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Psychology > Biopsychology - Brain > Flashcards

Biopsychology - Brain Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the three main sections of the brain?

A
  • forebrain
  • midbrain
  • hindbrain
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2
Q

What are the four main regions of the brain?

A
  • cerebrum (cerebral hemispheres) = forebrain
  • diencephalon = forebrain
  • cerebellum = hindbrain
  • brainstem = mid/hindbrain
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3
Q

What is the cerebrum?

A
  • largest section of the brain
  • split into two hemispheres (left/right)
    • they communicate via the corpus collusum
  • four lobes:
    • frontal =
    • occipital
    • temporal
    • parietal
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4
Q

What is the diencephalon?

A
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5
Q

What is the cerebellum?

A
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6
Q

What is the brain stem?

A
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7
Q

What is localisation of function?

A
  • the idea that specific functions (language, memory) have specific locations in the brain
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8
Q

What are the motor and somatosensory areas of the brain?

A
  • somatosensory cortex:
    • receives sensory input from receptors in the skin
    • located in parietal lobe
    • face and hands take up over half the somatosensory area
  • motor cortex:
    • generates voluntary movements
    • located in the back of frontal lobe
    • both hemispheres control the muscles on the opposite side of the body
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9
Q

What are the visual and auditory centres of the brain?

A
  • visual centre:
    • located in occipital lobe
    • requires additional processing in neighbouring areas (perception)
    • where sensation is converted into perception
  • auditory centre:
    • most of it is located in the temporal lobes of both the left and right hemispheres
    • begins in the inner ear where sound waves are converted to nerve impulses
    • this then travels via the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex
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10
Q

What are the language centres of the brain?

A
  • Broca’s area: (motor region)
    • patient named Tan was able to understand a spoken language but could not speak it or put his thoughts into words
    • found that the language centre is in the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere
  • Wernicke’s area: (sensory region)
    • found in the left temporal lobe
    • involved in understanding language
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11
Q

What are the strengths of localisation of function?

A
  • brain scan evidence of localisation
  • neurosurgical evidence
  • case study evidence:
    • Phineas Gage forced temporal lobe out of his brain
  • aphasia study support
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12
Q

What are the weaknesses of localisation of function?

A
  • challenges to localisation = reductionist:
  • plasticity argues against this theory
  • individual differences:
    • difference in patterns of activation across individuals
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13
Q

What is brain lateralisation?

A
  • idea that the two halves of the human brain are not exactly alike
  • each hemisphere has functional specialisations
    • left = language
    • right = visual-motor tasks
  • corpus callosum allows for the communication between the two hemispheres
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14
Q

What is the right hemisphere dominant in?

A
  • emotion
  • spatial relationships
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15
Q

What is the left hemisphere dominant in?

A
  • language
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16
Q

What are the strengths of lateralisation?

A
  • helps to understand how specific functions are located on specific sides of the brain (multitasking)
    • enhances brain efficiency
  • can study left handedness and why they may be prone to allergies/illness
    • link between immune system and lateralisation
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17
Q

What are the weaknesses of lateralisation?

A
  • changes with age, so this theory is not set in stone
    • language became more lateralised to the left hemisphere up to the age of 25
  • does not explain brain plasticity
    • studies show that having one damaged hemisphere is not abnormal
    • other hemisphere can take over the functions of the damaged hemisphere
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18
Q

What is split-brain research?

A
  • used to study brain lateralisation
  • cutting of the corpus callosum is called commissurotomized
    • communication between the hemispheres is stopped
19
Q

What is Sperry and Gazzaniga’s (1967) research?

A
  • examined the extent to which two hemispheres are specialised for certain functions
  • image/word projected in left or right visual field
    • describe what you see
    • tactile (touch)
    • drawing task
20
Q

What did Sperry and Gazzaniga find?

A
  • describe what you see:
    • picture in right VF patient could verbally describe what they saw
    • in left VF they could not describe the picture
  • tactile test:
    • right hand = could verbally describe object
    • left hand = could not describe it, but could select similar objects
  • drawing task:
    • when pic presented to RVF, right hand could not draw as clear as the left hand
    • LVF = left hand would consistently draw clearer images
    • ** shows the superiority of the right hemisphere **
  • ** left hemisphere is dominant in speech and language **
21
Q

What is Turk et al’s (2002) study?

