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Biospuchology Flashcards

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1
Q

What did Siffre do in his study of circadian rhythms?

A
  • Seal himself from the world in a cave with no clocks and no naturally light
  • see the effect of circadian rhythms
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2
Q

What did Aschoff and Weaver do in their study of circadian rhythms?

A
  • Bunker Study
  • Put participants in a ww2 bunker with no clocks
  • Had to send a text message when they were going to sleep and when they’d just woken up
  • Measuring natural circadian rhythms
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3
Q

What did Folkard do in his study of circadian rhythms?

A
  • Put participants in a closed off space
  • they had a clock that was slowly getting sped up
  • Study was to see if circadian rhythms/ sleep/wake cycles could be changed consciously or whether they were a natural thing
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4
Q

Evaluate Siffre’s study

A
  • No need for ethical considerations as it was only him
  • Issues with generalisability as it was just him and not a diverse sample
  • Not representative of wider population
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5
Q

What are some practical applications of circadian rhythms to shift work:

A

Boivin et al (1996) - night workers experience reduced concentration around 6am (circadian trough).

Knutsson (2003) - shift workers are 3x more likely to suffer from heart disease.

  • result of constantly adjusting to new shift patterns and experiencing disruption to their circadian rhythms.
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6
Q

What are some practical applications to drug treatments within circadian rhythms:

A
  • Research into circadian rhythms in the body (heart rate, digestion etc) has shown there are peak times when certain drugs can be absorbed best.
  • Means some drugs will come with guidelines for when to take them, to ensure they are most effective. This includes anti cancer drugs and cardiovascular drugs.
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7
Q

Issues with generalisability in Circadian rhythms:

A

Small samples/case studies = issues with generalisability

  • Siffre - at age 60 found his own sense of time passing was slower than when he was a young man = not representative of wider population
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8
Q

What are issues with individual differences in research into circadian rhythms:

A

Duffy et al (2001) shows people naturally show a preference for staying up late and going to bed late (owls) or vice versa (larks).

Studies of temporal isolation always demonstrate individual differences. Some studies have shown people’s sleep wake cycles vary from 13-65 hours (Czeisler et al.).

There are also age differences in sleep/wake patterns.

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9
Q

Issues with methodology in research into circadian rhythms:

A

Czeisler et al found that you could shift a person’s sleep wake cycle from 22 to 28 hours with just dim lighting.

Shows that circadian rhythms can be influenced by even very small factors and not huge factors like no clocks or no extreme light

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10
Q

What two things make up the Central Nervous System

A
  • Brain
  • Spinal Chord
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11
Q

What are the two main components of the human nervous system

A
  • Peripheral Nervous System
  • Central Nervous System
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12
Q

What are the two sub-divisions of the PNS

A
  • Autonomic Nervous System
  • Somatic Nervous System
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13
Q

What is the ANS Split into

A
  • Sympathetic Nervous system
  • Parasympathetic Nervous System
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14
Q

What does the PNS do

A
  • Transfers messages to and from the CNS (Via millions of neurons)
  • SNS is conscious
  • PNS is unconscious
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15
Q

What does the ANS do

A
  • Governs vital functions in the body (Internal Organs)
  • E.g breathing, Heart Rate, Digestions, Sexual Arousal and Stress Response
  • Unconscious or Involuntary
  • Homeostasis
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16
Q

What is the Sympathetic part of the ANS responsible for

A
  • Fight or Flight
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17
Q

What is the Parasympathetic part of the ANS responsible for

A
  • Restoring Balance
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18
Q

What is the frontal lobe responsible for

A
  • Decision Making
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19
Q

What is the Parietal lobe responsible for

A
  • Picking up sensory information from environment
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20
Q

What is the temporal lobe responsible for

A
  • Helping to understand what we hear
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21
Q

What is the Occipital lobe responsible for

A
  • Processing Visual Information
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22
Q

What is the Cerebellum responsible for

A
  • Balance and coordination
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23
Q

What is the Brain stem responsible for

A
  • Regulating body temp, breathing, heart rate etc.
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24
Q

What is the Endocrine system

A
  • Collection of glands around the body that regulate bodily functions, growth and psychological factors
  • Releases chemical messengers (Hormones) into bloodstream
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25
Q

