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psychology. > Biopsychology > Flashcards

Biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

What body parts are involved in the central nervous system?

A

The brain and spinal cord

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2
Q

What is the main function of the nervous system?

A

The nervous system controls behaviour: collects, processes and responds to information from the environment; it also controls physiological processes and co ordinates the working of different organs and cells in the body

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3
Q

What role does the brain play in the central nervous system?

A
  • Maintains life and vital functioning

- Makes decisions and commands, is the centre of awareness and consciousness

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4
Q

What role does the spinal cord play in the central nervous system?

A
  • Relays info between body and brain
  • Pairs of spinal nerves connect to the rest of the body
  • Circuits of nerves that can respond reflexively
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5
Q

What is the peripheral nervous system?

A

Controls nerves outside of the CNS which permeate the rest of the body. Transmits messages via neurons to and from the brain

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6
Q

What are the 2 components of the PNS?

A
  1. The Autonomic Nervous System

2. The Somatic Nervous System

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7
Q

What are the features of the autonomic nervous system?

A
  • Controls internal environment
  • Unconscious actions, involuntary
  • Governs vital functions such as breathing, heart rate and digestion
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8
Q

What are the features of the somatic nervous system?

A
  • Interacts with external environment
  • Transmits and receives messages from Sensory receptors to CNS
  • CNS messages muscles to act, stimulated by the neurotransmitter
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9
Q

The autonomic nervous system is also split into 2 components. What are they?

A
  1. Sympathetic Nervous System

2. Parasympathetic Nervous System

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10
Q

Briefly describe the sympathetic nervous system

A

Deals with situations that require energy such as increasing bodily activity and helping deal with emergencies (fight of flight)

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11
Q

Briefly describe the parasympathetic nervous system?

A

Deals with situations where the body needs to conserve energy. It decreases or maintains bodily activity and helps to relax the body after emergency (rest+digest)

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12
Q

What are the 3 main types of neuron?

A
  1. Sensory Neurons
  2. Relay Neurons
  3. Motor Neurons
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13
Q

What does the sensory neuron do?

A

Detects information and sends this information via the peripheral nervous system to the brain

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14
Q

What does the relay neuron do?

A

Analyses the sensation and decide how to respond. Relays messages between the sensory and motor neurons

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15
Q

What does the motor neuron do?

A

Sends impulses from the brain and spinal cord to effectors (glands/muscles). Motor neurons form synapses with the muscles, when stimulated they release neurotransmitters which bind to receptors and trigger muscle movement

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16
Q

What are neurons?

A

Specialised cells whose function is to move electrical impulses to and from the CNS

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17
Q

What are the structure of neurons?

A

Neurons typically consist of dendrites which are connected to a cell body and an axon. Many nerves are surrounded by a myelin sheath which allows for quicker transmission of impulses. Damage to the sheath slows down transmission

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18
Q

What are the 2 effects a neurotransmitter can have on the neighbouring neuron?

A

Excitatory or inhibitory

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19
Q

What is action potential?

A

Brief electrical firing that allows nerve impulses to travel along an axon

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20
Q

What is the difference between excitatory and inhibitory potentials?

A

Excitatory have a positive charge and make it more likely the post synaptic neuron will fire; inhibitory have a negative charge and make it less likely to fire

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21
Q

What is the endocrine system?

A

The endocrine system works alongside the nervous system to control vital functions in the body. It is a network of glands the manufacture and secrete hormones

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22
Q

What are hormones?

A

Chemical messengers

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23
Q

What are the major glands involved in the endocrine system?

A

Major glands include pituitary, adrenal and reproductive organs

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24
Q

What is meant by synaptic transmission?

A

The process for transmitting messages from neuron to neuron

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25
Q

What is the role of the hypothalamus?

A

The hypothalamus receives information about functioning and regulates it by producing hormones secreted to the pituitary gland

26
Q

What is the role of the pituitary gland?

A

Produces ‘stimulating hormones’ which signal the target gland and its cell to secrete specific hormones

27
Q

What is the role of the testes and ovaries?

A

Testes: produces testosterone, development of male reproductive tissues
Ovaries: release oestrogen and progesterone that controls the menstrual cycle

28
Q

What is the fight or flight response?

A

An evolutionary survival mechanism to deal with threatening situations

29
Q

What are the stages of the fight or flight response?

A
  1. Amygdala detects threat, associates sensory info with emotion
  2. Amyg. sends distress signals to the hypothalamus
  3. Hypothalamus communicates with rest of body through the sympathetic nervous system
  4. SNS signals adrenal medulla which prompts physical changes
  5. When stressor passes PNS slows down heart rate and restores digestion
30
Q

What are the 2 mechanisms the SNS has for dealing with stress?

A
  1. Acute stressors (sudden)

2. Chronic stressors (ongoing)

31
Q

Identify two glands from the endocrine system and outline their functions

A
  1. Pituitary gland - receives signals from hypothalamus and enables it to release hormones to regulate growth/metabolism
  2. Ovaries - menstrual cycle, fertility, oestrogen, progesterone
32
Q

What gland releases adrenaline?

A

Adrenal medulla

33
Q

What are the direct effects of adrenaline?

A
  • Increase heart rate
  • Raises blood pressure
  • Diverts blood away from skin, kidneys, digestive system
  • Increases muscle tension, respiration
34
Q

What are the general effects of adrenaline?

