Chapter 5: Reasearch Methods of Biopsychology Flashcards
Vestibular function can be assessed by assessing a patient’s reaction to
Cold water flushed in the ear
The ironic case of Professor P. makes the point that
Many research methods of biopsychology are used in clinical settings
Which contrast X-ray technique is designed to locate vascular abnormalities in the brains of human patients?
Cerebral angiography
Which of the following is a contrast X-ray technique?
Angiography
A computed tomography (CT) scam of the human brain is usually presented as a series of eight or nine
Horizontal sections
Which of the following procedures is not an adaptation of X-ray photography?
A) computed tomography
B) MRI
C) CT
D) angiography
MRI
Which of the following provides the most detailed three-dimensional view of the structure of the living human brain?
A) CT B) PET C) angiography D) EEG E) MRI
MRI
Positron emission tomography is a valuable research tool because it
Provides an image of brain function
A patient is sometimes injected with radioactive 2-deoxyglucose before
Positron emission tomography
The reason why radioactive 2-DG is useful for revealing the level of activity of neurons in different parts of the brain is that 2-DG
A) is absorbed by neurons in relation to their level of activity
B) is metabolized by neurons in relation to their level of activity
C) is not metabolized by neurons
Both A and C
Functional MRI generates images of increases to areas of the brain of
Oxygenated blood flow
Which technique records the BOLD signal?
fMRI
Functional MRI requires the injection of radioactive
A) water
B) glucose
C) 2-DG
D) oxygen
None of the above
Which method provides structural and functional information about the living human brain on the same image?
Functional MRI
Which of the following is a method used by cognitive neuroscientists to turn off part of the brain while the effects on cognition and behaviour are assessed?
A) 2-DG B) ERP C) TMS D) PET E) EEG
TMS
Unlike brain-imaging techniques, TMS permits the study of _________ between human cortical activity and cognition
Causal relations
An electroencephalograph is
An EEG machine
In human patients, EEG activity is commonly recorded directly from
The scalp
Alpha wave EEG activity is associated with
Relaxed wakefulness
Which of the following biopsychologists would most like,y to study cortical ERPs in human volunteers?
A) a neuropsychologist B) a psychophysiologist C) a physiological psychologist D) a psychopharmacologist E) a comparative psychologist
A psychophysiologist
Signal averaging is commonly used in the recording of ERPs because it reduces the magnitude of
Random signals
The main difference between an average evoked potential (AEP) and a “raw” evoked potential is that
A raw evoked potential is often unobservable amidst the random noise of the ongoing EEG signal
The P300
is an EEG wave that often occurs after the presentation of a momentary stimulus meaningful to the volunteer
The signals in the first few milliseconds of the average auditory evoked potential
A) always originate next to the scalp electrode
B) are far-field potentials
C) originate in the sensory nuclei of the brain stem
Both B and C
Components of the AEPs recorded in the first few milliseconds after a stimulus are
Not usually influenced by the meaning of the stimulus
Which of the following technique measures changes in magnetic fields on the surface of the brain?
A) MRI B) fMRI C) MEG D) EMG E) EEG
MEG
MEG records
Changes in magnetic fields on the surface of the scalp
Muscle tension is monitored by
Electromyography
Electrooculography is
A method of estimating eye movement
Electrooculography is a technique for monitoring
Eye movement
In electrooculography, how many electrodes are typically used to monitor the movements of one eye?
4
If you were startled by a loud noise, there would be an increase in your skin’s conductance of electricity. This response is called
A skin conductance response
Which gland or glands directly influence the SCL and the SCR?
Sweat glands
Which of the following is a record of a person’s heart beat?
A) electrocardiogram
B) ECG
C) EKG
All of the above
Hypertension is
Chronic high blood pressure
The level of 130/70 mmHg is
A healthy human blood pressure
Which of the following have traditionally been used by physicians to measure blood pressure?
A) sphygmomanometers B) plethysmographs C) oscilloscopes D) electrodes E) ERPs
Sphygmomanometers
Penile erection is
A plethysmographic response
Stereotaxic surgery in human patients typically requires A) a stereotaxic atlas B) a stereotaxic instrument C) a head holder D) an electrode holder
All of the above
The method by which the experiment devices are accurately positioned in subcortical structures of human patients and animal subjects is
Stereotaxic surgery
Bregma is
A) the point of intersection between two major skull sutures
B) a common reference point for rat stereotaxic brain surgery
C) a naughty word
D) a type of electrode holder
Both A and B
The reference point for many stereotaxic atlases of the rat brain is
Bregma
Unlike subcortical lesions, cortical lesions are often make by
Aspiration
Which of the following brain lesion techniques is least like,y to be associated with damage to major blood vessels?
