Biopsychology. Flashcards
Nervous system.
- Central.- brain and spinal cord.
- Peripheral.
- Somatic- voluntary.
- Autonomic- Involuntary.
- Sympathetic - flight or fight.
- Parasympathetic.
Neurons
- Sensory.
- Relay.
- Motor.
Synaptic transmission.
- Ap arrives at the pre synaptic cell.
- Pre synaptic all cell has many vesicles containing neurotransmitters.
- Ap stimulates the release into synaptic gap.
- Neurotransmitters diffuse across the gap and binds to post synaptic receptor sites. This converts the chemical message into an impulse.
- Effects can be excitatory (more +, depolarisation) or inhibitory (more -, hyper polarised)(summation).
- Neurotransmitters return to pre synaptic cell via uptake ports and are sealed in vesicles.
Ways of studying the brain.
- fMRI, EEG, ERP,Post mortem.
fMRI.
- Patients are given a task.
- Measures oxygenated blood flow.
- Most active regions = more blood flow.
- Detects areas linked to task.
- 3d images.
+ Non invasive.
+ Good spatial resolution.
- Poor temporal resolution.
- No causation.
EEG + ERP.
- Measures electrical activity through electrodes attached.
- Relies on the basis that information in the brain is processed as electrical.
EEG - No stimulus.
ERP
- Stimulus.
- Researches filters extraneous activity.
+ Non-invasive.
- Poor spatial resolution.
+ Good temporal resolution.
- No causation.
Post-mortem.
- Analysis of brain after death.
- Brain is severed and sliced.
- Areas are examined.
- Establish areas and disorders.
- Invasive.
+ Detailed spatial resolution. - No causation.
Localisation of function.
FRONTAL LOBE.
- MOTOR - voluntary movement , damage = paralysis, gross/fine motor skills.
- BROCA - left, speech production, Broca’s aphasia.
PARIETAL LOBE.
- SOMATOSENSORY - senses, pins and needles, loss of feeling, can’t define textures.
TEMPORAL LOBE.
- AUDITORY - processes and analyses speech based info.
- WERNICKE - Language comprehension, influent and meaningless speech, Wernickes aphasia.
OCCIPITAL LOBE.
- Visual - visual info.
Lateralisation of function.
- Hemispheric lateralisation - 2 halves = functionally different, certain mental processes and behaviours only controlled by one hemisphere.
- Sperry’s split-brain research.
+ RS.
+ Highly standardised and controlled. - Bias sample.
Sperry’s split brain research.
- Research hemispheric lateralisation.
- Left = language.
- Right = spatial awareness.
- 11 participants with severe epilepsy - no corpus callosum.
- An image/word is projected to the patient’s left visual field (which is processed by the right hemisphere) or the right visual field (which is processed by the left hemisphere). When information is presented to one hemisphere in a split-brain patient, the information is not transferred to the other hemisphere (as the corpus callosum is cut).
- Describe what you see, tactile tasks, drawing tasks.
- Supported theory.
Plasticity theory.
Lateralisation of function.
- Hemispheric lateralisation- 2 halves = functionally different
Biological rhythms.
Circadian, ultradian, infradian.
Circadian rhythms.
- 24hour cycle.
- Sleep, wake cycle.
- Temperature - low 4am high 6pm.
Circadian rhythm research.
- Siffre- extended periods underground, 2 months and 6 months, always woke on a regular sleep wake cycle.
- Aschoff and wever- 4 weeks in WW2 bunker no natural light, regular cycle.
- Gupta - tested iq at 7 pm 2 pm and 9 am, higher at 7, regular temp.
