Biopsychology - The Brain Flashcards
What is localisation of function?
The idea that certain functions are linked to certain areas within the brain.
What is the motor cortex?
Controls body movement by sending nerve impulses to motor neurons which control muscles in the body.
What is the somatosensory cortex?
Processes sensory information such as touch, pressure, temperature, and pain. by receiving nerve impulses from sensory neurons that communicate with sensory receptors in the skin.
What is the visual cortex?
Processes visual information by receiving nerve impulses from sensory neurons that communicate with sensory receptors in the eyes.
What is the auditory cortex?
Processes sound by receiving nerve impulses from sensory neurons that communicate with sensory receptors in the ears.
What is Broca’s areas?
Enables speech production, Broca’s aphasia is caused by damage to the area and causes difficulty in speech production.
What is Wernickes area?
Enables us to understand langue, damage causes Wernicke’s aphasia and causes problems with language comprehension.
What is hemispheric lateralisation?
The idea that the two hemispheres perform different functions and each hemisphere is mainly responsible for certain behaviours.
What type of skills is the right hemisphere responsible for?
Spatial skills are hemispherically.
What type of skills is the left hemisphere responsible for?
Language skills are hemispherically lateralised to the left hemisphere.
What is meant by the hemispheres being organise contralaterally?
- The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, and the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body
- e.g. movement, vision and touch are organised contralaterally
- The two hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum
What is the corpus callosum?
A bundle of nerve axons that enable communication between the two hemispheres.
What is Sperry’s split brain research?
Sperry conducted split-brain research on epileptic patients who had a commissurotomy (corpus callosum cut).
1. Image or word was presented to the patient’s right visual field, and so would be processed by the left hemisphere. Another image or word was presented to their left visual field, and so would be processed by the right hemisphere.
2. Patients were then asked to respond to the stimulus (either by describing it verbally or by pointing to the stimulus that matched the one they were shown).
What is a split brain patient?
Someone who has had their corpus callosum cut.
What were the findings of Sperry’s research?
- Found that patients could only describe an image verbally if it was presented to their left hemisphere (right visual field), suggesting that the left hemisphere is responsible for language skills
- When a word was presented to the right hemisphere (left visual field), patients were able to write it down, but unable to say it, suggesting that the right hemisphere is responsible for spatial skills
What is brain plasticity?
The brain’s ability to adapt in response to new experiences, for instance after brain damage.
What was Maguire study on brain plasticity?
- Conducted a quasi-experiment where she found there was a positive correlation between the amount of time spent as a taxi driver and the size of a participant’s hippocampus.
- This supports the idea that new experiences, such as taxi driving, lead to changes in the brain, such as rewiring, which causes the hippocampus to grow in volume.
What is functional recovery?
A type of brain plasticity where a function is transferred from a damaged brain region to an undamaged brain region.
What is Axonal sprouting?
When neurons grow new connections after injury.
What is synaptic pruning?
connections that are rarely used are deleted and
frequently used connections are strengthened
What is fMRI?
A brain scanning technique that detects changes in the levels of oxygen in the blood by measuring changes in blood flow that occur across parts of the brain whilst people perform tasks.
How does fMRI work?
Measures changes in blood flow to brain regions. This is because areas of the brain that are more active require more oxygenated blood. Therefore, more blood flows towards that brain region to carry oxygen.
This enables psychologists to see which brain areas are active when doing a particular task as deoxygenated and oxygenated haemoglobin have different magnetic qualities, an fMRI scanner can detect these different qualities and use it to create a moving 3D map of the brain.
What is EEG?
A technique that measures electrical activity in the brain by placing electrodes on the scalp to pick up electrical activity on the surface of the brain (cortex).
How does EEG work?
Small electrical charges are detected by the electrodes and graphed over a period of time, indicating the level of activity in the brain. This can be used to detect illnesses such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s
What is ERP?
Small electrical signals recorded using electrodes attached to the scalp, that occur in response to a stimulus over multiple of trials.
What are post-mortem examinations?
When a person’s brain is examined in detail after death to look for evidence of brain abnormalities. The brain is dissected and studied in microscopic detail.
- This can be related back to unusual behaviours they displayed when they were alive.
What are 3 strengths of fMRI?
High spatial resolution - provides detailed images of brain activity, allowing precise localisation of function.
Non-invasive - it doesn’t use radiation or require surgery, making it safer than techniques like PET scans.
Real-time brain activity - fMRI captures dynamic brain function helping researchers study cognitive processes as they ahappen
What are 3 strengths of EEG?
High temporal resolution - EEG detects brain activity in milliseconds making it ideal for studying real-time cognitive processes
Non-invasive and safe
