Biopsychology -

Question 1

What is the functions of the nervous system?

Answer 1

2 main functions:
1. To collect and process and respond to information in the environment.
2. To co-ordinate the working of different organs and cells.
Made up of the ‘central nervous system’ and ‘peripheral nervous system’.

Question 2

What is the central nervous system?

Answer 2

Made up on brain and spinal cord.

It passes messages to and from the brain and connects nerves to the peripheral nervous system.

Question 3

What is the peripheral nervous system?

Answer 3

Transmits messages via millions of neurons, to and from central nervous system.
Contains ‘somatic nervous system’ and autonomic nervous system’.
- Somatic nervous system is responsible for carrying sensory and motor information to and from spinal cord.
- The autonomic nervous system governs vital functions in the body such as breathing, heart rate and stress response.
This is further divided into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
Sympathetic (fight or flight)
Parasympathetic (rest and digest)

Question 4

What are neurons?

Answer 4

Nerve cells in nervous system.
80% are located in the brain and they are responsible for transmitting electrically and chemically, communicating signals throughout our nervous system.

Question 5

What are the 3 types of neurons?

Answer 5

Sensory - carry nerve impulses from sensory receptors to the spinal cord and the brain.
Relay - most common in central nervous system. Allow sensory and motor neurons to communicate with each other.
Motor - form synapse with muscles and control their contractions.

Question 6

What are the basic parts in the structure of all neurons? 6

Answer 6

Cell body - including nucleus and contains genetic material.
Dendrites - carry nerve impulses from neighbouring neurons.
Axon - carries electrical impulse away from the cell body down the length of the neuron.
Myelin sheath - protects axon.
Nodes of Ranvier - Gaps in axon which speed up transmission.
Terminal buttons - at the end of the axon. Communicate with next neuron across synaptic gap.

Question 7

What is a synapse?

Answer 7

Neurons pass messages to each other via small gaps between them called a synapse. These messages passed from neuron to neuron by NEUROTRANSMITTERS.

Question 8

What is a neurotransmitter?

Answer 8

Brain chemicals that communicate information throughout our brain and body (across synaptic gap)
There are 2 types:
Inhibitory - help calm brain and balance mood. (serotonin)
Excitatory - stimulate brain. (adrenaline)

Question 9

What is the endocrine system?

Answer 9

Works alongside nervous system - helps control vital functions in the body through actions of hormones.
Glands are organs which produce the hormones. (pituitary is the major gland which is located in the brain and controls the release from all other endocrine glands)
Hormones are secreted into bloodstream.

Question 10

What are some examples of other glands? 4

Answer 10

Pituitary gland (controls release of hormones from all other glands)
Adrenal gland (controls adrenaline which prepares body for fight or flight)
Ovaries (controls release of female hormones, oestrogen and progesterone)
Testes (controls release of male hormones, testosterone)

Question 11

What is hemispheric lateralisation?

Answer 11

The idea that some functions might only be found in only one hemisphere of the brain rather than both.
The left hemisphere usually contains the language areas.

Question 12

Who was lateralisation first discovered by and what parts of the brain did they study?

Answer 12

In the 1800’s by Broca and Wernicke who performed autopsies on patients who had several language difficulties before their deaths. They found damage to particular areas of the brain which were in the left hemisphere,
Broca’s area = patient could understand speech of others but could only say that word ‘tan’. Found damage to the frontal lobe - This area is known as being responsible for speech production.
Wernicke’s areas = patient could speak well but not understand speech - found damage to top of temporal lobe - this area is responsible for speech comprehension.

Question 13

What are the syndrome related to Broca’s and Wernicke’s findings?

Answer 13

Broca’s aphasia = syndrome where speech production is lost but comprehension in tact.
Wernicke’s aphasia = intact speech but loss of comprehension.

Question 14

Evaluation of lateralisation studies?

Answer 14

+ brain scan evidence - Tulving 1994 episodic and semantic memory lateralisation.
+ neurosurgical evidence - Dougherty 2002 localised symptoms of mental disorders.
+ case study evidence - Phineas Gage

• learning to complex to be localised - Lashley rats 1950.
• plasticity - brain can change where functions are.

Question 15

What are the lobes in the brain? 5

Answer 15

Frontal = motor cortex 
Parietal = somatosensory cortex
Occipital = visual cortex
Temporal = auditory cortex
Cerebellum = control of movement

Question 16

What is a split-brain operation?

Answer 16

A commissurotomy = severs the corpus callosum which is the band which connects the two halves of the brain.
This is done with people with severe epilepsy who don’t respond to treatment to stop the seizure spreading across both parts of the brain/body.

Question 17

What is Sperry’s split-brain research?

Answer 17

He noticed that once patients had the commissurotomy operation, that their behaviour wasn’t severely affected, like the had two separate brains that worked independently.
He wanted to study hemispheric functioning of spilt brain patients.

Question 18

What was Sperry’s procedure and what were his findings?

