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Psychology > Biopsychology L5 - 8 > Flashcards

Biopsychology L5 - 8 Flashcards

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1
Q

What happens what a person is faced w/ a threat and once this this threat has subsidised?

A

1) Amygdala is activated
2) Amygdala sends distress signal to hypothalamus
3) Hypothalamus communicates w/ rest of brain thru sympathetic nervous system
4) SNS sends signal to adrenal medulla, which releases adrenaline
5) Parasympathetic nervous system dampens stress response

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2
Q

What does the amygdala do?

A

Associates sensory signals with emotions associated with fight or flight

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3
Q

What physiological changes are caused because of adrenaline and why does this happen?

A
  • Increased heart rate –> increases blood flow to organs
  • Increased breathing rate –> increase oxygen intake
  • Pupil dilation –> increase light entry to enhance vision
  • Sweat production –> regulate body temperature
  • Reduction of non-essential functions –> increase energy for essential functions
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4
Q

Evaluation of flight and fight response:

A

+ Makes sense from evolutionary standpoint
- Does not consider other responses - what about freeze?
- Gender differences
- Maladaptive response in modern-day life

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5
Q

In what way does the flight and fight response make sense from an evolutionary standpoint?

A
  • Threats in past would have been more significant hence flight and flight response makes sense
  • Makes sense as a survival instinct
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6
Q

What study shows our reaction is not limited to flight or fight response?

A
  • Gray (1988)
  • Suggests first response is to avoid confrontation altogether (freeze response)
  • During this response, animals and humans are hyper-vigilant as they are deciding best course of action
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7
Q

How does flight and fight response have gender differences (+evaluation)?

A
  • Typically male response to danger
  • Recent research suggests females adopt ‘tend and befriend response’ in dangerous situations
  • Taylor et al (2000) are more likely to form alliances and protect their offspring in rather than flight or fight
  • Counterintuitive for women, as running may put offspring in danger as it is seen as a weakness
    Evaluation:
  • Von Dawans (2012) found both men and females showed tend and befriend during 9/11 attacks
  • Recognising gender similarities are positive as researchers avoid beta bias
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8
Q

How is flight or fight a maladaptive response in modern day life?

A
  • Modern day life rarely requires such an intense biological response of life-threatening situations
  • Negative consequences on health as stressors of modern day life can repeatedly activate fight or flight
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9
Q

What 3 main sections is the brain divided into?

A
  • Forebrain
  • Midbrain
  • Hindbrain
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10
Q

What are the 4 regions of the brain and what part of the brain is each in?

A
  • Cerebrum (forebrain)
  • Diancephalon (forebrain)
  • Brain stem (midbrain + hindbrain)
  • Cerebellum (hindbrain)
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11
Q

What are each of the lobes in the cerebrum responsible for?

A
  • Frontal: Thought and speech production
  • Occipital: Image processing
  • Temporal: Cognitive skills
  • Parietal: Sensory information
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12
Q

3 Features of diancephalon:

A
  • Located in cerebrum
  • Responsible for sensory function, food intake, body’s sleep cycle
  • Divided into thalamus, hypothalamus + epithalamus
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13
Q

Feature of cerebellum:

A

Controls motor function, balance + interpreting information from senses

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14
Q

Localisation of function:

A

Specific functions have specific locations in brain

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15
Q

What did Franz Gall propose, what was this theory called and what was the opposing view of this?

A
  • Person’s personality was reflected in bumps on skulls that in turn reflected functions of brain lying underneath the bump
  • Phrenology
  • Opposing view: Large parts of the brain are involved in all behaviours
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16
Q

What did Paul Broca discover and in what year?

A

1865 –> Speech production was localised to an area in frontal lobe (Broca’s area), after conducting case studies of brain-damaged patients

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17
Q

By the end of the 19th century, what had researchers discovered?

A
  • Small lesions could have highly specific effects on movement and perception shown by cats, dogs + monkeys
  • Showed brain is organised in highly systematic way
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18
Q

What are the 6 key areas of the cerebrum?

A
  • Somatosensory cortex
  • Motor cortex
  • Visual centre
  • Auditory centre
  • Broca’s area
  • Wernicke’s area
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19
Q

3 Features of somatosensory cortex:

A
  • Received sensory input from skin receptors
  • Located in parietal lobe
  • Greater the somatosensory area dedicated to body part, greater its sensitivity
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20
Q

3 Features of motor cortex:

A
  • Responsible for generation of voluntary movements
  • Located in back of frontal lobe
  • Both hemispheres have this
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21
Q

2 Features of visual centre:

A
  • Primary visual centre: located in occipital lobe
  • Secondary visual centre convert sensation into perception
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22
Q

Where is the auditory centre located?

