Biopsychology Quick Flashcards
What are the two main divisions of the nervous system?
Peripheral Nervous System
-refers to the parts of the nervous system that does not include brain and spinal cord
Central Nervous System
-comprised of brain and spinal cord
-receives information from senses and control’s body’s response.
Describe the somatic nervous system
UNLIKE ANS
this part of PNS is responsible for carrying sensory and motor information to and from the CNS
Describe synaptic transmission
Process by which a nerve impulse passes across the synaptic cleft from one neuron to another.
PRESYNAPTIC NEURON and POSTSYNAPTIC NEURON
What are hormones?
Body’s chemical messengers
-travel through the bloodstream, influencing many different processes including mood, the stress response and bonding between mother and newborn baby
Describe the flight or fight response
Sequence of activity within body
Triggered when body prepares itself for defending or attacking or running to safety
Activity involves changes in the nervous system and the secretion of hormones that are necessary to sustain arousal
Why does the tend and befriend response occur in females?
Due to presence of oxytocin in females
Tends to induce a nurturing response
Effects of oxytocin are negated by testosterone which is why the tend and befriend response occurs largely in females.
What are axons?
Axons carry electrical impulses down the length of a neuron away from cell body
Covered in fatty layer called myelin sheath
Describe research into localisation of brain function
Broca carried out a postmortem on the brain of a patient known as ‘Tan’
-Found he had a part of his left frontal lobe missing leading to language function being associated with this area of the brain
How can driving a taxi help with functional recovery?
It can help because it increases brain plasticity
MAGUIRE ET AL (2000)-
found that taxi drivers has a significantly higher volume of grey matter in their posterior hippocampus than the control group
Describe split-brain research
Sperry (1968)
-Studied patients whose corpus callosum was severed
-patients had to watch as a word or image was projected to their right visual field (WHICH IS PROCESSED BY THEIR LEFT HEMISPHERE) or to their left visual field which is processed by their right hemisphere
-when object projected to their RVF- patients able to describe what was seen - but when projected to the left- said that nothing was there
HOWEVER
able to tactilely select a matching object to the one shown to their LVF
-led sperry to believe that they were unable to verbally identify what they had seen, because
the left hemisphere were LANGUAGE IS BELIEVED TO BE LATERALISED is NEEDED FOR SPEECH PRODUCTION
Why are young people more likely to recover from brain trauma?
because
-during infancy and childhood
-the parin experiences rapid growth forming 15,000 synaptic connections between ages of 2-3
-this increases plasticity of the brain
-making it more likely that other areas of the brain can take on the role of damaged parts following a brain trauma
What is Wernicke’s area?
Part of the brain that deals with language comprehension, located in temporal lobe.
What is an electroencephalogram?
Recording of brain activity
-during test small sensors are attached to the scalp to pick up the electrical signals produced when brain cells send messages to each other
Give examples of infradian rhythms
-Last LONGER THAN 24hrs
-example of this is female menstrual cycle and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Describe Siffre’s research
Siffre spent a long period of time in a cave to examine the effects of free-running biological rhythms without the influence of of exogenous zeitgebers
-in each of his studies one in 1962- and the other in the 70s
-Siffre’s free running circadian rhythm settled at about 25hours - just above the usual 24