List the glands in the endocrine system

A
  • Pituitary gland
  • Hypothalamus
  • Pineal Gland
  • Thyroid gland
  • Thymus gland
  • Pancreas
  • Adrenal glands
  • Ovaries and Testicles
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26
Q

What is the pituitary gland responsible for, what are its hormones and where is it located

A
  • Controls release of hormones from other glands = Known as mother gland
  • H = ATCH –> Causes adrenal glands to produce adrenaline
  • Brain
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27
Q

What is the Hypothalamus responsible for, what are its hormones and where is it located

A
  • Links nervous system to endocrine system. Maintains homeostasis of bodily systems
  • H = CRH
  • Brain
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28
Q

What is the Pineal gland responsible for, what are its hormones and where is it located

A
  • Modulates sleep pattern -> Keeps bod to day/night rhythm
  • H = Melatonin
  • brain
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29
Q

What is the Thyroid gland responsible for, what are its hormones and where is it located

A
  • Modulates Metabolism
  • H = Thyroxine
  • Neck
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30
Q

What is the Thymus gland responsible for, what are its hormones and where is it located

A
  • Stimulated development of T cells that work in immune system -> help with disease resistance -> active until puberty
  • H = Thymosin
  • Chest
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31
Q

What is the Pancreas responsible for, what are its hormones and where is it located

A
  • Regulates blood sugar levels -> diabetes = problem with pancreas
  • H = Insulin and Glucagon
  • Stomach
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32
Q

What is the Adrenal gland responsible for, what are its hormones and where is it located

A
  • Regulates fight or flight response - heart rate, blood, muscles
  • H = Adrenal and Cortisol
  • On top of kidneys
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33
Q

What are the Ovaries and testicles responsible for and What are their hormones

A
  • Reproductive glands -> Develops secondary sexual characteristics in males and females -> Appearing at puberty
  • H = Oestrogen (Ovaries) and Testosterone (Testicles)
34
Q

Explain the stress response

A
  • Higher centres of brain sense threat
  • Hypothalamus receives signal
  • Hypothalamus activates sympathetic branch of autonomic nervous system
  • Adrenal medulla releases ‘stress hormone’
35
Q

Evaluate the stress response

A
  • Gender bias = Women less likely to show a fight or flight response than men - Women more likely to show ‘tend and befriend’ response
    + Uses objective measures = quantitative data which is free from bias
    + Seen in all mammals in response to threats = suggests it’s adaptive
  • People without adrenal glands need hormone supplements to survive stress
  • Biologically reductionist approach to explaining behaviour - Stress response depends on the type of stresses and person’s interpretation. ignores individual differences
36
Q

What is a nucleus

A
  • Control centre of a cell, contains all the cells dna
37
Q

What is a dendrite responsible for

A
  • Receives the nerve impulse or signal from adjacent neurons
38
Q

What is an Axon responsible for

A
  • Where the electrical signals pass along, away from the cell body
39
Q

What is a myelin sheath responsible for

A
  • Insulates/ protects the axon from external influences that might effect the transmission of the nerve impulse down the axon
40
Q

What are nodes of ranvier responsible for

A
  • Speeding up the transmission of the impulse b forcing it to ‘jump’
41
Q

What is a terminal button responsible for

A
  • Terminal buttons send signals to an adjacent cell
42
Q

What does a motor neuron do

A
  • Carries messages from CNS to effectors such as muscles and Glands
  • Short dendrites - long axons
43
Q

What does a Sensory neuron do

A
  • Carries messages away from the PNS to the brain and spinal chord
  • Long dendrites - Short axons
44
Q

What does a relay neuron do

A
  • Transfers messages from sensory neurons to other interconnecting neurons or motor neurons
  • Short dendrites - Short Axons
45
Q

Describe how the reflex arc works

A
  • Stimulus is detected by sense organs in the PNS
  • Sends a message along the sensory neuron
  • Message the reaches the CNS where it connects with the relay neuron
  • Transfers the message to a motor neuron
  • motor neuron carries the message to an effector such as a muscle causing it to contract and jerk
46
Q