A

Temporal lobes

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23
Q

Specifically what case studies did Broca do to understand the brain and what conclusion did he make?

A
  • Treated Tan in 1880s who could understand spoken language, but couldn’t speak or put thoughts down in writing
  • 8 other similar patients who had lesions in left frontal hemisphere
  • Patients with damage in right hemisphere did not have these issues
  • Conclusion: Language centre is in frontal lobe of left hemisphere
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24
Q

Give one study evaluating Broca’s area’s localisation to just one function:

A

Federonko et al (2012) discovered 2 regions of this area –> one for language, the other for cognitive tasks

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25
Q

What did Karl Wernicke discover and when?

A
  • Discovered another area in temporal lobe was responsible for language, which explains why Tan was able to understand language but not speak it
  • Language involves separate motor and sensory regions
26
Q

Features of motor and sensory region:

A

Motor region: Located in Broca’s area, close to area controlling mouth, tongue and vocal cords (speech)

Sensory region: Located in Wernicke’s area, close to regions response for auditory and visual input

27
Q

What other feature is there between Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area?

A

Neural loop known as accurate fasciculus

28
Q

Strengths and weaknesses of localisation of function (+4, -3):

A

+ Brain scanning evidence
+ Neurosurgical evidence
+ Case studies
+ Support from aphasia studies
- Reductionist
- Plasticity
- Individual differences in brain localisation

29
Q

What brain scanning evidence is there of localisation and how does this make the theory more valid?

A
  • Peterson et al (1988) used brain scans to show how Wernicke’s area was active during a listening task and Broca’s area was active during reading task
  • Suggests language is localised to those two areas
  • Brain scanning evidence means it is more objective
30
Q

What neurosurgical evidence is there of localisation?

A
  • Dougherty et al (2002) reported on 44 OCD patients who had undergone brain surgery lesioninb an area of brain seen responsible for OCD
  • After 32 weeks of surgery, 1/3 had recovered from OCD symptoms whilst 14% had some recovery
31
Q

What case study evidence is there of localisation?

A
  • Landmark study on Phineas Gage
  • Suffered brain damage w/ pole that forced frontal lobe out of his brain
  • Complete change of personality
  • Shows frontal lobe is responsible for regulating mood
32
Q

How do aphasia studies support localisation?

A
  • People who suffer damage to Broca’s area suffer expressive aphasia
  • People who suffer damage to Wernicke’s area suffer receptive aphasia
33
Q

What study shows localisation to be a reductionist method?

A
  • Karl Lashley (1950) found higher cognitive functions aren’t localised to specific brain areas
  • Removed areas of cortex (between 10 and 50%) in rat’s brains finding no area was important for rat’s ability to run the maze
34
Q

How does plasticity argue against localisation?

A

When brain is damaged, rest of brain appears to reorganise itself to compensate for loss of function

35
Q

What studies discovered individual differences in brain localisation?

A
  • Bavelier et al (1997) found large variability in individual patterns of activation across individuals in right and left temporal lobes
  • Harasty et al (1997) found gender differences in size of Broca’s and Wernicke’s area –> women have proportionately larger ones, as they tend to use language more
36
Q

Brain lateralisation:

A

Idea that two halves of brain are not exactly alike

37
Q

What functional specialisations does each hemisphere have?

A
  • Left hemisphere is dominant for language
  • right hemisphere for visual-motor tasks
38
Q

What does it mean if the brain is contralateral?

A

Left hemisphere deals with right side of body and vice versa

39
Q

What others senses are contralateral?

A
  • Taste
  • Smell
40
Q

What does it mean if a part of the brain is lateralised?

A

Function is dealt with by one hemisphere

41
Q

What is another reason for lateralisation?

A

Two hemispheres aren’t symmetrical so foundations cannot be the same

42
Q

Give research evidence to show different functions of different hemispheres:

A
  • Damage to left hemisphere leads to language deficits (not the case for damage to right hemisphere)
  • Narumoto et al (2001) found right hemisphere to be dominant for recognising emotion –> study showed if photo of face is split w/ one half smiling and the other neutral, left hand side is the one recognised by pp
  • Clarke et al (1993) –> Case study of woman w/ damaged right hemisphere would get lost even in familiar situations unless she had verbal instructions
43
Q

How do the two hemispheres communicate with each other?