A
  • 48-year-old JW had commissurotomy for epilepsy
  • stimuli
    • morphed faces
    • JW’s own and one of the researchers
    • 0% JW’s face to 100% JW
  • divided the field procedure to present stimulus to one or other hemisphere
  • JW asked to press button if image was of his face/familiar other person
  • results = right hemisphere showed clear bias identifying morphed faces as familiar
  • left hemisphere showed bias towards identifying morphed faces as himself
  • ** right is better at face processing and left is better at self-recognition **
22
Q

What are the strengths of split brain research?

A
  • proves that there is hemispheric lateralisation
    • both hemispheres have different functions
  • research support for lateralisation through SBR
    • shows that the connectivity between the different areas is important
    • cutting of corpus callosum caused patients to struggle with verbally naming an object placed in the left hand
23
Q

What are the weaknesses of split brain research?

A
  • has not shown that brain is organised into different areas with specific tasks
  • SBR research had a small sample size
    • some of the sample did not fully cut communications between the hemispheres
    • they were an extremely varied group in terms of age, when epilepsy was developed and age of testing
  • this makes the results less likely to be generalised to a wider population
  • SBR is rarely carried out these days due to modern technology, so it lacks temporal validity
24
Q

What is brain plasticity?

A
  • ability of the brain to change and adapt synapses, pathways, and structures in light of various experiences or after damage caused by trauma
25
Q

What is Villablanca and Hovda’s (2000) study?

A
  • plasticity in newborn brain:
    • by the end of the first year, brain has more synapses and neurons than it will have when fully matured
    • developing brain is exposed to a vast range of experiences, environment and stimuli
  • hemispherectomy research where baby has one severely damaged hemisphere
    • when it is removed soon after birth, the adult shows very few behavioural or cognitive impairments
26
Q

What is Boyke et al’s (2008) study?

A
  • plasticity as a result of new life experience:
    • new experiences = nerve pathways developed
    • 60 year olds taught new skill (juggling)
    • found an increase in grey matter in the visual cortex
  • ** when practise stopped, changes were reversed **
27
Q

What is Davidson’s (2004) study?

A
  • plasticity and meditation:
    • meditation can change the inner workings of the brain
    • 8 Tibetan meditation monks and 10 volunteers were asked to meditate for short periods
    • electrodes picked up greater gamma waves (coordinate neuron activity) in monks
28
Q

What are the strengths of plasticity?

A
  • research support from animal studies
    • Kempermann (1998) found increased no. of new neurons in rats in complex houses than in cages
    • associated with new memories and ability to navigate from different locations
    • Blakemore and Mitchell (1973) found that characteristics of visual neurons were changed by exposure to diff. environments
    • kittens in black vertical striped environment did not respond to horizontal black stripes
    • ** may be difficult to generalise to humans as this as conducted on cats (raised in only one env.) **
  • research support from human studies:
    • Maguire (2000) studied London taxi drivers and found that the front part of their hippocampus was larger than the control ppts
    • positively correlates to how long they had been driving for
  • age differences:
    • Bezzola (2012) found how 40 hours of golf training produced changes in neural rep. of movement in ppts aged 40-60
    • motor cortex activity increased compared to before training
    • shows how people of all ages are able to improve their brain capacity
29
Q

What are the weaknesses of plasticity?

A
  • negative plasticity:
    • Medina (2007) found that brain’s adaptation to prolonged drug use leads to poor cognitive functioning
  • generalisation issues:
    • studies carried out on animals are hard to generalise to the human population
    • e.g. kittens/rats are mobile at birth so their brain development is faster than humans
  • ethical issues:
    • e.g. cats in Blakemore and Mitchell’s study were brought up in an ethically questionable environment
30
Q

What is functional recovery after brain trauma?

A
  • transfer of functions from a damaged area of the brain to other undamaged areas in the brain
31
Q

What are common types of brain trauma?

A
  • physical
  • cerebral haemorrhage (stroke, blood vessel in brain bursts)
  • cerebral ischaemia (stroke, blood vessel in brain blocked)
  • viral/bacterial infections
32
Q

How does the brain naturally recover?

A
  • brain is able to rewire and reorganise itself by forming new synaptic connections
  • axonal sprouting:
    • growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells
  • denervation supersensitivity:
    • axons that perform similar role become aroused to higher level to compensate for lost ones
  • recruitment of homologous areas:
    • similar areas in opposite side of brain can take on the role of the damaged region
  • neuronal unmasking (Wall 1977):
    • increasing rate of input to blocked (dormant) synapses can open them which allows for more connections to regions of the brain
33
Q

What is Danelli’s (2013) study?

