Biopsychology Flashcards

Question

Evaluate the Fight or Flight

Answer 1

1) Females tend and befriend: have different System to cope with stress as they protect their offspring (tending) and form protective alliances (befriending). Oxytocin is released to increase relaxation and decrease stress 2) Negative consequences of ForF as increased blood pressure can lead to damage to blood vessels and eventually heart disease 3) Freeze: stop, look and listen response can occur as to look for new info in order to make the best response to threat e.g Fight or Flight

Answer 2

Holistic View: all parts of the brain were involved in the processing of thought and action Localisation theory: different parts of the brain perform different tasks and are involved with different parts of the body

Answer 3

Left: controls right side of the body and deals with analytical thought, language, science and maths Right: controls left side of the body and deals with holistic thoughts, creativity, art and music Cerebral Cortex: outer layer of both left and right hemispheres

Answer 4

Some of our physical and psychological functions are controlled by a particular hemisphere.

Answer 5

Motor Cortex: at the back of the frontal lobe in both hemispheres. Controls voluntary movement in opposite sides of the body Somatosensory Cortex: sensory info from the skin e.g heat is represented. Amount of somatosensory area devoted to a particular body part denotes its sensitivity

Answer 6

Visual cortex: found in occipital lobe in back of brain. Each eye sends info to right visual field to the left visual cortex Auditory cortex: found in temporal lobe and analyses speech based info

Answer 7

Frontal lobe (motor) and Broca is there, Next to frontal is Parietal lobe (somatosensory), under those two lobes is the temporal lobe (auditory) and wernicke is there, next to parietal and temporal is occipital (visual) Under temporal and occipital is the cerebellum Next to cerebellum on left hand side is brain stem

Answer 8

Broca: area in frontal lobe in L.Hemisphere responsible for speech production. Damage to Broca area causes Broca's aphasia e.g slow speech Wernicke: Area of temporal lobe in L.Hemisphere responsible for language comprehension. Results into Wernicke's aphasia if damaged and produce nonsense words as part of their speech

Answer 9

Case Study evidence: Phineas Gage suffered from severe destruction to his frontal lobe following an explosion that forced a metal rod through his brain. His personality had changed as prior to accident he was balanced minded. However, after accident no one could employ him as he was now rude and blasphemous. This supports localisation theory as the frontal lobe is responsible for personality, planning and sexual behaviour

Answer 10

1) Peterson used brain scans to demonstrate how Wernicke's area was active during Listening tasks and Broca was active during a reading task, suggesting that these areas are responsible for specific functions. There now exists objective methods to measuring brain activity e.g FMRI providing scientific evidence of Localisation of brain function

Answer 11

2) There are several cases of stroke victims being able to recover those abilities lost as a result of illness or an accident. Lashley suggested that the law equipotentiality occurs whereby surviving brain circuits chip in so the same neurological action can be achieved. Therefore Localisation can be the notion of plasticity.

Answer 12

The brains tendency to change and adapt as a result of experience and new learning

Answer 13

Babies brains experience rapid growth in synaptic connections hence why they sleep a lot. As we age, rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened this is called synaptic pruning Research suggests at any time in life, neural connections can change as a result of learning new experience

Answer 14

Maguire: found more volume of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus in cab drivers than in a matched control group Mechelli: found larger parietal Cortex in the brains of people who were bilingual compared to matched monolingual controls

Answer 15

Research found that when sewing one eye of a kitten shut and analysed the brain's cortical responses, the visual cortex associated with the eye shut was not idle but continued to process information

Answer 16

A form of plasticity following damage after trauma. The brain transfers functions usually performed by the damaged area to a different area of the brain

Answer 17

Brain can reorganise itself by forming new synaptic connections close to area of damage. Axonal sprouting: growth of new nerve endings which connect with undamaged nerve cells forming new neuronal pathways Recruitment of homologous: e.g if broca's are was damaged on left side of the brain, the right sided equivalent would carry out its functions. After a while, functionality may shift back to left side.

Answer 18

In healthy individuals the 2 hemispheres are connected by corpus colosseum allowing the 2 hemispheres to communicate People suffering with severe epilepsy undergo surgery to cut communication from 2hemispheres (commissurotomy procedure which cuts corpus colosseum) This is why they are call split brain patients allowing researchers to discover specific functions for each hemisphere

Answer 19

An image or word would be projected to patients right visual field (processed by L.Hemisphere) and the same image or word would be projected to the Left visual field (processes by R.Hemisphere) due to the fact that split brain patients have had their corpus colosseum cut, presenting image to one hemisphere meant that info could not be conveyed from that hemisphere to another.

