Biopsychology (Evaluation) Flashcards
Different pattern of responses for females and males in the fight or flight -
Tend and befriend response - Taylor suggested that females follow stress without the use of fight or flight but a tend and befriend response.
Tend = protecting themselves and nurturing the young with different behaviours
Befriend = form alliances with other women.
This may be suggested that women are the primary caregiver of children and fleeing would put a risk of the females offspring.
Suggesting their are obscured patterns of stress responses of different genders.
These explanations of why fight or flight responses of stress are different may also come from genetic explanations -
There is evidence of a genetic explanation for differences in the fight or flight, the SRY gene on the Y chromosome directs male aggression and promotes this development, this therefore allows the release of adrenaline through increased blood flow around the organs. The absence of the gene in Women as they don’t have the Y chromosome may prevent the effect of the stress response and result in a tend and befriend response.
Fight or flight? What about freeze?
Suggested the first reaction of a threatening situation is to avoid confrontation. Gray suggested prior to fighting or fleeing most animals as well as humans. Stop, look or listen, this can be seen to be an adaptive advantage for most organisms as it allows them to look for new information and respond appropriately with the best response suiting the organism and giving the best chance of survival.
Temperature may be seen more important than light in being a circadian rhythm -
Buhr believes temperature controls our circadian rhythm, temp also fluctuates over a 24 hour cycle and when the SCN transforms information about light levels into neural information that set the bodys temp, these changes of the body temp can send powerful signals to the organs of the body and Buhr found fluctuations set timings of cells in the body which can cause tissues to become either more active or inactive therefore temperature may be more important than light in setting circadian rhythms.
The role of circadian rhythms has been useful in the world an application of chronotherapeutic -
Which involves the study of how timing effects drugs, Taking drugs at specific times is essential for proper functioning of some vulnerable individuals and it is fundamental that this is delivered to the right area at the time the drug is most needed, E.G a heart attack is most threatening during the early hours of the morning. Chronotherapeutic drugs have been developed with a novel drug delivery system.
Research support for BRAC -
Support comes from elite performers of violinists and found among this group practice sessions were no longer than 90 minutes and these were practically systematically distributed during the day in regular sessions. It offered support to BRAC’s suggestions as fatigue was set in towards the end of day BRAC cycle, it was also indicated during these sessions the violinists frequently napped to recover from practice, this was the same amongst other professional athletes and other professions.
The menstrual cycle uses exogenous aswell as endogenous -
Normally governed by endogenous pacemakers through the pituitary gland however it can also be involved by environmental cues, Women’s menstrual cycles are tended to synchronise if they live together and they do not take oral contraceptives, suggests that menstrual cycles can be affected by pheromones, which act in a similar way to hormones.
The importance of the SCN as endogenous pacemaker was explored by Morgan -
He bred a strain of hamsters with abnormal circadian rhythms of 20 hours instead of 24 the SCN neurons were taken to the brains of normal hamsters, then they displayed the circadian rhythms of the abnormal hamsters showing the transplanted SCN had taken effects he then altered them again restoring their SCN neurons of the original conditions, and suggests that SCN does act as an endogenous pacemaker setting a circadian rhythm.
Exogenous zeitgebers can be useful in avoiding jetlag and Burgess suggested this -
Found that being exposed to light before an east to west flight decreased the time needed to readjust to local conditions on arrival.
Volunteers were involved in one of 3 conditions (exposed to bright, mid or dim light), in the CL - their circadian rhythms were adjusted 2.1 hours over the course of the study those intermittent light was 1.5 and dim light was s 0.6. What this suggests is individuals in the first treatment felt sleepier 2 hours earlier in the evening and woke up 2 hours earlier in the morning.
Suggesting exposed light prior to a flight would help travellers arrive with the correct circadian rhythms which are partially re-entrained in local time.
