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Biopsychology > Booklets 4,5 and 6 > Flashcards

Booklets 4,5 and 6 Flashcards

1
Q

What are neurons?

A

Cells that are responsible for transmitting electrical and chemical messages across the nervous system.

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2
Q

What is the synapse?

A

The conjunction of the end of the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of the next.

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3
Q

What is a synaptic transmission?

A

The process by which a nerve impulse passes across the synaptic cleft from one to the next.

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4
Q

What are neurotransmitters?

A

These are chemical substances that transmit nerve impulses across the synapse.

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5
Q

What does sensory neurons do?

A

Carry messages from the PNS to the CNS.

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6
Q

What do relay neurons do?

A

Relay messages between the sensory and motor neurons

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7
Q

What are mutton neurons?

A

These connect the CNS to effectors such as muscles and glands.

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8
Q

Where are sensory neurons found?

A

In clusters known as ganglia in receptor cells of the CNS

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9
Q

What are nerve impulses translated to?

A

Sensations such as vision and touch.

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10
Q

What are the axon and dendrite lengths for sensory neurons?

A

They have longer dendrites and shorter axons.

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11
Q

What is the most common neuron?

A

Really neurons make up around 97% of all neurons.

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12
Q

What are the lengths of dendrites and axons of relay neurons?

A

They have short dendrites and short axons

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13
Q

Where are motor neurons found?

A

The central nervous system

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14
Q

What do motor neurons control?

A

Muscle movements

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15
Q

What happens when motor neurons are stimulated?

A

They release neurotransmitters that bind to the receptors and muscles to trigger a response.

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16
Q

What are the lengths of dendrites and axons in motor neurons?

A

They have short dendrites and long axons

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17
Q

What are the different parts of a neuron?

A

Dendrite
Axon
Myelin sheath
Nodes of Ranvier
Axon terminal

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18
Q

What is the dendrite?

A

They receive signals from other neurons or from sensory receptor cells. The dendrites are connected to the cell body and carry nerve impulses from neighbouring neurons towards the cell body.

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19
Q

What is the axon?

A

Long slender fibre that carries nerve impulses, in the form of action potentials. The action carries nerve impulses away from the cell body down the length of the neuron.

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20
Q

What is the myelin sheath?

A

This surrounds most axons and protects and insulates it so that electrical impulses travel faster along the axon.

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21
Q

What are the nodes of ranvier?

A

The gaps that segment the myelin sheath which forces the impulse to jump across the gaps along the axon making it quicker.

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22
Q

What are axon terminals?

A

These connect neurons to each other through synaptic transmission

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23
Q

What is the firing of a neuron (electrical transmission)?

A

When in the neuron is at resting potential the inside of the cell is negatively charged compared to the outside. When it is activated by stimulus the inside of the cell becomes positively charged causing an action potential. This causes an electrical impulse to travel down the axon towards the end of the neuron

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24
Q

What are neurotransmitters?

A

Chemicals that diffuse across the synapse to the next neuron in the chain. Once it crosses the gap it is taken up by the post synaptic receptor site of the next neuron

