Biopsychology AO1 and AO3 Flashcards
What does the Human Nervous System do?
- Detects and responds to information from the environment
- Co-ordinates the organs in the body
What does the PNS do?
Transmits messages to and from the CNS via neurons
Name the two parts of the PNS
Somatic and Autonomic Nervous Systems
What is the job of the Somatic Nervous System?
- Controls the voluntary body processes such as muscle movements and
- Receives information from the sensory receptors
What is the job of the Autonomic Nervous System?
- Controls involuntary movements such as breathing and sexual arousal
What are the two divisions of the autonomic Nervous Systems?
Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems
Name three processes the Sympathetic Nervous System controls
- Inhibits digestion
- Increases heart rate
- Increases breathing rate
Name three processes the Parasympathetic Nervous System controls
- Stimulates digestion
- Decreases heart rate
- Decreases breathing rate
What does the CNS do?
Passes messages to and from the brain and connects nerves to the PNS
Name the two parts of the CNS
Brain and Spinal Cord
What is the function of the Brain?
- It is the centre of all conscious awareness
- It is more highly developed in humans more than other species
What is the function of the Spinal Cord?
-An extension of the brain and is responsible for reflex actions
What does the endocrine system do?
Controls vital functions in the body but acts slower than the Nervous System
What is the job of the thyroid gland?
It produces thyroxine which increases heart rate and metabolic processes which affects growth rates
What is the job of the pituitary gland?
It controls the release of hormones from other glands in the body
Describe how the Endocrine system and the ANS work together
- Hypothalamus, in the brain, triggers sympathetic nervous system so ANS changes from parasympathetic state to sympathetic state and makes us physiologically aroused i.e. increased heart rate and breathing rate
- Adrenaline is released from the adrenal gland (adrenal medulla) into the bloodstream which causes the physiological changes
- Once threat has passed the parasympathetic system takes over again and organs go back to normal functioning
What is the function of the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus
Receives information about light and allows us to adjust to changing patterns of daylight
Describe an animal study into Endogenous Pacemakers with Chipmunks
DeCoursey (2000) destroyed the SCN in 30 chipmunks and returned them to their natural habitat. After 80 days a significant amount had been killed by predators as they were more vulnerable
Describe an animal study into Endogenous Pacemakers with Hamsters
Ralph (1990) bred hamsters with a 20 hour sleep/wake cycle and their cells were transferred into normal hamsters whose cycle also changed to 20 hours
Explain the role of the pineal gland and melatonin in the sleep/wake cycle
The SCN passes on information it receives unto the pineal gland which produces melatonin during sleep
Name two Exogenous Zeitgebers
Light and Social Cues
Name an Endogenous Pacemaker
The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus
Describe research into light as an Exogenous Pacemaker
Campbell and Murphy (1998) woke up 15 participants at different times and shone a light on the back of their knees. This changed deviated their cycle for up to 3 hours showing that light does have an effect on the circadian rhythm
What happens in electrical transmission?
When a stimulus triggers a neuron, the inside of the cell becomes positively charged which creates an action potential and sends the electrical impulse to travel down the axon
What happens in chemical transmission?
When the electrical impulse reaches the end of the axon, it triggers the release of a neurotransmitter from synaptic vesicles which diffuse through the synapse to the next neuron
Give an example of a excitatory neurotransmitter
Adrenaline
Give an example of a inhibitory neurotransmitter
Serotonin
What is Broca’s area involved in?
Speech production
What is Broca’s Aphasia?
Damage to Broca’s area
Characteristics of Broca’s Aphasia
Slow, laborious speech
What is Wernicke’s area involved in?
Langaueg comprehension
What is the name for damage to Wernicke’s area
Wernicke’s aphasia
Characteristics of Wernicke’s Aphasia
Producing nonsense words
What is the holistic theory of the brain function?
Originally it was thought that all areas of the brain was involved in processing and action
What is localisation of brain function?
We now know that different behaviours are localised to different parts of the brain
Where is the motor area located in the brain?
Back of the frontal lobe
What is the function of the Motor area?
controls voluntary movements
What occurs when there is damage to the motor area?
Loss of fine movements
Where is the somatosensory area located in the brain?
The front of the parietal lobe
Where is the visual area located in the brain?
The back of the occipital lobe
What is the function of the somatosensory area?
Receives sensory information from the skin
What is the function of the visual area?
Receives visual information from the eyes
What occurs when there is damage to the visual area?
Blindness in the visual field
What is the function of the auditory area?
Analyses speech
Where is the auditory area located?
In the temporal lobe (front of Wernicke’s area)
What occurs when there is damage to the auditory area?
partial hearing loss
What is the full name for fMRI?
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
What are the advantages of fMRIs?
- Risk free for patients and doesn’t need radiation
- Pretty straightforward to use
- Produces clear images
What are the disadvantages of fMRIs?
