Biopsychology studies Flashcards
1
Q
Supportive research for LOCALISATION:
Clive Wearing
A
- Case study
- brain damage as of a result of a viral infection
- Damage to his semantic long term memory however little damage to his procedural memory.
- Suggests localisation because if the function was spread throughout the entire brain there would not be specific deficits in this way.
- However, a case study only provides evidence, not proof.
2
Q
Supportive research for LOCALISATION:
Petersen et al
A
- Brain scans to demonstrate how Wernicke’s area was active during a listening task and Broca’s area was active during a reading task.
- These findings support a theory of localisation as the findings evidence specific areas of the brain having specific and different functions.
3
Q
Supportive research for LOCALISATION:
Dougherty et al
A
- Reported on 44 OCD patients who had undergone a cingulotomy (a procedure that cuts the cingulate gyrus)
- Findings showed a third of patients significantly improved and a further 14% showed partial improvement.
- The success of these procedures strongly supports that the symptoms and behaviours of mental disorders are localised.
4
Q
Limiting research for LOCALISATION
Dejerne:
A
LOCALISATION DOESN’T SHOW IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN BRAIN REGIONS
- Case study of a patient who was struggling to write words.
- The patient had damage to his visual cortex.
- The patient had damage to the connection between the visual cortex and Wernicke’s area.
- The study demonstrates that the idea that only one brain region contributes to a function is over-simplified and even the idea of multiple brain regions contributing to a function is over-simplified.
- The study illustrates the importance of communication between brain regions, rather than just looking at one area as important to a function.
5
Q
Limiting research for LOCALISATION:
Bavelier
A
LOCALISATION DOESN’T CONSIDER INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
- Conducted a study on silent reading
- Found variation in patterns of activation, showing people use slightly different parts of their brains to do the same functions.
- They observed activity in the right temporal lobe as well as the left frontal temporal and occipital lobes.
- This is a weakness as it shows that brain functioning can differ across individuals suggesting that research into the structure of the brain does not consider individual differences.
6
Q
Supporting research for PLASTICITY:
Maguire
A
- Maguire: taxi drivers vs control (non-taxi drivers)
- Quasi experiment, IV = participants job which was naturally occurring and DV = the volume of the hippocampus.
- Greater volume found in taxi drivers Hippocampus
- (Possible correlation between time in job and density of p. Hippocampus).
- Supports plasticity because it shows that when people have to learn, or live through experiences their brain has to adapt.
7
Q
Supporting research for PLASTICITY:
Kuhn
A
- Laboratory experiment
- Independent groups design
- Experimental group: supermario 2 months, 30 mins a day
- vs control group who played no video games for the 2 months.
- FOUND the experimental group had increased grey matter in several regions (especially ones involved in spatial navigation, fine movement and planning).
- Indicates learning’s accompanied by plastic changes like re-wiring.
8
Q
Supporting research for PLASTICITY + FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY:
Danelli
A
- EB operated on at age 2.5 to remove a large benign tumour from left hemisphere
- virtually all of the LH was removed.
- Causing a lack of all linguistic abilities.
- Due to intensive rehabilitation program, his language abilities started to improve around the age of 5 and continued to do so over next 3 years to the point that no problems of language ability were reported.
- Tested at 17y to compare language abilities w/ normal controls.
- Found his RH compensated for the loss of the LH so could function well linguistically.
9
Q
COUNTER to DANELLI: (plasticity)
Elbert
A
LIMITING FACTOR TO PLASTICITY = AGE
- The older people are, the less plastic their brain is.
- Elbert conducted a study looking at brain plasticity in children and adults
- Got children and adults to do different learning tasks.
- Scanned their brains before and after learning
- FOUND that there were a lot more plastic changes in the children’s brains, then in the adult’s brains.
- He also found that the older adults were, the less their brain changed.
10
Q
FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY:
Schneider
A
- FOUND the more time patients spent in education the greater their chances of a disability-free recovery.
- Therefore, cognitive reserve could be an important factor in recovery after brain trauma.
11
Q
FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY:
Marquez de la Plata
A
- FOUND that following brain trauma 40+ year old patients regained less function than younger patients
- They were also more likely to decline in function 5 years following the trauma.
- HOWEVER, evidence to suggest women recover better as their function is not as lateralised as men.
12
Q
HEMISPHERIC LATERALISATION supportive research:
Sperry
A
- Split brain patients individuals has their connecting corpus callosum cut (usually patients with severe epilepsy in an attempt to prevent seizures passing from one area of the brain to the other).
- SPERRY’s AIM: to test the capabilities of the separated hemispheres.
PROCEDURE:
- Patients were asked to fixate on a dot in the centre of a screen using a T-scope to present information for 1/10th of a second to either the left or right visual field.
- Patients were asked to make responses with either their left hand or their right hand or verbally (controlled by the left hemisphere) without being able to see what their hands were doing.
RESULTS:
1. VERBALISE + POINT
- When in right visual field, the patient could easily describe.
- When in the left visual field, they couldn’t describe what they’d seen but could use their left hand to point to a matching object or picture.
SHOWING the right hemisphere had processed the information but cannot verbalise it
- Supports idea language is processed in the left hemisphere
- DRAW
- when in the right visual field, the patients couldn’t draw it
- when in the left visual field, the could draw it.
- Supports the idea spatial functioning is hemispherically lateralised to the right hemisphere. - SIMULTANEOUS PRESENTATION
- Two words/pictures projected simultaneously, on both visual fields
- The patient would say they saw one image/word, but when asked to draw it they’d draw the other one.
- The weren’t aware that they had drawn a different object or picture to the one they said they had seen.
- Supports the idea the two hemispheres were working separately from each other.
