Biopsychology

Question 1

Localisation brain scan support

Answer 1

PETERSEN

Brain scan evidence:

• Wernicke’s area active during listening task.
• Broca’s area during reading task.

TULVING

Episodic and semantic memories in different areas of the prefrontal cortex.

Question 2

Localisation (mental health) support

Answer 2

DOUGHERTY

• Followed 44 OCD patients who had undergone cingulotomy (lesioning of cingulate gyrus)
• After 32 weeks 1/3 successful response.
• Symptoms localised.

Question 3

Localisation (case study) support

Answer 3

PHINEAS GAGE (case study)

• Pole took out left frontal lobe.
• Became quick-tempered; personality change.
• Left frontal lobe responsible for mood.

Question 4

Localisation against

Answer 4

LASHLEY

• Removed 10-50% of cortex in rats learning a maze.
• No one area more important
• More complex functions such as learning distributed holistically.

Question 5

Plasticity in learning support

Answer 5

MAGUIRE

• More grey matter in posterior hippocampus of London taxi drivers than control.
• Test called ‘the knowledge’ causes learning changing brain structure.
• Positive correlation between time in job and structural differences.

DRAGANSKI

• Imaged brains of medical students 3 months before and after final exams.
• Found changes in posterior hippocampus and parietal cortex.

Question 6

Decreased plasticity with age against

Answer 6

BEZZOLA

• 40 hours of golf training changed neural representation of movement in 40-60 year olds.
• fMRI showed decreased activity in the motor cortex compared to control.
• More efficient neural representation after training.

Question 7

Plasticity after trauma

Answer 7

GIFFORDS (case study)

• Shot in the head at point-blank range.
• Made progress over time; gained complete control over left arm/leg, could write with right hand and read/understand/speak language.

HUBEL AND WEISEL

• Sewed one eye of a kitten shut and analysed response of the brain,
• Area associated with visual cortex of shut eye processed information from the other eye.

Question 8

Increased plasticity with educational attainment

Answer 8

SCHNEIDER

• Brian injury patients who spent more time in education had a better chance of disability-free recovery.
  1. Over 16 years = 40%
  2. Under 12 years = 10%

Question 9

KEY STUDY: Sperry’s split-brain research

Answer 9

SPERRY

Procedure:

• Sample of 11 epileptic patients who’d undergone a commissurotomy - corpus callosum and other connecting tissues cut.
• Control group of 11 non-epileptic patients.
• Image/word projected to right visual field (processed by left visual cortex).

Findings:

1. Describing what’s seen - when image projected to left visual field (right visual cortex) reported nothing there; language centres in left hemisphere.
2. Recognition by touch - when image projected to left visual field (right visual cortex) could select matching object with left hand. Could also select closely associated objects showing understanding.
3. Composite words - when 2 different words projected to each hemisphere, would select object associated with right hemisphere and say word associated with left.
4. Matching faces - when 2 different faces projected to each hemisphere, would select face matching right hemisphere. When a composite picture; 1 half to each hemisphere was used, the left hemisphere dominated in description and the right in selecting match.

Question 10

Sleep/wake cycle

Endogenous pacemakers support

Answer 10

SIFFRE

• Several extended periods underground without natural sound/light.
• Resurfaced mid-September believing it to be mid-August.
• Sleep/wake cycle regular but 25 hours.

FOLKARD

• 12 ppts in dark cave for 3 weeks.
• Bed when clock said 11:45pm and rose when 7:45am.
• Sped up clock so ‘24hrs’ was 22hrs.
• Only 1 ppt adjusted comfortably.

Question 11

Menstrual cycle

Answer 11

STERN AND MCCLONTOCK

Procedure:

• 20 ppts.
• Samples of pheromones from women at different stages of cycle.
• Cotton wool pad worn on armpit for 8 hours.
• Pads treated with alcohol and frozen, to be rubbed on upper lip of ppts.
• On day 1, pads from day 1 of cycle applied to all ppts, on day 2 pads from day 2 applied and etc.

Findings:
- 68% ppts experienced changes bringing them closer to ‘odour donor’.

Question 12

Stages of sleep support

Answer 12

DEMENT AND KLEITMAN

Procedure:

• 9 ppts monitored in sleep lab using EEG.
• Controlled for effects of alcohol and caffeine.

Findings:

• REM activity highly correlated with dreaming and brain activity varied according to how vivid dreams were.
• Ppts woken during REM recalled dreams accurately.
• Replications had similar findings.

Question 13

Endogenous pacemakers support

Answer 13

SIFFRE

• Maintained regular sleep/wake cycle without natural light/sound.
• Cycle 25 hours long.

DECOURSEY

• Destroyed SCN of 30 chipmunks.
• Returned them to natural environment and observed for 80 days.
• Sleep/wake cycle disappeared and most killed by predators.

Question 14

Exogenous zeitgebers support

Answer 14

CAMPBELL AND MURPHY

• 15 ppts woken at different times and light pad shone on back of knees.
• Light detected by skin receptors when not reaching eyes.
• Deviation in cycle of up to 3 hours.

Question 15

Exogenous zeitgebers against

Answer 15

(case study - MILES)

• Man born blind with sleep/wake cycle of 24.9 hours.
• Couldn’t be adjusted.
• Had to take sedatives and stimulants.

NB: those living in arctic regions have normal sleep/wake cycle despite prolonged light.