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25
What happens when neurotransmitters binds to the receptor sites on the postsynaptic cell?
The receptors become activated and either produce an excitory or inhibitory effect.
26
What is the process of summation?
This is when the excitatory and inhibitory influences are summed. If the net effect on the postsynaptic neuron is inhibitory than the post synaptic neuron is less likely to fire and vice versa.
27
What is hemispheric lateralisation?
The idea that the two halves of the brain are functionally different and each hemisphere has functional specialisations.
28
What is the left visual field of both eyes connected to?
Right hemisphere, and the right visual field in both eyes is connected to the left hemisphere.
29
What is the evaluation for hemispheric lateralisation?
It increases neural processing capacity, one study found that brain naturalisation is associated with an enhanced stability to form two tasks simultaneously. Research support showing even in connected brains the two hemispheres process information differently. Pet scan used, right hemisphere more active when looking at a whole picture but left more active when focusing on finer detail. Research going against the idea of people having a dominant side of the brain creating a different personality. There is no artists or mathematicians brain.
30
What happens during an epileptic seizure?
The brain experiences excessive electrical activity which travels from one hemisphere to the other. To solve this doctors would cut the corpus colossal to separate the two hemispheres.
31
What was Sperry’s research?
He conducted a quasi experiment with 11 participants who had had their corpus callosum severed. An image or word was projected into a patient right visual field and then onto the left visual field. He had different tasks such as describe what you see, recognition by touch and drawing tasks.
32
In Sperry’s research why could the participants not describe what they could see?
Because if it was shown to the left visual field which is governed by the right hemisphere, language is not present and so the participants could not report seeing anything. In the right visual field, governed by the left hemisphere the participants could describe what they saw because this hemisphere is dominant for language.
33
In Sperry’s drawing task, why could participants draw or not draw a picture?
When drawing with the left hand and in the left visual field, control by the right hemisphere, the drawings were clearer and better than the right hand even if the participants were right-handed. This demonstrates the superiority of the right hemisphere when it comes to visual tasks. However, they would report seeing nothing when asked.
34
What is the evaluation of split brain research?
Sperry’s research may have caused ethical issues. Although he only took advantage of a naturally occurring situation participants may not have fully understood what they were giving consent to. Causal relationships are hard to establish as the epilepsy of the 11 participants may have caused unique features in cognitive abilities. Research support from Gazzaniga finding that split brain participants actually perform better in certain tasks where the left hemispheres better cognitive strategies are down by the inferior right hemisphere in normal people.
35
What is localisation of function?
The idea that certain functions such as language and memory have certain locations within the brain.
36
What is the motor area?
Frontal lobe
37
What is the function of the motor area?
Voluntary movement by sending signals to the body.
38
what hemisphere is the motor area on?
Both
39
Where is the somatic sensory area?
Parietal lobe
40
What is the function of the somatosensory area?
It receives incoming sensory information and produces sensations related to pressure pain at temperature, et cetera.
41
What hemisphere is the somatic sensory area on?
Both
42
Where is the auditory area?
Temporal lobe
43
What is the function of the the auditory area?
Analysing and processing acoustic information. It contains different parts and the primary auditory area is involved in processing simple features of sound such as loudness and pitch.
44
What hemisphere is the auditory area on?
Both
45
Where is the visual area?
Occipital lobe
46
What is the function of the visual area?
Receives some processes visual information.
47
What hemisphere is the visual area on?
Both
48
Where is Broca’s area?
Frontal lobe
49
What is the function of broca’s area?
Responsible for speech production
50
Which hemisphere is Broca’s area on?
Left hemisphere
51
Where is Wernicke’s area?
The temporal lobe
52
What is wernicke’s area’s function?
Responsible for language comprehension
53
Which hemisphere is Wernicke’s area on?
Left hemisphere
54
What acts as a bridge between the two hemispheres?
The corpus colossal.
55
Which side of the body does the left hemisphere control?
The right side, and vice versa for the right hemisphere
56
The brain is contralateral, what does this mean?
It controls opposite sides of the body
57
What is the main function of the left hemisphere?
Language processing.
58
What is the general function of the right hemisphere?
Recognising and spatial relationships, this includes recognising emotion in others.
59
What does damage to Broca’s area colours?
Broca’s aphasia, characterised by slow speech and lack of fluency in speech
60
What is the result of damage to Wernicke’s area?
Wernicke’s aphasia, which is characterised by the production of nonsense words and anomia.
61
What is the evaluation of localisation of brain function?
Patient Tan- could only say the word tan and post mortem found damage to Broca’s area Localisation fails to consider individual differences- one study found that women have proportionally larger Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas Plasticity- All the areas of the brain can regain the function of a damaged area
62
What is the evaluation of localisation of brain function?
Patient Tan- could only say the word tan and post mortem found damage to Broca’s area Localisation fails to consider individual differences- one study found that women have proportionally larger Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas Plasticity- All the areas of the brain can regain the function of a damaged area

Biopsychology (4 decks)

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