Chapter 3 - Neuroscience Approaches to Understanding Psychopathology Flashcards
Categorical
The situation in which objects or concepts are defined as part of a category; categorical definition of a mental disorder results in the person either having the disorder or not; can be contrasted with dimensional definitions.
Memory
A process including specific brain areas such as the hippocampus and the biochemical and structural changes among neurons as new information is retained.
Dimensional
The situation in which objects or concepts are defined along a continuous scale; dimensional definition of a mental disorder reflects that a person can experience the disorder in terms of differing degrees; temperature is an example of a dimensional definition whereas ice and steam represent categorical definitions.
Comorbid
This refers to an individual having more than one disorder at the same time.
Internalizing Disorders
Disorders that are experienced internally, such as anxiety and depression.
Externalizing Disorders
Disorders that are manifested in the external world and include conduct disorder (CD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), antisocial personality disorder, substance abuse disorder, and in some studies attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) - contrast with internalizing disorders.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
Publication of criteria for diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), used in North America.
International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
A publication of criteria for diagnosis by the World Health Organization (WHO), used in Europe.
Reward System
Particular brain structures, especially the nucleus accumbens part of the ventral striatum, influenced by an increase in dopamine during reward.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
One large organization of the U.S. government that advances the understanding and treatment of mental disorders; NIMH emphasizes the utilization of neuroscience information to understand mental illness.
What do genes do?
Genes form the blueprint that determines what an organism is to become.
Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)
Five domains established by the NIMH to better clarify our understanding of psychopathology, which are negative affect, positive affect, cognition, social processes, and regulatory systems.
Endophenotypes
Patterns of processes that lie between the gene (the genotype) and the manifestations of the gene in the external environment (the phenotype).
Proteins
Do the work of the body and are involved in a variety of processes; functionally, proteins in the form of enzymes are able to make metabolic events speed up, whereas structural proteins are involved in building body parts.
Epigenetics
Study of the factors that turn the genes on and off and are passed on to the next generation; these are largely influenced by the environment of the organism.
Neurotransmitters
Chemicals which are involved in increasing or decreasing the potential for action potentials to be produced; they also maintain the communication across the synapse.
Central Executive Network
The neural network involved in performing such tasks as planning, goal setting, directing attention, performing, inhibiting the management of actions, and the coding of representations in working memory.
Salience Network
The neural network involved in monitoring and noting important changes in biological and cognitive systems.
Electroencephalography (EEG)
A technique for recording electrical activity from the scalp related to cortical activity, which reflects the electrical activity of the brain at the level of the synapse.
Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)
Provides information necessary to produce proteins.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
A measure related to blood flow in the brain that reflects cognitive processing; PET systems measure variations in cerebral blood flow that are correlated with brain activity.
fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)
Based on the fact that blood flow increases in active areas of the cortex; because hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the bloodstream, has different magnetic properties before and after oxygen is absorbed, by measuring the ratio of hemoglobin with and without oxygen, the fMRI is able to map changes in cortical blood and infer neuronal activity.
Magnetoencephalography
Measures the small magnetic field gradients exiting and entering the surface of the head that are produced when neurons are active.
Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)
Use of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) magnet to measure cortical connection in the brain, a procedure for showing fiber tracts (white matter) in the brain.
Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)
Also known as evoked potentials (EP), show electroencephalography (EEG) activity in relation to a particular event.
Evoked Potentials (EP)
Also known as event related potentials (EP), show electroencephalography (EEG) activity in relation to a particular event.
Evoked Potentials (EP)
Also known as event related potentials (ERPs), show electroencephalography (EEG) activity in relation to a particular event.
Small World Framework
This is a model of brain connections based on the idea that the ability to socially contact any two random individuals in the world can be accomplished in a limited number of connections; neurons have numerous short-distance local connections, which taken together can be considered as a hub or module; from these hubs are more long-distance connections to other hubs; the small world perspective suggests that the connections between any two nodes in the brain can be represented by only a limited number of connections.
Default or Intrinsic Network
Neural network that is active during internal processing.
Executive Functions
Cognitive functions involved in planning, understanding new situations, and cognitive flexibility.
Modularity
Describes how specific areas of the brain are dedicated to certain types of processes.
Connectivity
A concept that asks how different areas of the brain work together in specific conditions.
Mendel’s First Law; The Law of Segregation
For a recessive trait to appear, both nondominant elements must be present.