A
  • Prepares the body for action and survival
  • Increase blood supply and oxygen to skeletal muscles to aid physical action
  • Increases oxygen exposure to brain for rapid response planning
35
Q

What is Broca’s area?

A

An area in the frontal lobe of the brain, usually in the left hemisphere, related to speech production

36
Q

What is meant by localisation of function?

A

Refers to belief that specific areas of the brain are associated with specific cognitive processes

37
Q

What is the motor cortex?

A

A region of the brain responsible for the generation of voluntary motor movements. It is located in the frontal lobe, both hemispheres will have a motor cortex

38
Q

What is the somatosensory cortex?

A

A region of the brain that processes input from sensor receptors in the body that are sensitive to touch

39
Q

What is Wernicke’s area?

A

An area in the temporal lobe of the brain, it is important for the comprehension of language

40
Q

What are the 6 areas of the brain that are relevant to localisation of function?

A
  1. Motor Cortex
  2. Somatosensory Cortex
  3. Visual Cortex
  4. Auditory Cortex
  5. Broca’s Area
  6. Wernicke’s Area
41
Q

What is meant by hemispheric lateralisation?

A

Refers to the fact that some mental processes in the brain are mainly specialised to either the left or right hemisphere

42
Q

What is meant by split brain research?

A

Research that studies individuals who have been subjected to the surgical separation of the two hemispheres of the brain as a result of severing the corpus callosum

43
Q

What is the left hemisphere dominant for in hemispheric lateralisation?

A

Language and speech

44
Q

What is the right hemisphere dominant for in hemispheric lateralisation?

A

Visual and motor tasks

45
Q

How can information be passed through the two hemispheres?

A

Through the nerves that make up thew corpus callosum

46
Q

Split-brain patients can’t transfer information through the left and right hemispheres. Why is this?

A

They have surgical treatment which removes their corpus callosum. The aim of this procedure is to prevent the violent electric activity transferring across one hemisphere to another.

47
Q

What is meant by a circadian rhythm?

A

It is a pattern if behaviour that occurs approximately every 24 hours. This is set and reset by environmental light levels.

48
Q

What is the purpose of circadian rhythms?

A

To optimise an organism’s physiology and behaviour to best meet the varying demands of the sleep/wake cycle

49
Q

What is meant by the sleep/wake cycle?

A

Refers to alternating states of sleep and waking that depends on a 24 hour circadian cycle

50
Q

How do circadian rhythms optimise phsiology?

A
  • Heart rate
  • Metabolic rate
  • Breathing rate
  • Body temperature
  • Blood pressure
  • Hormone production
    All reach maximum values in the late afternoon, and minimum values in the early hours of the morning
51
Q

What are the 3 main brain scanning techniques?

A
  1. fMRI
  2. EEG
  3. ERP
52
Q

What does EEG stand for?

A

Electroencephalogram

53
Q

How does EEG work?

A
  • Works on the premise that information is passed through the brain as electrical activity (e.g, nerve impulses)
  • Measures electrical activity through electrodes that are attached to the scalp
  • Small electrical charges are detected by the electrodes, and are graphed over time, indicating the level of brain activity
54
Q

What are the advantages of using EEG as a brain scanning technique?

A

+ Does not involve radiation or directly inserting instruments into the brain so is virtually risk free
+ Much cheaper and readily available than fMRI
+ Lots of clinical applications; help to develop our understanding of different psychological phenomena such as sleeping and Alzheimer’s

55
Q

What are the disadvantages of using EEG as a brain scanning technique?

A
  • Poor spatial resolution, difficult to classify results t one specific area of the brain
  • Uncomfortable for participant/patient as electrodes are attached to the scalp. This could result in unrepresentative readings as the discomfort may affect cognitive responses
  • Electrical activity is often detected in several regions of the brain simultaneously. Consequently, it can be difficult to pinpoint specific regions thus it may be harder to draw accurate conclusions from results
56
Q

What does ERP stand for?

A

Event Related Potentials

57
Q

What is ERP?

A

ERP is a technique that takes raw EEG data and uses it to investigate cognitive processing of a specific event. It takes multiple readings which are the averaged out to filter out all brain activity that is not related to the appearance of the stimuli

58
Q

How does ERP work?

A
  • Several presentations which are averaged out

- Any extraneous neural activity will not occur consistently, whereas activity linked to the stimulus will

59
Q

What does it mean if an ERP detects waves in the first 100 milliseconds?

A
  • Sensory ERP

- Reflects an initial response to the physical characteristics of the stimuli

60
Q

What does it mean if an ERP detects waves after 100 milliseconds?

A
  • Cognitive ERP

- Reflects the subject evaluating the stimulus thus demonstrating information processing

61
Q

What are 2 key strengths of ERP as a way of studying the brain?

A

+ Provides specific and precise data for brain research
+ An ERP can measure the processing of a stimuli even in the absence of a behavioural response. They covertly monitor the process without requiring the person to respond to them

62
Q

What are 2 key limitations of ERP as a way of studying the brain?

A
  • ERP requires a large number of trials to gain meaningful data. This places limitations on the types of questions that ERP readings can realistically answer.
  • Only sufficiently strong voltage changes are recordable. Important electrical activities occurring deep in the brain are not recorded, meaning that data tends to be restricted to the neocortex.

psychology. (11 decks)

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