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Biopsycology Flashcards

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1
Q

Neurons

A

-carry chemical messages
Include: cell body
Nucleus- contains genetic information
Dendrites- receive signals from other neurons or from sensory receptors
Axon- carries impulses away, covered in fatty layer of myelins sheath to protect and speed up impulses, has gaps called nodes of ranvier as they form the impulses to jump the ga
Terminal buttons- communicate to next neuron in chain

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2
Q

Sensory neuron’s

A
  • found in receptors e,g eyes, ears, tongue and skin
    -carry nerve impulses from PNS to spinal cord and Brian
    -when impulse reaches brain they are translated to sensations such as vision hearing, taste and touch
    -not all sensory neuron’s reach brain some stop at the spinal cord allowing for reflex actions
    -long dendrites and short axons
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3
Q

Relay neuron’s

A

-most common
- only found in the brain and spinal cord
-connect sensory neurons to motor or other relay neuron’s
-short dendrites and short axons

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4
Q

Motor neuron’s

A

-carry messages from CNS to effectors e,g glands and muscles and control muscle movements
-when stimulated they release neurotransmitters that bind to receptors in the muscle and triggers a response which leads to muscle movement
-muscle relaxation is caused by inhibition of the motor neuron
-short dendrites and long axons

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5
Q

How neurons function

A

-stimulus presented( hot candle detected by pain receptors on hand)
-sensory send a message through peripheral nervous system
-reaches spinal cord where its passes to relay
-then passes to motor neuron or sent to brain
-motor neuron carries message to effector like muscle or gland (pulls arm away from candle)

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6
Q

Synaptic transmission

A

-when impulse reaches end of neuron it triggers the release of neurotransmitters from synaptic vesicles
1. Nerve impulses travels down axon down axon of pre synaptic neuron
2. When reaches end of axon chemical messengers called neurotransmitters are released from the vesicles within the pre synaptic neuron
3. These diffuse across the synapse
4. Neurotransmitters bind to receptors on post synaptic neuron
6. Stimulates post synaptic neuron to transmit a nerve impulse down axon to next neuron
7. Neurotransmitters are deactivated by being reabsorbed back to pre synaptic neuron being broken down by enzymes in synapse

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7
Q

Excitation

A

-e,g dopamine causes excitation of the post synaptic neuron by increasing its potivie charge and making it more likely to fire
- if a message is more likely to cause the post synaptic neuron to fire its called an excitatory synapse

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8
Q

Inhibition

A

E.g serotonin causes inhibition in the receiving neuron
- results in the neuron becoming negatively charged and less likely to fire
- if the message is likely to be stopped at the post synaptic neuron its called inhibitory synapse

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9
Q

Central Nervous system

A

Made up of spinal cord and brain.
Brain: physiological processes
Spinal cord: responsible for reflex actions, and relaying information between the brain and rest of the body

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10
Q

Peripheral nervous system

A

-transmits messages to and from the cns
-relay nerve impulses rom CNS to rest of body and from body back to CNS
Split into somatic and autonomic nervous system

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11
Q

PNS- somatic nervous system

A

-controls voluntary actions
-motor and sensory neurons
-transmits and receives information from the senses

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12
Q

PNS- autonomic nervous system

A

—transmits and receives information from the organs
-split into two; sympathetic and parasympathetic

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13
Q

Autonomic- sympathetic

A

-fight or flight response
-prepares body for physical activity
-increase heart rate, increased breathing, decrease activity of large intestine, pupil dial action, sweating and raise blood pressure

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14
Q

Parasympathetic

A

-helps conserve body’s activity levels and energy by decreasing activity
-regulated bodily functions like digestion and urination
-slows heart and breathing rate, lowers blood pressure as body enters state of relaxation

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15
Q

Endocrine system

A

-composed of glands that secret chemicals(hormones) into the blood
-blood caries hormones around the body and when it reaches the target cell/organ and it produces and effect.
-affects are slower but act for longer

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16
Q

Pituitary gland

A

-master gland
-secretes several hormones into the blood
-hormones turn in turn act on other glands to stimulate other hormones to be released to bring out effects
-controlled by the hypothalamus

