Chapter 3 - Neuroscience Approaches to Understanding Psychopathology

Question 0

Categorical

Answer 0

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.

Question 1

Memory

Answer 1

A process including specific brain areas such as the hippocampus and the biochemical and structural changes among neurons as new information is retained.

Question 2

Dimensional

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Comorbid

Answer 3

This refers to an individual having more than one disorder at the same time.

Question 4

Internalizing Disorders

Answer 4

Disorders that are experienced internally, such as anxiety and depression.

Question 5

Externalizing Disorders

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

Answer 6

Publication of criteria for diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), used in North America.

Question 7

International Classification of Diseases (ICD)

Answer 7

A publication of criteria for diagnosis by the World Health Organization (WHO), used in Europe.

Question 8

Reward System

Answer 8

Particular brain structures, especially the nucleus accumbens part of the ventral striatum, influenced by an increase in dopamine during reward.

Question 9

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

What do genes do?

Answer 10

Genes form the blueprint that determines what an organism is to become.

Question 11

Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Endophenotypes

Answer 12

Patterns of processes that lie between the gene (the genotype) and the manifestations of the gene in the external environment (the phenotype).

Question 13

Proteins

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

Epigenetics

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

Neurotransmitters

Answer 15

Chemicals which are involved in increasing or decreasing the potential for action potentials to be produced; they also maintain the communication across the synapse.

Question 16

Central Executive Network

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Salience Network

Answer 17

The neural network involved in monitoring and noting important changes in biological and cognitive systems.

Question 18

Electroencephalography (EEG)

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)

Answer 19

Provides information necessary to produce proteins.

Question 20

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

Magnetoencephalography

Answer 22

Measures the small magnetic field gradients exiting and entering the surface of the head that are produced when neurons are active.

Question 23

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)

Answer 24

Also known as evoked potentials (EP), show electroencephalography (EEG) activity in relation to a particular event.

Question 25

Evoked Potentials (EP)

Answer 25

Also known as event related potentials (EP), show electroencephalography (EEG) activity in relation to a particular event.

Question 26

Evoked Potentials (EP)

Answer 26

Also known as event related potentials (ERPs), show electroencephalography (EEG) activity in relation to a particular event.

Question 27

Small World Framework

Answer 27

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.

Question 28

Default or Intrinsic Network

Answer 28

Neural network that is active during internal processing.

Question 29

Executive Functions

Answer 29

Cognitive functions involved in planning, understanding new situations, and cognitive flexibility.

Question 30

Modularity

Answer 30

Describes how specific areas of the brain are dedicated to certain types of processes.

Question 31

Connectivity

Answer 31

A concept that asks how different areas of the brain work together in specific conditions.

Question 32

Mendel’s First Law; The Law of Segregation

Answer 32

For a recessive trait to appear, both nondominant elements must be present.

Question 33

Mendel’s Second Law; The Law of Independent Assortment

Answer 33

The inheritance of the gene of one trait is not affected by the inheritance of the gene for another trait.

Question 34

Chromosomes

Answer 34

A deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule along with the proteins attached to it.

Question 35

Allele

Answer 35

The alternative molecular form of the same gene.

Question 36

Homozygotes or Homozygous

Answer 36

When a person has two copies of the same allele.

Question 37

Heterozygotes, or Heterozygous

Answer 37

When a person has two different alleles at the same location.

Question 38

Encode

Answer 38

To lay out the process by which a particular protein is made; this is the job of a gene.

Question 39

Genotype

Answer 39

Genetic material

Question 40

Phenotype

Answer 40

Organism’s observable characteristics.

Question 41

Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)

Answer 41

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).

Question 42

Epigenetic Inheritance

Answer 42

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.

Question 43

Epigenetic Marks or Tags

Answer 43

That which influences whether a segment is relaxed, and able to be activated, or condensed, resulting in no action.

Question 44

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)

Answer 44

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.

Question 45

Mitochondrial Inheritance

Answer 45

Generally mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is inherited only from the mother.

Question 46

Neuroethics

Answer 46

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.

Question 47

Give the five Research Domain Criteria.

Answer 47

1) Negative affect
2) Positive affect
3) Cognition
4) Social processes
5) Regulatory systems

Question 48

What is included in negative affect?

Answer 48

Ex. Fear, distress, aggression, etc.

Question 49

What is included in positive affect?

Answer 49

Ex. Reward seeking, learning, the creation of habits, etc.

Question 50

What is included in cognition?

Answer 50

How individuals conceptualize and think about themselves and their environment is included in the cognition domain..

Question 51

What is included in the social processes domain?

Answer 51

The social processes domain includes how individuals experience and view others.

Question 52

What is included in the regulatory processes domain?

Answer 52

The regulatory processes domain includes the variety of individuals’ regulatory systems, ranging from sleep-wake cycles to how they regulate their emotions.

Question 53

What three specific neural networks have been examined in terms of psychopathology?

Answer 53

The default, or intrinsic, network, the central executive network, and the salience network have all been examined in terms of psychopathology.

Question 54

What three basic characteristics are shared by neurons?

Answer 54

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.

Question 55

What two things affect the speed at which an action potential travels down the axon?

Answer 55

1) The width of the axon. Larger diameter=faster travel.

2) Whether the axon has a myelin sheath. Myelin sheath=faster travel.

Question 56

What are the two major types of synapses?

Answer 56

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.

Question 57

Give the six steps in passing information from one neuron to another.

Answer 57

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.

Question 58

How is information encoded?

Answer 58

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.

Question 59

Give three important observations about spikes and spike trains (action potentials).

Answer 59

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.

Question 60

Give the two categories of neurotransmitters based on size.

Answer 60

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.

Question 61

Give the three broad categories of neurotransmitters based on function.

Answer 61

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.

Question 62

Give six questions about psychopathology that relate to evolutionary processes.

Answer 62

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?