Mendel’s Second Law; The Law of Independent Assortment
The inheritance of the gene of one trait is not affected by the inheritance of the gene for another trait.
Chromosomes
A deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule along with the proteins attached to it.
Allele
The alternative molecular form of the same gene.
Homozygotes or Homozygous
When a person has two copies of the same allele.
Heterozygotes, or Heterozygous
When a person has two different alleles at the same location.
Encode
To lay out the process by which a particular protein is made; this is the job of a gene.
Genotype
Genetic material
Phenotype
Organism’s observable characteristics.
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)
Information that determines the sequence of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins; it is made up of single strands rather than the dual strands in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
Epigenetic Inheritance
Another form of inheritance by which factors largely influenced by the environment of the organism that turn the genes on and off can be passed on to the next generation without influencing DNA itself.
Epigenetic Marks or Tags
That which influences whether a segment is relaxed, and able to be activated, or condensed, resulting in no action.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of mitochondria structures within a cell; because mtDNA does not recombine sections of DNA from the mother and father, it is very stable and mutates very slowly.
Mitochondrial Inheritance
Generally mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is inherited only from the mother.
Neuroethics
A field of ethical inquiry that is asking how brain processes are involved in making moral decisions as well as who should have access to your internal processes.
Give the five Research Domain Criteria.
1) Negative affect
2) Positive affect
3) Cognition
4) Social processes
5) Regulatory systems
What is included in negative affect?
Ex. Fear, distress, aggression, etc.
What is included in positive affect?
Ex. Reward seeking, learning, the creation of habits, etc.
What is included in cognition?
How individuals conceptualize and think about themselves and their environment is included in the cognition domain..
What is included in the social processes domain?
The social processes domain includes how individuals experience and view others.
What is included in the regulatory processes domain?
The regulatory processes domain includes the variety of individuals’ regulatory systems, ranging from sleep-wake cycles to how they regulate their emotions.
What three specific neural networks have been examined in terms of psychopathology?
The default, or intrinsic, network, the central executive network, and the salience network have all been examined in terms of psychopathology.
What three basic characteristics are shared by neurons?
1) The cell body contains a nucleus, which contains DNA and other processes such as mitochondria which are involved in supplying energy.
2) The axon comes from the cell body and is involved in conveying information.
3) The dendrites receive information from other cells.
What two things affect the speed at which an action potential travels down the axon?
1) The width of the axon. Larger diameter=faster travel.
2) Whether the axon has a myelin sheath. Myelin sheath=faster travel.
What are the two major types of synapses?
1) Chemical synapses, which involve the secretion from the previous neuron of neurotransmitters, which create a current flow. This changes the next neuron so that it is more likely (excitatory) or less likely (inhibitory) to create an action potential.
2) Electrical synapses, where current flows through channels that connect the gap between the two neurons.
Give the six steps in passing information from one neuron to another.
1) Neurotransmitters are created and stored.
2) An action potential travels down the axon to the terminal.
3) A neurotransmitter is released into the gap between the two neurons.
4) The neurotransmitter binds with proteins in the next neuron.
5) This increases or decreases the possibility that the next neuron will create an action potential.
6) The gap between the two neurons is made neutral.
How is information encoded?
Information is encoded by means of action potentials in terms of frequency. For instance, a loud sound results in a series of action potentials from cells sensitive to sound intensity.
Give three important observations about spikes and spike trains (action potentials).
1) Throughout the various sensory systems, the neurons connected to them all produce similar action potentials due to external stimuli.
2) The rate of spiking increases with larger stimulus.
3) Spiking will decrease if a stimulus is continued for a long period of time. This is habituation.
Give the two categories of neurotransmitters based on size.
1) Small molecule neurotransmitters, which are often composed of single amino acids. They tend to be involved in rapid synaptic functions.
2) Large protein molecules, generally referred to as neuropeptides, which tend to be involved in slower ongoing synaptic functions.
Give the three broad categories of neurotransmitters based on function.
1) Neurotransmitters that mediate communication between neurons.
2) Neurotransmitters that influence the communication of information.
3) Neurotransmitters that influence the activity of large populations of neurons.
Give six questions about psychopathology that relate to evolutionary processes.
1) Is the experience of mental illness universal?
2) Is there an adaptive value to the behaviors and experiences displayed in psychopathology?
3) What evidence of psychopathology is there across human history?
4) What is the nature of psychopathology?
5) Is psychopathology protective in some manner?
6) Is psychopathology a recent process?