Explain the process of synaptic transmission

A
  • Action potential travels down the axon and causes vesicles to move towards membrane of axon terminal
  • Vesicles fuse with presynaptic membrane and release contents into synaptic cleft at the synaptic terminal
  • Neurotransmitters drift across synaptic cleft and bind to receptors in postsynaptic neuron
  • Binding causes action potential in postsynaptic neuron and electrical impulses move towards synaptic cleft of the postsynaptic neuron
47
Q

What happens to neurotransmitters that don’t reach the postsynaptic neuron

A
  • Diffuse away
  • Taken back up into presynaptic neuron = Reuptake (recycled and reused): Repackaged into vesicles
  • Enzymoes break down NT’s in the synaptic cleft
48
Q

What is an excitatory neurotransmitter

A
  • Neurotransmitters that increase the likelihood of a new action potential forming in postsynaptic cell
  • When detected in Postsynaptic cell -> Excitatory NT’s make charge more positive = more likely to fire
  • DEPOLARISATION
  • E.g Adrenaline
49
Q

What is an Inhibitory Neurotransmitter

A
  • Neurotransmitter’s that decrease the likelihood that a now action potential will form in postsynaptic cell
  • The detected in PSC inhibitory NT’s make charge more negative = less likely to fire
  • HYPERPOLARISATION
  • E.g Seratonin
50
Q

What is Summation

A
  • Combined effect of all Excitatory + Inhibitory neurotransmitter influences on postsynaptic neurone
  • If threshold is reached, new action potential is formed in postsynaptic cell
51
Q

What does uni-directional mean

A
  • Information can only be passed in one direction
52
Q

What is reuptake

A
  • When neurotransmitters are reabsorbed into presynaptic cell after transmitting neural impulse
53
Q

What are SSRI’s

A
  • Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
  • Influence process of neurotransmission
  • blocks reabsorption of serotonin into presynaptic cell
54
Q

Where is Wernicke’s area located and what’s it responsible for

A
  • Temporal lobe
  • Speech Comprehension
55
Q

Where is Broca’s area located and what is it responsible for

A
  • Frontal lobe
  • Speech production
56
Q

What is localisation of function

A
  • Where specific functions like movement, speech and memory are performed in distinct areas of the brain (Localised)
57
Q

What is the somatosensory area

A
  • receives sense impressions from around the body = Contralateral
58
Q

Evaluate Localisation of Function

A

+ Clinical case study research = Shows loss of certain functions can be because of damage to specific areas of the brain. = Clive wearing e.g Wernicke’s aphasia

+ Modern brain scanning techniques = FMRI support older research on language centres –> Shows activation in regions when healthy participants perform language tasks

  • Use of case studies is seen as unscientific - Especially in brain research with damage often covering multiple regions
  • Motor + Somatosensory functions are highly localised however systems like language are much more spread out = Some things may not be localised at all due to high interconnectivity of Brain, no area is independent.
    {Suggests correct approach for arguing for localised or holistic nature of brain depends on the function
59
Q

What is plasticity

A
  • When our brain changes to accommodate a function of the brain
60
Q

What is the Maguire et al study for plasticity

A
  • Brains of London taxi drivers and find significantly more volume of grey matter in posterior hippocampus than in matched groups
61
Q
  • What is the Draganski et al. study for plasticity
A
  • Imaged brains of medical students 3 months before + after their final exams
  • Learning induced changes were seen to have occurred in the posterior hippocampus + parietal cortex -> presumably as a result of final exam
62
Q

What is synaptic pruning

A
  • Deleting rarely used connections
  • Strengthening used connections
63
Q

What is functional recovery after trauma

A
  • Certain areas of the brain are able to adapt and compensate for the areas that are damaged; take over ‘lost functions’
64
Q

What are secondary neural pathways

A
  • rain able to rewire + Reorganise itself through new synaptic connections
  • Dormant synapses open connections to compensate for nearly damaged area of the brain
65
Q

What is axonal sprouting

A
  • Growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neural pathways
66
Q
  • What is recruitment of homologous area
A
  • Areas on other side of brain to perform specific tasks E.g Broca’s area
67
Q