Aspiration lesions
The _________ created by the current is the main cause of tissue damage produced by a radio-frequency lesion
Heat
Reversible brain lesions, if properly done,
Produce no permanent neural damage
Cooling can be used to produce a functional or reversible brain lesion because
It can temporarily suppress neural activity in a particular area of the brain without damaging the brain
A temporary or reversible lesion can be produced by
Cooling the target brain structure or injecting an anesthetic into it
Reversible lesions can be produced by microinjection directly into the target brain structure of a
Local anesthetic such as lidocaine
Lesions that are commonly referred to as amygdala lesions often
A) damage neural structures ofter than the amygdala
B) do not destroy the entire amygdala
C) damage prefrontal cortex
Both A and B
Lesions restricted to structures on one half of the brain are called
Unilateral lesions
Lesions restricted to structures on one half of the brain usually have effects that are much less severe than do comparable
Bilateral lesions
Intracellular unit recording is particularly difficult in
Freely moving animals
Unlike other electrophysiological methods of recording neural activity, intracellular unit recording provides measurements of
The membrane potential
Extracellular unit recording provides information about
A) the magnitude of the membrane potential
B) the wave form of action potentials
C) EPSPs
None of the above
Multiple-unit signals are typically
A) recorded through microelectrodes
B) recorded through electrodes that are larger than microelectrodes
C) integrated, or added together, to facilitate their interpretation
Both B and C
In laboratory animals, cortical EEG signals are commonly recorded through
Stainless steel skull screws
IP, SC, and IM are all
Routes of drug administration
Drugs that do not penetrate the blood brain barrier can be administered to particular neural structures
Through stereotaxically positioned cerebral cannula
Both ibontenic acid and kainic acid
A) are neurotoxins
B) destroy neurons whose cell bodies are at the top of an intracerebral cannula, while leaving axons passing through the region undamaged
C) are selective dopamine agonists
D) are selective dopamine antagonists
Both A and B
The neurotoxin, 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) selectively destroys
Neurons that release dopamine or norepinephrine
A method of identifying all of the brain areas of a laboratory animal that were particularly active during a behavioural test is
The 2-deoxyglucose technique
The final stage of the 2-deoxyglucose technique involves
Autoradiography
A method of measuring changes in the extracellular concentrations of various neurochemicals in particular sites in the brains of active laboratory animals is
Cerebral dialysis
Cerebral dialysis is a method of
Measuring changes in the extracellular concentrations of various neurochemicals at particular sites in the brains of active animals
Which of the following is a technique for locating particular proteins in the brain?
A) immunocytochemistry
B) the 6-OHDA technique
C) in situation hybridization
Both A and C
Which of the following procedures employs labeled antibodies?
A) immunocytochemistry
B) in situation hybridization
C) cerebral dialysis
D) electroencephalography
Both A and B
In immunocytochemistry, the labeled ligand is
An antibody
Immunocytochemistry is to institute hybridization as
Antibody is to messenger RNA
Knockout mice are mice that
A) have had a concussion
B) are susceptible to concussion
C) have amnesia
None of the above
Which of the following is a weakness of the gene knockout technique as a method of
A) most behavioural traits are influenced by many interacting genes
B) elimination of one gene often influences the expression of other genes
C) the effects of some gene knockouts are likely to depend on experience
All of the above
Melanopsin knockout mice have difficulty
Adjusting their circadian rhythms in response to changes in the daily light-dark cycle
Transgenic mice always process
Genes of another species
Green fluorescent protein
A) was first isolated from a species of jelly fish
B) fluoresces when exposed to blue light
C) has been used to visualize neurons on a few plants, but not yet in animals
Both A and B
The brainbow technique
A) is an extension of the green fluorescent protein technique
B) is a technique for labeling neurons in an animal different colours so that each can be traced
C) has not yet been applied to neural tissue in multicellular animals
Both A and B
The behavioural paradigm normally includes a method for
A) producing the behavioural phenomenon under investigation
B) measuring the behavioural phenomenon under investigation
C) recording brain activity
Both A and B
The main difference between neurologists and neuropsychologists is that
Neuropsychologists tend to focus on the assessment of complex behavioural problems
Neuropsychological assessment is useful because it can
A) assist diagnosis
B) influence treatment
C) be the basis for effective counseling
All of the above
Before the 1950s, neuropsychological testing usually employed the
Single-test approach
The primary purpose of the single-test and standardized-test-battery approaches to neuropsychological testing was to
Identify brain-damaged patients
The modern customized-test-battery approach to neuropsychological testing typically begins with a
Battery of tests
Tests used in the modern customized-test-battery approach to neuropsychological testing
A) are often specifically designed to measure aspects of psychological function that have been spotlighted by modern theories and data
B) often focus on the cognitive strategies explored by the patient, rather than on just how well the patient does
C) often require skilled practitioners for their prescription, administration, and interpretation
All of the above
Many current neuropsychological assessments begin with the
WAIS
The digit-span test is a common test of
Short-term memory
On the digit-span test, most people score about
A) 65%
B) 85%
C) 50%
D) 100%
None of the above
Which of the following is a test of language ability that employs objects of two shapes, two sizes, and five different colours?