Answer 18

In depth investigation of 11 participants who had their corpus callosum severed.
Images were presented to one hemisphere at a time and they had to name/draw it.
He found that they couldn’t recognise images on left side - but did not affect their intelligence but did have short term memory difficulties.

Question 19

Evaluation of Sperry’s research?

Answer 19

+ highly controlled - reliable, objective
+ clearly demonstrated lateralisation
+ representative of people who had this operation.
+ more in depth data

• low ecological validity - tasks would not be faced in real life, use of both eyes can compensate.
• can’t compare brains of epileptics to a ‘normal’ brain.
• small sample - hard to generalise from.

Question 20

What is plasticity?

Answer 20

The idea that the brain has the ability to change throughout life as a result of injury, learning and experience.
Functional recovery = after trauma, parts of the brain which were not affected can take over the functions of those areas which are damaged.

Question 21

What happens in the brain during recovery? (plasticity)

Answer 21

The brain forms new synaptic connections close to the area of damage.
Doidge 2007 - it uses secondary neural pathways which would not normally be used to certain functions to do the specific function.
Structural changes include:
Axonal sprouting = growth of new nerve endings to connect with undamaged nerve cells to create new neuronal pathways.
Reformation of blood vesicles.
Recruitment of homologous areas on opposite side of the brain.

Question 22

What are the 4 main ways of investigating the brain?

Answer 22

fMRI - works by detecting the changes in blood oxygenation and flow that occur as a result of neural activity in specific parts of the brain.
EEG - measure electrical activity within the brain via electrodes that are fixed to an individuals scalp using a skull cap.
ERP (event related potential) - allows us to take raw EEG data and use it to investigate cognitive processing. Subjects have to wear a mesh cap with electrodes which record brain activity while completing a task.
Post-mortem - the analysis of a persons brain following their death.

Question 23

Evaluation of ways of investigating the brain?

Answer 23

fMRI: + does not use radiation, safe, clearly shows how brain is localised.
- expensive, poor temporal resolution.
EEG: + good temporal resolution, non-invasive, safe.
- poor spatial resolution.
ERP: + more specific than EEGS’s, good temporal resolution,
- lack of standardisation between studies, to get pure data extraneous variables must be completely erased.
Post mortem: + useful to look at brain closely in detail, provide understanding of rare disorders, specific.
- causation issue, patients needs to die first, ethics.

Question 24

What are the types of biological rhythms? 3

Answer 24

Circadian rhythms
Infradian rhythms
Ultradian rhythms

Question 25

Examples of plasticity? 2

Answer 25

• Eleanor Maguire 2000 studies brains of London taxi drivers and found that they had a larger hippocampus than normal (associated with social and navigational skills). - better recall of city and streets (‘the knowledge’). - positive correlation between size of hippocampus and time in job.
• Draganski 2006 studied students 3 months before and after final exams and found that they had a larger hippocampus and parietal cortex.

Question 26

Evaluation of plasticity?

Answer 26

+ practical application - contributed to field of neurorehabilitation.
+ support from animal studies - Hubel and Wiesel 1963, kittens eyes.
+ plasticity continues throughout life - Bezzola 2012, golfers more activity in motor cortex.
+ educational attainment affects - Schneider 2014, the more time patients spent in education, the greater chance of disability free recovery.

• negative plasticity - 60 - 80% of amputees have phantom limb syndrome.

Question 27

What is an endogenous pacemaker?

Answer 27

Internal body clock that regulates many of out biological rhythms such as the influence of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) on the sleep/wake cycle.
Ralph 1990 - 20 hour cycle hamsters.

Question 28

What is an exogenous zeitgeber?

Answer 28

External influences on our body clock such as light.

Campbell and Murphy 1998 - light on skin during sleep disrupted cycle.

Question 29

What is a circadian rhythm?

Answer 29

Type of biological rhythm which follow the 24 hour cycle which regulate a number of body processes e.g. sleep/wake cycle and changes in core body temperature.
Siffre cave man study - 1962 for 2 months and 1972 for 6 months - cycle was 25 hours on regular schedule.

Question 30

What is an infradian rhythm?

Answer 30

Biological rhythm which lasts more than one day. e.g. human menstrual cycle, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and hibernation.
Menstrual cycle: Reiberg 1967 woman living in cave still experienced period (endogenous pacemaker)
Russell 1980 woman sync. (exogenous zeitgeber)
SAD: Eastman 1998, exposure to bright light helps sufferers (exogenous zeitgeber)

Question 31

What is an ultradian rhythm?

Answer 31

Type of biological rhythm with a frequency of more than one cycle in 24 hours e.g. stages of sleep - ‘basic rest activity cycle (BRAC).

Question 32

What disrupts of biological rhythms?

Answer 32

Jet lag and shift work.
Shift work - can be harmful to health, Kubo 2006 Japanese night shift men 4 times more likely to develop prostate cancer.