biopsychology eval

Question 1

Evaluate EEGs.

Answer 1

1. it can’t detect electrical activity in deeper regions of the brain e.g the hypothalamus or hippocampus
2. not useful for pinpointing the exact location of the electrical activity.
3. it provides a recording of the brain’s activity in real time rather than a still image of the passive brain. means can accurately measure a particular task with the brain activity associated with it.

Question 2

evaluate fMRI

Answer 2

1. Non-invasive, nor does it expose the brain to potentially harmful radiation.
2. offers more objective and reliable measure of psychological processes than is possible with verbal reports.
3. since it measures changes in blood flow in the brain, then it’s not a direct measure of neural activity in particular brain areas.
4. it only focuses on localised activity in the brain

Question 3

Evaluate ERP

Answer 3

1. it requires a large no.of trials to gain meaningful data since it’s so small and difficult to pick out from other electrical activity.
2. tends to be restricted to the neocortex. important electrical activity is not recorded.
3. ERP can measure the processing of stimuli even in the absence of a behavioural response. ERPs recordings make it possible to monitor “covertly” the processing of a particular stimulus without requiring the person to respond to them.

Question 4

evaluate post-mortem examination

Answer 4

1. allow for a more detailed examination of anatomical and neurochemical aspects of the brain than non-invasive techniques.
2. played a central part of the origins of schizophrenia,(Harrison 2000) - discovered structural abnormalities and evidence in NT systems.
3. Lots of confounding variables - people die in a variety of circumstances and at varying stages of disease these factors can influence the post-mortem brain. length of time between death and post mortem. age, drug treatments.
4. no follow ups - patient is dead so any concerns about a possible relationship between brain abnormalities and cognitive functioning can’t be followed up.

Question 5

evaluate language centres.

Answer 5

1. there are individual differences - other studies have found significant differences in the size of the brain areas associated with language.harasty et al. (1997) found that women have proportionality larger Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas than men.
2. communication may be more important than localisation - brain areas may be interdependent. e.g in 1982 joseph dejerine described a case in which the loss of an ability to read resulted in damage to the connection between the visual cortex and Wernicke’s area
3. challenges to localisation: equipotentiality - (lashley, 1930) he claimed that intact areas of the cortex could take over responsibility for specific cognitive functions following injuries to the area normally responsible for that function. effects of brain damage would be determined by extent rather than location of the damage. received some support due to the recovery of cognitive abilities after damage to specific areas of the brain.

Question 6

evaluate split-brain research.

Answer 6

1. language may not be restricted to the left hemisphere - J.W developed the capacity to speak out of the right hemisphere, with the result that he can now speak about information presented to the left or to the right brain (Turk et al., 2000).
2. limitations of split-brain research - rarely carried out these days many studies are presented with as few as 3 or a single participant.

Question 7

evaluation of lateralisation

Answer 7

1. lateralisation changes through age - Szaflarski et al. (2006) found that language became more lateralised to the left hemisphere with increasing age in children and adolescents, but after the age of 25, lateralisation decreased with each decade of life.
2. lateralisation and immune system functioning - e.g architects and the mathematically gifted tend to have superior right-hemispheric skills but are also much more likely to be left-hand and to suffer higher rates of allergies and problems with the immune system. Tonnessen et al. (1993) found a small but significant relationship between handedness and immune system disorders suggesting the same processes that lead to lateralization may also affect the development of the immune system.

Question 8

evaluate plasticity

Answer 8

1. Research support from animal studies - rats housed in complex environments had an increase no.of new neurons than rats housed in labs. rats in complex environments had an increase no.of new neurons in the hippocampus part of the brain associated with the formation of new memories and ability to navigate.
2. research support from human studies - london taxi drivers, posterior hippocampi significantly larger than control participants and posterior hippocampal volume was positively correlated with the time spent as a taxi driver.

Question 9

evaluate functional recovery.

Answer 9

1. research support from animal studies - independent groups of rats- one injected with brain cells, other injected with a solution, group 1 showed clear development of neuron-like cells. supports the role of stems cells in recovery of brain injury.
2. age differences in functional recovery - commonly accepted that functional plasticity reduces with age. only option follow traumatic brain injury is to develop compensatory behavioural strategies to work around the deficit. however studies suggests that even abilities commonly thought to be fixed in childhood can still be modified in adults through intense retraining
3. Educational attainment and functional recovery - schneider et al. (2014) found that patients with the equivalent of a college education are 7x more likely to be disability free one year after a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury than those who didn’t finish high school. retrospective study from the US traumatic brain injury system database, 214/729 had achieved disability free recovery (DFR) after one year of those DFRs 30.8% of those 12-15 years of education, only 9.7% with less than 12 years achieved DFR after one year