Token test
Which of the following WAIS subtests is part of the Performance Scale?
A) Picture Completion
B) Digit Symbol
C) Block Design
D) Object Assembly
All of the above
Which of the following subtests of the WAIS involves cartoon drawings?
A) Object Assembly B) Picture Arrangement C) Colouring D) Similarities E) Digit Span
Picture Arrangement
The sodium amytal test and dichotic listening test are tests of
Language lateralization
In the sodium amytal test, injections are sequentially made into the left and right
Carotid arteries
In the sodium amytal test, an injection into the carotid artery contralateral to the dominant hemisphere for speech renders the patient completely mute for
A) 50 seconds
B) 2 minutes
C) 4 minutes
D) 30 minutes
None of the above
In the conventional dichotic listening test of language lateralization, on each trial
Three pairs of digits are presented
Memories that are demonstrated by improved performance in the absence of any conscious awareness of the memories are called
Implicit memories
Repetition priming tests are tests of
Implicit memory
Brain damage may produce selective language deficits associated with the sounds, grammar, or meaning of language. In other words, they may disrupt
Phonology, syntax, or semantics, respectively
Dyslexia is a difficulty in
Reading
A common neuropsychological test of frontal-lobe damage is the
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
Most cognitive neurospecific research is based on the assumption that
A) complex cognitive processes result from the combination of simple constituent cognitive processes
B) each constituent cognitive process is mediated by activity in a particular area of the brain
C) almost all constituent cognitive processes tend to be localized sub cortical stuctures
Both A and B
If a PET image is recorded while a patient is reading, many areas of activity on the PET image will have nothing to do with the cognitive activity of reading per se. That is why cognitive neuroscientists often use
The paired-image subtraction technique
A network of brain structures that tends to be active when a person sits quietly and lets their mind wander has been termed the
Default mode network
In most PET and functional MRI studies of cognitive processes, the signal-to-noise ratio is increased by
Signal averaging
Which of the following is a commonly studied species-common behaviour?
A) copulating
B) nest building
C) grooming
D) swimming
All of the above
The open-field test is usually conducted in
A large, empty chamber
In the open-field test, a high bolus count is frequently used as an indicator of
Fearfulness
In the open-field test, thigmotaxia is often used as a measure of
Fearfulness
If a rat with its hair erect, moves sideways towards another rat and then pushes against it, the
First rat is likely a dominant male displaying social aggression
In rats, boxing (rearing up and pushing with the forepaws) is usually a sign of
Defence against conspecific attack
The elevated plus maze is a commonly used test of
A) balance
B) learning
C) memory
None of the above
The elevated plus maze is commonly employed to study
Anxiety or defensiveness in studies of anxiolytic drugs
Normally, a male rat cannot intromit unless
The female first displays lordosis
Which of the following is a commonly used measure of male rat sexual behaviour?
A) number of mounts required to achieve an intromission
B) number of intromissions required to achieve an ejaculation
C) duration of the interval between an ejaculation and the reinitiation of mounting
All of the above
Which of the following is a commonly used measure of the sexual receptivity of female rats?
A) postejaculatory interval
B) mount frequency
C) lordosis quotient
D) number of intromissions to ejaculation
E) number of ejaculations to intromission
Lordosis quotient
During conventional Pavlovian conditioning, the conditional stimulus is repeatedly presented just before the
Unconditional stimulus
In operant conditioning paradigms, the rate of a voluntary response is increased by _________ and decreased by _________
Reinforcement; punishment
The self-stimulation paradigm is
An operant conditioning paradigm
In most self-stimulation paradigms, laboratory animals
A) press levers or perform other operant responses to obtain reinforcement
B) receive electrical stimulation through implanted electrodes
C) receive punishment for inappropriate self-stimulation
Both A and B
The first time a wolf rat encounters a food it has never tasted before, it usually displays
Neophobia
Cancer patients sometimes develop conditioned taste aversions in response to their
Chemotherapy
The discovery of conditioned taste aversion challenged the
A) principle of equipotentiality
B) belief that temporal contiguity is necessary for conditioning
C) the engram theory of memory
Both A and B
The radial arm maze is commonly used to study
Foraging for food
Most radial arm mazes have
8 or more arms radiating out from a central starting area
In the typical radial arm maze, rats tend to orient themselves on the basis of
External room cues
The Morris water maze is commonly used to study
Spatial ability in rats
The typical Morris water maze
Is circular
If a rat receives a single painful stimulus from a small object in a test box containing commercial bedding material, the rat will usually investigate the object and then
Bury it
Antianxiety (anxiolytic) drugs tend to reduce the amount of
A) conditioned taste aversion
B) time spent in the closed arms of the elevated plus maze
C) self-stimulation
D) conditioned defensive burying
Both B and D
Intracellular unit recording is not commonly used in biopsychological research because
It is very difficult to keep the tip of a microelectrode inside a single neuron in a moving subject