Answer 20

DWYS: patients inability to describe objects in Left visual field was because of the lack of language centres in the Right hemisphere. A normal brain. Messages from RHemisphere would be relayed to language centres in LH RBT: Patients were not able to verbally identify what they had seen but could understand what the object was by using the RH to select corresponding object

Answer 21

DT: if two words were presented simultaneously, one on either side of visual field, the patients would write with their left hand 'key' but say the word 'ring' RF: when a composite picture made up of two halves of a face, the LH dominated in terms of verbal description, whereas the RH dominated in terms of selecting matching picture. Therefore, RH dominated in terms of recognising faces

Answer 22

Sperry's research provided insight into hemispheric lateralisation of brain functioning. Main conclusions are that verbal tasks are dominated by LH whilst spatial tasks are dominated by RH of the brain. The LH is labelled the analyser and the RH as the synthesiser. These findings have contributed to our understanding of the brains processes have aided

Answer 23

Procedures used to conduct split brain research are recognised for their scientific and ground-braking methodology. Sperry's method ensured that ppts stared at fixation point whilst one eye was blind folded. The image was flashed quickly meaning that they did not have enough time to spread info to both sides of the brain. This is standardised procedure could be easily replicated to check the validity of the results

Answer 24

FMRI: EEG: ERP: Post-Mortem Examinations:

Answer 25

Detects changes in blood oxygenation that occur as a result of brain activity specific parts of the brain. FMRI produces 3D images showing which parts of the brain are involved in a particular mental process and this has important implications in our understanding of Localisation of function

Answer 26

Measure electrical activity with brain via electrodes that are fixed to an individual scalp using a skull cap. Scan recordings represent brainwave patterns generated from action of millions of neurons. Used by clinicians as a diagnostic tool as unusual arrhythmic patterns of activity may indicate neurological abnormalities such as epilepsy.

Answer 27

Brain's elcetrophysiological response to a specific sensory, cognitive or motor event can be isolated through statistical analysis of EEG data

Answer 28

Analysis of a person's brain following their death. In psychology they are likely to have rare disorder

Answer 29

STRENGTH: Unlike PET scans, they do not rely on radiation and if administered properly it is risk disk and straightforward to use. Provides a clear image of how brain activity is localised. WEAKNESS: It is expensive compared to other techniques and can only provide clear image if person stays still. It has poor temporal resolution as there's a 5sec time lag behind image on screen and initial firing of neuron activity.

Answer 30

STRENGTH: provided diagnosis of epilepsy at which the random bursts of activity in the brain can be easily detected on the screen. Also contributed to the understanding of ultradian rhythms and has high temporal resolution and can detect brain activity of a single millisecond WEAKNESS: doesn't allow the researcher to distinguish between activities originating in different but adjacent locations

Answer 31

STRENGTH: have excellent temporal resolution which has led to their widespread use in measurement of cognitive functions WEAKNESS: lack of standardisation in ERP methodology between research studies making it difficult to confirm findings

Answer 32

STRENGTH: Broca and Wernicke relied on PME studies establishing links between language, brain and behaviour and PME helped to improve medical knowledge and help generate hypothesis for further study. WEAKNESS: PME raise ethical issues of consent from patient before death. Patients may not provide informed consent e.g Patient HM lost his ability to form memories and was not able to provide such consent

Answer 33

They vary in length and are classified according to how long they last. There are three main classifications : 1) CIRCADIAN: Cycles generally occur once every 24hrs e.g sleep-wake cycle is once a day 2) INFRADIAN: cycles occurs less than once every day e.g menstrual cycle 3) ULTRADIAN: cycles occurs more than once every 24 hours e.g light and deep sleep.

Answer 34

Psychologists have investigated what happens when a person is free of such external cues (time) using temporal isolation studies whereby biological rhythm is allowed to run free and unaffected by external cues.

Answer 35

Siffre's study: he spent long periods of time in an underground cave and had no daylight, clocks or radio. All he did was eat, write and slept when he felt he needed to, only thug influencing him was his internal clock. After 61 days he thought he resurfaced on the 17th of September however it was actually 20th of august.

Answer 36

1) study shows that circadian rhythms persist despite isolation from natural light, which demonstrates existence of an endogenous clock 2) however, it shows importance of external cues because the clock was not accurate and varied day to day

Answer 37

SHIFT WORK: leads to desynchronisation of circadian rhythms and can lead to psychological effects. Research has shown night shift workers suffer concentration lapse at 6am, increasing likelihood of accidents and they are more likely to suffer heart disease as a result of stress of adjusting to sleep/wake cycles. Research has had economic implications in terms of preventing accidents at work place.

Answer 38

By understanding Circadian rhythms and their impact on health it can determine the best time to administer drug treatments. For e.g risk of heart disease is greatest in the morning so drugs should be taken at night as they'll be most effective at dusk. Meaning that there are peak times for administration of drugs that treat a range of disorders that increase their efficacy.

Answer 39

SAD is characterised by low mood and lack of interest of life and activities. It is triggered during the winter months as day light hours decrease. People develop SAD because during the winter, the pineal gland secretes more melatonin due to the lack of light and as a result serotonin is decreased.

