Biopsychology (P2) Flashcards
Divisions of the nervous system
Central nervous system (processes info) - Brain and Spinal cord
Peripheral nervous system (transmits info to and from CNS)
- Somatic NS (skeletal muscles- voluntary movements) and Autonomic NS (unconscious actions - heartbeat)
- Sympathetic NS (fight or flight) and Parasympathetic NS (calms body down after stress)
Endocrine system
endocrine system - network of glands that release hormones into the blood to regulate various bodily functions
- hypothalamus - controls release of hormones from pituitary gland
- pituitary gland - ACTH, oxytocin - stimulates the adrenal cortex and release of cortisol in stress
- pineal gland - melatonin - biological rhythms - sleep/wake cycle
- thyroxine - regulate metabolism
- adrenal gland - adrenal medulla - adrenaline and noradrenaline - fight of flight
- ovaries - oestrogen - regulation of reproductive system - menstrual cycle
- testes - testosterone - development of male characteristics in puberty
fight or flight
stressor - amygdala activates and send signal to hypothalamus - this activates the sympathetic medullary pathway - activates adrenal medulla - releases adrenaline and noradrenaline - causes physiological changes like increased heart rate
- increased heart rate - pumps more blood to muscles
- increased breathing rate - more O2 to bloodstream
- pupil dilation - increased light conc to improve vision
sweat - cool body down
localisation of function
- certain functions have certain location in the brain
area: - motor - frontal lobe
- somatosensory - parietal lobe
- visual - occipital lobe
- auditory - temporal lobe
- brocas area - speech production
- wernickes area - speech comprehension
Peterson et al - showed wernickes area was active during a listening task and brocas in a reading task
Case study - phineas cage - metal pole through left frontal lobe - change in personality
Split brain studies
- corpus collosum was cut to sepeate the 2 hemispheres to control epilepsy
- image projected to right visual field
- shown in right - could be processed
- shown in left - could not be processed
- two words presented simultaneously on either side
- key of left and ring on right
- PPTs would select the key with left hand and say the word ring
Brain plasticity
- new neural connections are formed through learning and as we age rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened
Research:
- studied brains of taxi drivers and found more grey matter in posterierer hippocampus than in control group
- positive correlation between length on job and volume of grey matter
Functional recovery - after injury unaffected areas can adapt and compensate for damaged areas
- new neural connections are formed near damage and secondary neural pathways are activated
- axonal pruning - growth of new nerve endings connect with damaged nerve cells to from new pathways
Application:
- neural rehab - as spontaneous recovery slows after weeks, physical therapy may be required - movement therapy - shows further intervention is needed
- negative plascticity - 60-80% have phantom limb
- Age and functional recovery - reduces - 40h of golf training produces structural changes - reduced motor activity
Ways of studying the brain
- FMRI - works by detecting changed in blood O2 as more active areas consume more O2 - 3D images show different active areas
+ non invasive (no radiation)
– expensive and hard to capture - EEG - measure electrical brain activity with electrodes
+ useful in diagnosing conditions such as epilepsy (random bursts of activity)
– provides generalised info and not pinpoint - ERPs - types of brainwave triggered by particular events (filtered EEG)
+ derived from EEGs and are specific
– must completely eliminate background noise and extraneous materials - Post mortem examinations - damaged areas are examined after death
+ vital for early understanding of key processed
– ethical issues of consent