A
  • researchers used case study to support claims (Italian boy EB who lost linguistic abilities after brain tumour removal in left hem.)
    • right handed so language ability was in left hem.
  • joined rehabilitation programme which helped to improve his linguistic abilities until he no longer struggled
  • after testing at 17, they found that his right hem. had compensated for the loss of the left hem.
    • recruitment of homologous areas
34
Q

What are the strengths and weaknesses of functional recovery after trauma?

A
  • practical application:
    • contributed to the field of neuro-rehabilitation
    • doctors provide therapy and electrical therapy to the brain
  • age differences:
    • studies have shown that it is possible to improve abilities in adults with intensive retraining
    • ** however, capacity for neural reorganisation is greater in children than adults **
  • educational attainment and functional recovery:
    • Schneider (2014) found that patients with college education are 7 times more likely to recover and be disability free after a year
    • suggests that young gen. should carry on with edu. to help recover
  • gender differences:
    • women recover better as their function is not as lateralised as men
    • Ratcliffe (2007) found that women perform better on tests of attention/language while men performed better in visual analytical skills
35
Q

What are the ways of studying the brain?

A
  • CT scans
  • PET scans (glucose injected and accumulates in areas with greater activity)
  • fMRI
  • EEG
  • ERP
  • post-mortem examinations
36
Q

What is fMRI?

A
  • indirectly measures blood flow through conc. of O2 in the bloodstream
    • signal used in fMRI is BOLD
  • ppt may be asked to alternate between diff. periods of doing tasks to identify active parts of the brain
37
Q

What are the strengths/weaknesses of fMRIs?

A
  • strengths:
    • non-invasive technique (allows more patients to undertake fMRI scans)
    • good spatial resolution - smallest feature a scanner can detect (allows psychologists to distinguish between diff. brain regions)
  • weaknesses:
    • causation - fMRI scans do not provide a direct measure of neural activity (not clear whether brain region is associated with a particular function)
    • poor temporal resolution (1-4 seconds, low accuracy)
    • can only provide info on brain region and not individual neurons
38
Q

What is EEG?

A
  • provides an overall view of brain electrical activity
  • small electrodes (24/32) are used on the skull and pick up elec. activity of millions of neurons
    • amplitude = size/intensity
    • frequency = speed/rapidity
  • two states of EEG:
    • synchronised pattern: recognisable waveform is identified
    • desynchronised = no recognisable waveform
  • can be used to detect various types of brain disorder/disease
39
Q

What are the strengths/weaknesses of EEGs?

A
  • strengths:
    • provides recordings of the brain’s activity in real time (temporal resolution)
    • provides invaluable diagnosis of conditions like epilepsy (contributed to our understanding of stages involved in sleep - ultradian rhythms)
  • weaknesses:
    • can only detect activity in superficial regions of the brain and not deeper regions - e.g. hypothalamus
    • not useful for pinpointing exact source of neural activity (poor spatial resolution)
40
Q

What is ERP?

A
  • very small voltage changes in the brain which are triggered by specific events/stimuli
  • psychologist looks for specific electrical responses to the stimulus shown
    • this is done multiple times with the same stimuli to separate the electrical activity and overall activity
      - event-related potential then emerges
41
Q

What are the strengths/weaknesses of ERPs?

A
  • strengths:
    • short latency - can reflect early stages of cog. processing (interval between stimulus presentation and beginning of ERP)
    • can measure processing of stimuli even in absence of behavioural response
  • weaknesses:
    • poor spatial resolution (not possible to localise ERPs components to specific areas of the cortex)
    • lack of standardisation in methodology so findings from studies are hard to generalise (extraneous variables must be minimised)
42
Q

What are post-mortem examinations?

A
  • when a person dies, researchers compare their brain to look for abnormalities
    • e.g. Broca examined brain of man with displayed speech problems
    • Wernicke discovered region where language is processed
  • allows for a more detailed examination of anatomical and neurochemical aspects of the brain
43
Q

What are the strengths/weaknesses of post-mortem examinations?

A
  • strengths:
    • enables researchers to examine deeper regions of the brain such as the hypothalamus and hippocampus
    • Harrison (2000) claimed that post-mortem studies have played huge role in understanding of mental illnesses
  • weaknesses:
    • too many individual differences (length of time between death and post-mortem, drug treatment, age)
    • ethical issues in terms of consent (especially as this is carried out on patients with severe psychological deficits)
    • retrospective as person is already dead so follow ups cannot be made

Psychology (22 decks)

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