Answer 40

Involves a lightbox stimulating very strong light in the morning and evening for 30 minutes. This is thought to reset melatonin levels

Answer 41

Research support of effectiveness of phototherapy in treating SAD as if was found that 60% of sufferers relieved symptoms of SAD. COUNTER ARGUMENT: however, 30% of sufferers using sham negative ion generator were recorded to be subject to a placebo effect. Therefore, it's difficult to conclude the chemical influence of phototherapy

Answer 42

There's one period every 28days. Ovulation occurs when oestrogen is at its peak and happens 10-16days before a start of a period. After ovulation, progesterone increases to help the womb lining grow thicker. The master gland regulating this cycle is the pituitary gland.

Answer 43

AIM: how menstrual cycle may synchronise due to female phenomenon PROCEDURE: 29women of irregular periods. pheromones were gathered from 9 of them at different stages of period, using cotton pad on their armpit worn for 8hrs. Pads treated with alcohol and rubbed on their upper lip of the other ppts. FINDINGS: 68% of women experienced changes to their cycle bringing them closer to the cycle of their odour donor CONCLUSION: therefore, exogenous factors could influence a woman's cycle

Answer 44

Factors such as stress could influence a woman's menstrual cycle. This is because confounding variables such as stress and change in diet can lead to a change in menstrual cycle. Menstrual synchronisation found by McClintock could have occurred by chance. Therefore, research cannot be generalised as it is a small sample and relies on women to self-report their own cycle.

Answer 45

It's argued that menstrual synchronisation has evolutionary purpose as females menstruate together to all be pregnant around the same time. This ensures new borns to be cared for collectively increasing chance of survival

Answer 46

It has 5 stages and lasts 90mins in total. Each stage is characterised by different brain activity. S1: alpha, 5%of cycle, drowsiness, awareness of external environment, hypnotic jerks S2: theta, 40-55%, light sleep, decreased muscular activity, unaware of environment S3: delta, 4-6%, deep sleep, sleep walking, night terrors S4: delta, 10-12%, deeper sleep, sleep talking, night terrors S5: beta, 20-25, REM sleep, penile erection, dreaming, body paralysis.

Answer 47

Research suggests there are distinct stages of sleep. REM activity during sleenwas highly correlated with experience of dreaming in brain activity according to how vivid dreams were. Ppts woken during dream gave accurate recall of it.

Answer 48

EP: internal body clocks that regulate our biological rhythms EZ: external cues that affect our biological rhythms

Answer 49

SCN is a bundle of nerve cells in the hypothalamus and is the body's main EP in maintaining Circadian rhythms e.g sleep-wake cycle. 1) light passes through SCN and then onto pineal gland 2) lack of light results into pineal gland increasing production of melatonin 3) melatonin induces sleep 4) when darkness ends and sunlight passes through SCN, melatonin from the pineal gland is decreased.

Answer 50

DeCoursey: destroyed SCN in brains of 30chipmunks who were observed for 80days, after returning to their natural habitat they were killed by predators as their sleep/wake cycle had disappeared Ralph et al: bred mutant hamsters with 20hr sleep/wake cycle when SCN cells from mutant hamsters were applied to brains of normal hamsters, cycles of second group defaulted to 20hrs.

Answer 51

P: animal studies used to support EP have been criticised for ethical issues risen E: DeCoursey's study exposed animals to considerable harm when they returned to their natural habitat E: therefore, we cannot generalise findings from sleep/wake cycle of animals to humans entirely E: Consequently, whether insights gained from animal studies justifies harm they were subjected to is heavily debated

Answer 52

LIGHT: it can reset the body's main EP the SCN and thus plays a role in the maintenance of the sleep-wake cycle. SOCIAL CUES: at 6 weeks of age, Circadian rhythms begin and at 16weeks babies are entrained. Schedules imposed by parents e.g. bedtimes influence this. Adapting to local times for eating and sleeping is an effective way of entraining Circadian rhythms and beating jet-lag

Answer 53

Campbell and Murphy investigate the extent to which light influences the sleep-wake cycle. 15ppts worked up at various times in the night and a light pad was shone on the back of their knees and found that this created deviation of their sleep-wake cycle of up to 3hrs. Therefore, light is a powerful exogenous cue and doesn't need to be received through the eyes to influence our brain and affect our biological rhythms.

Answer 54

Some psychologists argue that there may have been limited light exposure to ppts eyes which acts as a confounding variable. The same results may not have been found as the study is yet to be replicated. Therefore, isolating one EZ in this way does not give full insight into many zeitgebers influencing the sleep-wake cycle.

Answer 55

When our body becomes out of sync with the environment we are in we experience decreased alertness and feel irritable, anxious and tired.

Answer 56

Research that isolates EP and EZ have been criticised for lacking validity. This is because only in exceptional circumstances are EP free-running and not affected by EP. The SCN and light interact with each other.