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17
Q

Pineal gland

A

-in the brain
-releases melatonin which controls the sleep wake cycle
- receives info from when the environment is light or dark which influences production and secretion of melatonin

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18
Q

Thyroid gland

A

-controls heart, muscle and digestive function, brain development and bone maintenance
-releases thyroxine:which regulates metabolism
-metabolism: involved in chemical processes of converting food into energy

19
Q

Pancreas gland

A

-role in digestion by producing enzymes to break don food and hormones to help regulate blood sugar levels
-produces insulin
Insulin; breakdown carbs to produce glucose for energy

20
Q

Adrenal glands

A

-above kidneys
-two parts: adrenal medulla and adrenal cortex
-medulla releases adrenaline and noradrenaline which play a key role in fight or flight response
-Cortex releases cortisol which stimulates release of glucose while suppressing immune system

21
Q

Adrenal glands

A

-above kidneys
-two parts: adrenal medulla and adrenal cortex
-medulla releases adrenaline and noradrenaline which play a key role in fight or flight response
-Cortex releases cortisol which stimulates release of glucose while suppressing immune system

22
Q

Testes

A

-release testosterone
-testosterone is responsible for evelpoment of male characteristics during puberty
-muscle growth, fat distribution and sperm production

23
Q

Ovaries

A

Release oestrogen
- controls regulation of female reproductive system
-menstrual cycle and pregnancy

24
Q

Fight or flight response

A

-during situations that produce stress, fear of excitement, neurons of sympathetic nervous system stimulate adrenal medulla rot secrete adrenaline
-adrenaline: prepare the body, typical symptoms include, dry mouth increased heart rate, increased sweating etc

25
Q

Fight or flight process

A

-stressor
- hypothalamus activates
-sympathetic nervous system activates
-adrenal medulla activates

26
Q

What does adrenaline do?

A

-bind to receptors on target organs
-one if targets is SAN (heart cells), leading to excitations
-increase heart rate to supply more blood
-so more oxygen and glucose to muscles, so increase aerobic respiration
-releases more energy that will be used

27
Q

AO3 of fight or flight

A

-appears to be different in females
- Taylor et al found females adopt a ‘tend befriend’ response in stressful situations
-women are more likely to protect offspring and form alliances with other women rather than fight or flee
-suggests research into fight or flight is gender bias as biological processes that occur during stress e.g SAM response may only apply to males

28
Q

Localisation of the brain

A

-idea that specific functions have specific locations within the brain
-split into two hemispheres held by corpus callosum
Each hempisphere has 4 lobes.

29
Q

Frontal lobe

A

Motor control
Problem solving
Speech production (brocas area)

30
Q

Temporal lobe

A

-Auditory processing
-language comprehension( wernickes area)
- memory/info retrieval

31
Q

Parietal lobe

A

-touch perception (somatosensory cortex)
-body orientation
-sensory input

32
Q

Occipital lobe

A

-sight (visual cortex)
-visual reception and interpretation

33
Q

Motor cortex

A

sends messages to muscles via brain and spinal cord, generating voluntary movements,
-damage: result in loss of fine movements

34
Q

Auditory centres

A

-has two auditory cortices one in each hemisphere
-primary auditory cortex receives info from both ears via two pathways that transmit info about sound and location
Damage: partial hearing loss, more damage= more loss

35
Q

Somatosensory

A

-sensory info from skin
-perceives touch so no* of neuronal connections needed dictates amount of somatosensory cortex needed for that area
-receives sensory info from opposite sides of body

36
Q

Broca’s area

A

-responsible for speech production
-damage: causes broca’s aphasia, slow speech, laborious and lacking fluency

37
Q

Wernicke’s area

A

-language processing, understanding language and accessing words
- wernicke found patients who had damage near auditory cortex and language impairments, inability to comprehend language and anomia
- found that the same people did have fluent speech when they could access’s the words quickly
-led to him suggesting this
-damage: produce nonsense words

38
Q

Localisation +ves

A

-research to support from unique case studies
+ e.h phineas and cage who had an accident where an iron rod was blasted through his frontal lobe
-after this a change in his personality was seen he was described as rude and hostile compare to his before which was, calm and well mannered
- supports idea as this suggests frontal lobe is responsible for mood regulation
-shows different areas have different functions