What is hemispheric lateralisation

A
  • The idea that specific behaviours/ functions exist in one hemisphere only
  • Language is produced and understood in the left hemisphere
68
Q

What did Gazzaniga do

A
  • Split brain research
  • monkey study where first make them grab food with the right had, then with the left hand = Both as proficient as each other
    -Left side of the brain could then associate a triangle with a food pellet but the right hemisphere couldn’t
  • Also did the human block building study
  • asked participants to look at a point in the centre of the screen and images would be flashed
  • When flashed in right hemisphere participants would see something however when flashed to left they would say they dine see anything but can identify the name of the object when written down
69
Q

What did sperry do

A
  • Test someone’s split brain

Procedure:
- Look at a point a screen -> two separate shapes shown on each side but asked to draw them simultaneously
- Word flashed either to right or left field of vision -> If right he can repeat the work, if left he ‘didn’t see it’ but but can draw it -> Almost as if two people communicating
- Shown two words, one on each hemisphere and asked to point to a picture that associates with the words

  • Painting of a face made out of objects, E.g fruit, books etc. Shown to one side then there other. -> Then asked if he saw a face or the fruit.
  • Right hemisphere is what processes faces so he would say face but when shown to LH he would say the object
70
Q

Evaluate split brain research

A

+ Made use of highly specialised and standardised procedures which allowed Sperry to investigate specific parts of the brain = Repeatable

  • Issues with generalisation as split Brain people are very uncommon -> Only 11 people took part so individual differences could have influenced result + Control group with no history of epilepsy may have been inappropriate
  • Differences in function could be overstated = research could overemphasise and oversimplify the distinction between the left + right hemispheres -> Distinction is very messy + Sperry said that hemispheres were very different however both can perform tasks just as well as each other
71
Q

What does an FMRI do
- Invasive or Non-invasive
- Temporal resolution
- Spacial resolution

A
  • Measures blood flow in the brain when asked to perform tasks through oxygen released from neurons
  • Non-Invasive
  • Temporal resolution = poor -> Images every 4 seconds
    Spacial resolution = Excellent -> within 1-2 mm of where activity is
72
Q

What is an EEG
- Invasive or Non-invasive
- temporal resolution
- spacial resolution

A
  • Electrode cap = Measures electrical activity in the brain
  • Non-invasive
  • TR = Good -> Shows movement every second
  • SR = Poor -> general not specific areas
73
Q

What is an ERP
- Invasive or Non-invasive
- Temporal resolution
- Spacial resolution

A
  • using a Statistical averaging technique to look at brain action
  • Non-invasive
  • TR = good -> 1-10 ms
  • SR = Not great
74
Q

What is a post-mortem

  • Invasive or Non-invasive
  • Temporal resolution
  • Spacial resolution
A
  • Looking at the brain after a person has died -> Look into its anatomy
  • I/N-I = don’t need
  • TR = N/A
  • SR = N/A
75
Q

What is a circadian rhythm

A
  • Cyclical changes in our body that occur every 24 hours
76
Q

What is an ultradian rhythm

A
  • Cyclical changes in our body that occur more than once in 24 hours
77
Q

What is an Infradian rhythm

A
  • Cyclical changes in our body that take more than 24 hours to complete
78
Q

What is an endogenous pacemaker

A
  • Body’s internal biological ‘Clocks’
79
Q

What are exogenous Zeitgebers

A
  • External factors in the environment that affect our biological rhythms
80
Q

What is Decoursey’s study

A
  • Destroyed SCN connections in 30 chipmunks which were then returned to their natural habitat + observed for 80 days
  • Sleep/wake cycle disappeared + most killed by predators as they were vulnerable
81
Q

What is Ralph’s study

A
  • Bred ‘mutant’ hamsters with a 20 hour sleep/wake cycle
  • when SCN cells from foetal tissue of mutant hamsters transplanted into normal hamsters, cycles of second group defaulted to 20 hours
82
Q

What is Campbell and Murphy’s study

A
  • 15 Participants woken at various times + light pad shone on the back of their knees
  • Managed to produce a deviation in their usual sleep/wake cycle of up to 3 hours ]]- suggests that light is a powerful exogenous zeitgeber that doesn’t necessarily rely on the eyes

Psychology (10 decks)

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