Lecture Week 2

Question 1

Who was the ‘father of biopsychology?”

Answer 1

Donald O. Hebb

Question 2

What did Donald O Hebb propose and help discredit?

Answer 2

1. proposed that psychological phenomena might be produced by brain activity
2. helped discredit the notion that psychological functions were too complex to be derived for physiological activities

Question 3

What is Morgan’s Canon?

Answer 3

In no case in an animals activity should be interpreted in terms of higher psychological processes if it can be interpreted in terms of lower processes

Question 4

What were other explanations for Jose Delgado electrical stimulation of the bulls caudate nucleus?

Answer 4

It made the bull dizzy, nauseous, blind etc

Question 5

Who won the Nobel prize for prefrontal lobotomy and why was this “unstable” evidence?

Answer 5

Egas Moniz, and it was done on a chimpanzee. Failed to look at postoperative evalutaion, looking over side effects.

Question 6

What are some critical thinking skills when looking at research? (3)

Answer 6

1. human vs animal
2. $ vs simplicity
3. explanation the simplest answer?

Question 7

Why should we use non-human subjects?

Answer 7

• simpler brains
• simple behaviour
• fewer ethical restrictions

Question 8

Why should we use human subjects?

Answer 8

• can follow instructions
• able to provide subjective reports
• less expensive to ‘house’ humans

Question 9

What is a test involving cards, testing learning ability?

Answer 9

The Wisconsin card sorting test

Question 10

What are some lab based tests to understand human functions?

Answer 10

reaction time tasks
memory tasks
cognitive load
attention
decision making 
coordination etc

Question 11

What is a simple reaction time task?

Answer 11

A green dot comes onto the screen at random times, and when it does the subjects press a button to respond.

Question 12

What is a simple reaction time with warning stimulus testing?

Answer 12

Seeing how people prepare for a response by increasing their attention. The hope is they would be faster.

Question 13

What is a choice reaction time task? (SRT)

Answer 13

A warning signal, and in a congruent trial, if the green dot appears on the right side of the screen, respond with the right. In an incongruent test, the green dot might be displayed on the right hand side, and told to respond with their left..

The warning light can also act as a warning, being displayed on either the right or left side as a hint

Question 14

What is a movement preparation/initiation test?

Answer 14

You get a warning signal, then there is either a green or red light. Your response is only required when it is green.

Question 15

What is a stop signal task, testing inhibitory control?

Answer 15

Wen light turns green, go. Sometimes, the green turns red and you’re meat to inhibit that action

Question 16

What is a stop signal choice reaction time>?

Answer 16

Embeds a stop signal task within a choice reaction.

Question 17

What is a selective stop cost?

Answer 17

two green arrows mean both hands go. If one is red and one is green, then you only respond with the appropriate hand.

Question 18

Describe perceptual decisions making?

Answer 18

You have to assess the visual information and determine how to respond. (eg. are there more orange or blue pixels in a ‘flash’ image, or, are the dots moving up or down?)

Question 19

a letter matching task assessed whether peoples response time to letter matching. What does this demonstrate?

Answer 19

physical representations are activated first (AA), then phonetic representations (Aa) and category representations last (both consonants SC).

Question 20

In a memory comparison, what is the correlation time between number of items and reaction time?

Answer 20

positive correlation.

Question 21

What is a motors stroop task?

Answer 21

asked to respond with which side of the screen arrows are on, but they could be pointing in either direction.

Question 22

What are dual tasks?

Answer 22

Puts a strain on resources. doing a cognitive task while doing a balance test (e.g, balance and count)

Question 23

What is electromyography?

Answer 23

• indirect measure of output from the motor cortex
• non invasive
• cheap
• ease of use
• single trial analysis - powerful

Question 24

How can we use skin conductance to assess psychophysiological activity?

Answer 24

measures of electrodermal activity including: skin conductance

Question 25

How can we use cardiovascular activity to measure human psychophysiological activity?

Answer 25

often used to link physiological changes with emotional state. eg: heart rate, blood pressure and blood volume

Question 26

What is the problem with x ray?

Answer 26

cannot see brain structures.

Question 27

What are contrast x- rays?

Answer 27

inject something that observes x rays less or more than surrounding tissue

Question 28

What is x-ray computed tomography?

Answer 28

Results in cross sections or slices capturing images. can then create a 3D image

Question 29

What is magnetic resonance imaging?

Answer 29

measures the waves emitted by hydrogen atoms as they turn back to the magnetic field.

Question 30

How is the size relevant to magnetic resonance imaging?

Answer 30

Bigger is better

Question 31

What is diffusion tensor imaging?

Answer 31

a form of MRI

makes use of the properties of water molecules and how they diffuse along white matter

Question 32

What is a positron emission tomography?

Answer 32

PET
highlights brain activity
injection of radioactive tracer
active neurons take up that deoxyglucose tracer

Question 33

How does a functional magnetic resonance imaging work?

Answer 33

blood carries oxygen, which binds to haemoglobin. looks at areas of the brain which has higher blood flow. Shows the function of brain (the active areas).

Question 34

What is electroencephalography (EEG)?

Answer 34

electrodes attached to scalp to measure electrical waves. non invasive. Measures the change when patients are shown with different stimuli images.

Question 35

What is magnetoencephalography? (MEG)

Answer 35

a measure of neural activity
measures changes in magnetic fields on the surface of the scalp
fast temporal resolution

Question 36

What is functional near infrared spectroscopy?

Answer 36

Light source into cortex, then depending on the blood flow, the light is detected ‘back out’ of the brain.

Question 37

What is transcranial magnetic stimulation?

Answer 37

a magnetic current stimulates certain parts of the brain. can stimulate the motor cortex and result in hand movement.

Question 38

Why is TMS so useful?

Answer 38

• non- invasive
• excellent specificity
• average spatial specificity
• can be used in conjunction with motor tasks to explore the neural mechanisms of behaviour

Question 39

What are three uses of TMS?

Answer 39

1. assessment
2. disruption
3. modulation

Question 40

What is stereotaxic surgery?

Answer 40

Give lesions and see how it impacts behaviour

Question 41

How do we interpret lesion studies?

Answer 41

• changes in behaviour
• what tissue did the electrode go through to get to the target
• was it the correct tissue?

Question 42

What is the scanning electron microscope?

Answer 42

allows you to see a think section of tissue, rather than the magnification of a regular microscope

Question 43

what are optogenetics?

Answer 43

• insertion of photosensitive proteins into neural membrane
• blue light can cause excitation
  yellow light can cause inhibition
• specific areas rather than general regions of stimulation