- Expensive
- Doesn’t focus on individual neurons
- Poor temporal resolution
What is the full name for EEGs?
Electroencephalogram
What are the strengths of EEGs?
- Useful for diagnosis of conditions i.e. epliepsy
- High temporal resolution
- Contributed to our understanding of stages of sleep
What are negatives of the EEGs?
- Doesn’t allow researches to pinpoint area of neutral activity
What is the full name of ERPs
Event Related Potentials
What are the advantages of ERPs?
- More specific in the measurement of neural processes
- Excellent temporal resolution so are extremely useful
What are Post-Mortem Examinations?
Analysis of a person’s brain after their death usually on patients who suffered rare brain disorders
What are the advantages of Post Mortem Studies?
- They improve medical knowledge and allow for the creation of further hypotheses
- Vital for fey understanding i.e Broca and Wernicke
What are the disadvantages of Post Mortem Studies?
- Damage to the brain may be due to trauma
- Ethical issues concerning informed consent as parents may not consent to it
Why are ERPs used?
To measure the brain’s electro-physiological response to a specific sensory, cognitive or motor event
Why are EEGs used?
To record electrical impulses produced by the brain’s activity
Why are fMRIs used?
To measure brain activity while a person is performing a task that requires MRI technology
Outline the neurosurgical evidence for localisation of function in the brain
Dougherty (2002) reported on evidence from 44 OCD patients whose symptoms were better after the the cingulotomy suggesting that some mental disorders are localised which is a strength of the localisation of function
Outline the brain scanning evidence for localisation of function in the brain
Petersen (1988) showed that Broca’s are was active when the participants were doing a reading task and Wernicke’s area was active when doing a listening task. This is a strength of localisation of brain function
Outline the case study evidence for localisation of function in the brain
Phineas Cage’s personality completely changed after being in an accident where there was damage to the frontal lobe in his brain suggesting that personality is localised
Outline the plasticity argument to evaluate localisation of function
There is evidence that after accidents the brain tries to recognise itself again which supports the holistic view of brain function and disproves the localisation of function argument
Outline the animal study carried out by Lashley (1950) that disproves localisation of function
Lashley cut portions of rats’ brains (10%-50%) and allowed them to learn a maze. It was found that no area was particularly important in learning which suggests that learning requires the full brain
Weakness of Endogenous Pacemakers and Exogenous Zeitgebers: Beyond the master clock
Peripheral oscillators found in the adrenal glands, lungs and liver act independently from the SCN. Damiola (2000) showed feeding times could alter circadian rhythms by up to 12 hours suggesting that other processes influence sleep/wake cycles
Weakness of Endogenous Pacemakers and Exogenous Zeitgebers: Ethics in animal studies
DeCoursery’s chipmunks were exposed to extreme harm when returned to their natural habitat. It is a debate if what we learn is more important that the animals
Weakness of Endogenous Pacemakers and Exogenous Zeitgebers: Influence of Zeitgebers may be overstated
Miles (1977) discussed a blind man whose cycle couldn’t be adjusted from 24.9 hours despite social cues i.e sleeping and feeding times. Also people who live in the Arctic are able to keep to normal sleep patterns so exogenous zeitgebers may have little impact on our internal cues
Weakness of Endogenous Pacemakers and Exogenous Zeitgebers: Methodological issues in studies
Campbell and Murphy’s participants may have had light exposed to their eyes which may have been a confounding variable. Also, isolating light doesn’t give an insight to other exogenous zeitgebers that influence the sleep/wake cycle
Evaluating Endogenous Pacemakers and Exogenous Zeitgebers: Interactionist system
It may be that cases like Siffre’s study are rare because in real life pacemakers and zeitgebers interact and it makes little sense to separate the two for research purposes
What is hemispheric lateralisation?
The idea that the hemispheres of the brain are functionally different and mental processes and behaviours are mainly controlled by one hemisphere
Outline Sperry’s split brain study (1968)
Patients who had undergone a commissurotomy took part in a procedure where images or words would flash up in the patient’s left and right visual fields (controlled by the opposite hemispheres). Normally the corpus callosum would share the information between both hemispheres but this doesn’t occur in split brain patients
What happened to the split brain patients when they had to describe what they saw?
When an object was shown in the right visual field the patients could describe what they saw. When the same object was shown in the left visual field the patients couldn’t describe what they saw because there are no language centres in the right hemispheres
What happened when split brain patients had to touch the objects projected in their left visual fields?
Their left hand (right hemisphere) was able to select objects closely related to what was presented in their left visual field so they could understand what the objects were but couldn’t verbally identify it
What happened with the split brain patients when words were presented simultaneously?
When words were projected into the visual fields simultaeously, the patient would write one word with their one hand and say the other word
What is the right hemisphere superior in?
Drawing and face recognition
What is the left hemisphere superior in?
Language skills
