animals.

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27
Q

What was the test that London taxi drivers had to complete during training called and what was it for?
Maguire et al

A

The Knowledge
Asses their recall of the streets and potential routes.

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28
Q

What did Bogdan Draganski et al do?

A

Imaged the brains of medical students three weeks before and three weeks after their final exams.

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29
Q

What did Draginski find?

A

Medical student brains showed increases in development of the posterior hippocampus post studied compared to pre – studies.

30
Q

What is the technical word for functional recovery of the brain after trauma?

A

Neurorehabilitation.

31
Q

What did Doidge find?

A

The brain reorganises itself by forming new synaptic connections close to the site of damage. Secondary links are strengthened making the area work as it did before.

32
Q

What is axonal sprouting?

A

The growth of new nerve endings whcih connect with the other undamaged nerves forming neural pathways.

33
Q

What is meant by reforming blood vessels?

A

Recruitment of homologous (similar) areas of the brain in the other hemisphere of the brain.

34
Q

What is negative placticity?

A

Although the brain is good at rewiring itself it doesn’t always go to plan e.g Phantom limb syndrome.

35
Q

What did Medina et al find?

A

The effect of prolonged drug use can lead to poorer cognitive function and risk of dementia due to the brains rewiring to less stable areas.

36
Q

What did Hubel and Wiesel do?

A

Sewed one eye of a kitten shut so that it never saw out of it.
They later scanned the brain for activity, they found that the area which would normally be activated by the eye was still active and processed information from the other eye.

37
Q

What was Sperry’s experiment into?

A

Hemispheric Lateralisation

38
Q

What was the aim of Sperry’s experiment?

A

To demonstrate that hemispheres have different functions/abilities and that they each have their own conscious awareness and memory.

39
Q

What method did Sperry use in this experiment?

A

A Natural Experiment

40
Q

What participants did Sperry use?

A

11 males who were all epileptics who had undergone commisectory (surgical separation of the two brain hemispheres).

41
Q

What was Sperry’s procedure?

A

The subject has one eye covered and gazes at a fixation point on a screen and given three tests.

42
Q

What were the 3 tests that Sperry did on his p/pants?

A

Visual stimuli tests- slides are projected either side of the fixation point at a rate of one picture per 1/10 second, they then have to say or write what they saw.

Tactile stimuli tests- objects are presented to the left or right hand behind a screen, they must point, feel or draw the objects with their left hand.

Tests to the right hemisphere- Range of tests/puzzles

43
Q

What were the results of Sperrys experiment?

A

Images & objects are only recognised when presented to same eye or hand.When an object is displayed on one half of the screen (i.e. the left) and then in the other the P has no recollection of seeing it before.

44
Q

What is the theory of hemispheric lateralisation?

A

Generally information that relates the left hand side of the body is processed in the right hemisphere then the right hand on the left.It suggests that certain function of the brain are located in one hemisphere of the brain and thus we can attribute there function to only one hemisphere.

45
Q

What are supports of Hemispheric Lateralisation?

A

Sherry’s study, Broca and Wernickes post mortem studies.

46
Q

What are criticisms of Hemispheric Lateralisation?

A

Lack of generalisability from participants in other studies, Can’t state cause and effect with cases yet this id what the evidence tries to do.

47
Q

What are the four ways of investigating the brain?

A

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Electroencephalogram (EEG’s) ,Event-related potentials (ERP’s), Post-mortem examinations.

48
Q

What are post mortem examinations?

A

The oldest method of studying the brain.When someone who has brain abnormalities dies, their brain is dissected to allow the researcher to establish a difference between their brain and someone with a healthy brain.

49
Q

Support for Post mortem exams

A

The first method developed which led to investigate the brain and has been done for over 100 years

50
Q

Criticisms of Post mortem exams

A

It requires the p/pant to be dead, preventing the analyses of a functioning brain
Other techniques can show brain activity in a living person while this cannot and often left with difficulty establishing cause and effect

51
Q

What is an EEG?

A

An EEG is a recording of the electrical waves of activity that occur in the brain, and across its surface.

52
Q

How is an EEG performed?

A

Electrodes are placed on different areas of a person’s scalp, filled with a conductive gel, and then plugged into a recording device. The brain waves are then attracted by the electrodes, travel to the recording device and then amplified so that they can be more easily seen and examined.

53
Q

What are Event related potentials (ERP’s)?

A

Use electrodes that are attached to the scalp, as with EEG. However, the key difference is that a stimulus is presented to a participant (for example a picture/sound) and the researcher looks for activity related to that stimulus.

54
Q

What are supports for EEG and EPR’s?

A

Non invasive- don’t use radiation or involve inserting instruments directly into the brain and are therefore virtually risk-free.
Cost- much cheaper than other methods making them more readily available
Temporal resolution- has good temporal resolution.

55
Q

What are criticisms of EEG and EPR’s?

A

Discomfort- uncomfortable for the participant which could make the readings unrepresentitive as the discomfort of the participant could mess with their cognitive responses.
Spatial resolution- poor spatial resolution

56
Q

What is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)?

A

A brain-scanning technique that measures blood flow in the brain when a person performs a task. fMRI works on the premise that neurons in the brain that are the most active during a task use the most energy.

57
Q

What is the accuracy of fMRI scans?

A

Can show activity approx 1-4 seconds after it occurs
Accuracy within 1-2mm

58
Q

Criticisms of fMRIs

A

Huge cost
Loud & constricted movement

59
Q

Supports of fMRIs

A

Non-invasive
Spatial resolution

60
Q

What are the three biological rhythms?

A

Circadian
Ultraradian
Infradian

61
Q

What is a circadian rhythm?

A

Rhythms that occur once a day

62
Q

What is an Ultradian rhythm?

A

Rhythms that occur many times a day

63
Q

What is a Infradian rhythm?

A

A specific type of biological rhythm over longer periods of time- more than 24 hours

64
Q

What two factors affect biological rhythms?

A

Endogenous pacemaker
Exogenous Zietgebers

65
Q

What is an Endogenous pacemaker?

A

Our bodies internal biological (body) clock

66
Q

What is an Exogenous Zietgeber?

A

External changed to our environment that effect our biological (body) clock

67
Q

Describe the sleep wake cycle

A

Wake up-> Energy starts to be used -> Melatonin starts to build up-> Feel tired and sleepy-> Go to sleep-> Melatonin broken down and disposed of
Repeat

Is an example of a circadian rhythm

68
Q

Describe the hunger digestion cycle

A

Hunger-> Eat-> High blood sugar-> Satiated-> Stop eating-> Low blood sugar
Repeat

69
Q

What did Duffy say?

A

That there are always individual differences.
Owls and Larks- larks prefer mornings as opposed to owls who prefer nights.
When studied-larks’ clocks seem to be 2 hours ahead of owls.

70
Q

What did Michael Stiffre do?

A

23 year old geologist
Lived in a cave for 2 months cut off from any Exogenous Zietgebers. At three points a day he would cake a team at the mouth of the vape and do a few tasks.

71
Q

What did Michael Stiffre find?

A

There is an internal control of the circadian rhythm ( Endogenous pacemaker)- so in the absence of external cues we are still able to maintain a regular daily cycle.
There must usually be some external cue that keeps this cycle to 24 hours else it’ll become 24.5 or 25 hours.

Psych (7 decks)

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