+ evidence from brain scan research
- Peterson et al used brain scans to demonstrate how wernickes area was active during listening task and brocas active during reading
- and tilling et al showed episodic memory and semantic memory were recalled from different sides of prefrontal cortex. While procedural is cerebellum
-positive as wide rage of research supports idea that diff areas gave different functions
-supports localisation as shows how specific brain regions are activated during specific cognitive tasks providing further evidence for specialisation of diff areas of brain

39
Q

Localisation -ves

A

-contradictory evidence comes from animal research
-Ashley removed between 10-50% of cortex in rants that were learning a maze and found that no area was more important than any other in terms of ability to learn the maze
- problem as is suggested that higher cognitive processes e.g learning are not localised but distributed in a more holistic involving the entire brain
- reduces validity of theory of localisation by challenging notion that specific brain regions are solely responsible for particular cognitive functions
-however its difficult to generalise from animals like rats to humans as learning may be localised in humans than animals

  • evidence from plasticity fails to support
    -e.g when brain becomes damaged through accident or illness and function has been lost the rest of the brain is able to recognise itself to recover the function
    -turn et al discovered a patient who suffered damage to left hemisphere but developed the capacity to speak in the right hemisphere
    -suggest functions are not localised and brain can adapt following damage
  • challenged theory by indicating functions are not strictly confined to specific brain regions as brain can redistribute tasks to other areas following damage, demonstrating neuroplasticity rather than localisation
40
Q

Lateralisation

A

-the brain is contralateral ( right hem deals with left side of body and vice versa
-brain has two hemispheres held together by the corpus Calossum- is a communication pathway so two hemispheres can exchange info

41
Q

Left hemisphere

A
  • language processing
    -brocas and wernickes area
    -if someone had a stoke in left hemisphere their speech will likely be affected
42
Q

Right hemisphere

A

-dominant in recognising emotion in others
-spatial information

43
Q

+ve for lateralisation

A
  • supporting evidence from PET scans, used to identify which brain regions er active during a visual processing task
  • when ps asked to attend global elements of an image( forest as a whole) regions on the right hemisphere were more active
    -when asked to focus of the minor detail (tree) specific areas of the left hemisphere were more active
    -suggests tasks such as visual processing are a feature of a connected brain
    -supports the idea that cognitive functions such as visual processing involve co ordination between different regions of the brain rather than strict localisation, as diff aspects of task activate different areas across both hemispheres

-case study conducted on a woman who had damaged the right hemisphere found she would often get lost even in familiar locations if she didn’t have verbal instructions for directions, this supports the idea that the right hemisphere is dominant in spatial information

44
Q

-ves of lateralisation

A
  • evidence from plasticity fail to support
  • when brain becomes damaged through illness or accident and a function has been lost, the brain is able to reorganise itself to recover the function
    -e.g Turk et all discovered a patient who suffered damage to the left hemisphere but developed the capacity to speak in the right
    -suggests functions are not lateralised and the brain can adapt following damage to certain areas
    -undermines lateralisation by indicating functions may not be strictly confined to one hemisphere as brain can redistribute tasks to opposite hemispheres following damage. Showing plasticity rather than lateralisation
  • contradictory evidence from animal research
  • lashely removed 10-50% of cortex in rats that were learning a maze and found no area was more important than any other in terms of ability learning the maze
    -problem as it suggests higher cognitive processes such as learning are not lateralised but distributed in a more holistic way involving the entire brain
  • reduces the validity of the theory of lateralisation by challenging notion that specific brain hemispheres are solely responsible for certain cognitive functions
  • however difficult to generalise from animals to humans, learning may be localised in humans more than animals

-lateralisation may be more complicated by age
-edict due from szflarski who found langaueg became more lateralised to the left hemisphere as children developed into adolescents, but after age of 25 lateralisation decreased with each decade of life
-suggests lateralisation is a more complex process, with many questions remaining to what happened
-challenges the notion of stable lateralisation throughout life indicating lateralisation of function may change over an individuals lifetime adding complexity to understanding of brain lateralisation

Psychology (8 decks)

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