A

Corpus callosum acts as communicator between them

44
Q

How did researchers investigate the different abilities of the hemispheres (split-brain research)?

A
  • Commissurotomy procedure: Surgeons cut bundle of nerve fibres forming corpus callosum to stop electrical impulses of epileptic activity crossing over
  • Communication is cut
45
Q

Evaluation of lateralisation (+2, -2):

A

+ Better understanding of multi-tasking
+ Offers explanation for why left-handed people (right hemispheric dominance) tend suffer issues w/ immune system
- Lateralisation changes w/ age
- Does not explain brain plasticity

46
Q

What research evidence shows association between lateralisation and multi-tasking?

A

Rogers et al (2004) found domestic chicken were able to perform 2 tasks simultaneously –> finding food and being vigilant

47
Q

What research evidence suggests a link between lateralisation and the development of immune system?

A

Tennessean et al (1993) founds small but significant relationship

48
Q

What research evidence shows that lateralisation is variable and changes with age?

A

Szaflarski et al (2006) found language became more lateralised to left hemisphere up to age of 25 but decreased after this

49
Q

Why doesn’t lateralisation explain brain plasticity and what research evidence shows this?

A
  • Conflicting evidence showing how one damaged hemisphere does not mean individual has abnormal brain
  • Shows the other hemisphere takes over and does the job of both
  • EB by Danielli et al (2013)
50
Q

Who were the first researchers to study split-brain patients (hemispheric lateralisation) and what was the aim?

A
  • Sperry and Gazzaniga (1967)
  • Examine extent to which 2 hemispheres are specialised for certain functions
51
Q

Procedure of Sperry and Gazzaniga’s research:

A
  • Used ‘divided field procedure’
  • 3 different experiments: describe what you see, tactile test & drawing task
52
Q

Divided field procedure:

A

Image/word projected to patient’s left visual field (processed by right hemisphere) or right visual field (processed by left hemisphere)

53
Q

What do each of the 3 tests include?

A

1) Describe what you see: Image shown to left/right visual field to be described by
2) Tactile test: Object placed in left/right hand and either had to describe what they felt or select similar object from series of alternate objects
3) Drawing task: Imagine shown to left/right visual field, where pp drew what they saw

54
Q

Findings of Sperry and Gazzaniga’s research:

A

1) Describe what you see –> right visual field: described verbally showing left hemisphere is superior in language production, left visual field: couldn’t describe it and often reported nothing was there
2) Tactile test –> right hand: described verbally what they felt/identified correct object from series, left hand: couldn’t describe it but could select from series of objects
3) Drawing task –> right field: never as clear as left hand showing right hemisphere superiority for visual motor tasks, left field: left hand Dre better pics (even when pp was right-handed)

55
Q

Conclusion of Sperry and Gazaniga’s research:

A
  • Left hemisphere: Dominant in terms of speech and motor language
  • Right hemisphere: Dominant in terms of visual motor tasks
56
Q

Give a more recent study carried out in 2000s on split brain patients:

A

Turk et al (2002)

57
Q

Aim of Turk et al (2002):

A

Whether patients own face was processed in different way to someone else’s familiar face

58
Q

Procedure of Turk et al (2002):

A
  • 48 yr old man (JW) who had commissurotomy for epilepsy 23 yrs ago
  • Stimuli of 2 morphed faces: 0% JW (100% familiar), 50% JW (50% own/familiar), 100% own JW
  • Use of divided field procedure
  • In one set of trials: JD asked to press button if image presented was himself
  • In another set: JD asked to press button if image presented was familiar other person
59
Q

Results of Turk et al (2002) and conclusions

A
  • Right hemisphere has clear bias towards identifying morphed faces as familiar other –> better at face-processing
  • Left hemisphere has clear bias towards identifying morphed faces as himself –> better at self-recognition
60
Q

Strengths and weaknesses of split brain research (+1, -5)

A

+ Research support for hemispheric lateralisation (Sperry, Turk)
- Has not shown brain to be organised into different areas w/ specific sections responsible for specific tasks
- Small sample size of 10 to 15
- Extremely varied grp of ppl eg different ages, gender –> too many confounding variables
- Operations not always comparable as not all connection pathways were cut git everyone
- Lacks temporal validity as this procedure is not done now due to modern brain scans that can observe these effects w/out brain surgery

Psychology (30 decks)

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