Midterm 1: Chapters 1-5 Flashcards
6 Divisions of Biopsychology
- Physiological psychology
- Psychopharmacology
- Neuropsychology
- Psychophysiology
- Comparative Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
What is Physiological Psychology?
studies the mechanisms of behaviour through direct manipulation
What is Psychopharmacology?
focuses on the manipulation of neural activity and behaviour with drugs
What is Neuropsychology?
studies the psychological effects if brain damage in humans
What is Comparative Psychology?
compare the behaviour of different species in order to understand the evolution, genetics, and adaptability of behaviour
What is Cogntive Neuroscinece
study of neural basis of cognition – thought, memory, attention, complex high level processes
What are 2 types of Bio psych research?
Human vs nonhuman
Experimental vs Non-Experimental
What are the 3 R’s
Reduction: reduce the animals being used
Refinement: refine the way experiments are done so that the animals are cared for
Replacement: replace experiments on animals with alternative techniques
What are the 2 divisions of the Vertebrate Nervous system?
Central Nervous system (brain and spinal chord)
Peripheral Nervous system
autonomic and somatic
What is the Autonomic Nervous system responsible for ?
Physiological responses
- sympathetic (fight or flight)
- Parasympathetic (rest and digest)
What is the Somatic Nervous system responsible for?
Interacts with the external environment
-composed of afferent and efferent nerves
What are Afferent nerves?
carry sensory signals from the skin, skeletal, muscles, joints, eyes, ears etc. to the central nervous system
What are Efferent Nerves?
Carry motor signals from the CNS to the skeletal muscles
What does Contralateral Mean?
the left hemisphere of the brain sends and receives information from the right side of the body and vice versa
What does Ipsilateral Mean?
right side of the brain controls the right side of the body
What percentage of blood flow from the heart goes to the brain?
20% of blood flow from the heart goes to the brain
What is Blood-Brain Barrier
the mechanism that impedes the passage of toxic substances from the blood into the brain
What are Meninges?
- protective layers around brain
- Dura mater
- Arachnoid Membrane
- Subarachnoid space
- Pia mater
Describe Dura mater
the outermost layer (very tough)
Describe Arachnoid Membrane
second most outer layer spider-web-like membrane
Describe Subarachnoid Space
beneath the arachnoid membrane, contains many large blood vessels and cerebrospinal fluid
Describe Pia mater
the innermost layer, adheres to the surface of CNS
What is the function of cerebrospinal fluid and where is it?
protects the central nervous system, fills the subarachnoid spaces, the central canal of the spinal chord, and the cerebral ventricles of the brain
- supports and cushions the brain
What is the function of Choroid Plexus?
- produces cerebral spinal fluid continuously in the lateral ventricles
- part of the ventricular system
Which 2 -cephalons does the forebrain contain?
Telencephalon and Diencephalon
What parts of the brain does the Telencephalon contain?
cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, limbic system (emotions)
What parts of the brain does the Dienchephalone contain?
Thalamus (sensory relay center) and the hypothalamus
What 3 -cephalons does the midbrain and hindbrain contain?
Mesencephalon, metencephalon, myelencephalon
What does the Mesencaphalone contain ?
Tectum and tegmentum
What is the tectum?
the roof/ dorsal surface of the midbrain
-composed of two pairs of bumps: colliculi
What is the tegmentum?
contains 3 colourful structures of interests to biopsychologists:
- periaqueductal gray
- substantia nigra
- red nucleus
What does the Metencephalon contain?
- cerebellum (movement, coordination, balance)
- pons
What does the Myelencephalon contain?
Medulla oblongata (heart rate, breathing)
What does the Telencephalon contain?
the cerebral cortex
What are the 4 lobes of the Cerebral Cortex, and what are their main functions?
- Occipital lobe: vision
- Partietal lobe: sensory integration, attention, visuomotor transformations
- Temporal Lobe: auditory, memory, language, high-level visual processing
- Frontal Lobe: motor output planning, problem-solving, complex social behaviour
What does the Limbic system include?
Cingulate cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, formic, septum and mammillary body
What is the function of the amygdala?
important for emotion and fear responses
What is the function of the Hippocampus?
critical for forming new memories (spatial memory)
What is the main function of the Thalamus?
the sensory relay centre
What is the main function of the Hypothalamus?
and how does it do this?
Controls automatic system and the endocrine system
-controls the 4 F’s: fighting, fleeing, feeding, and fucking – also sleeping
- nuclei in the hypothalamus send signals down to the pituitary gland to control the secretion of a variety of key hormones for controlling the functions of the internal organs of the body
What does the Midbrain do?
- alerts the brain
- regulates consciousness
- decense, aggression or reduction
- influence motor control and cognition
What plays a role in the sleep cycle?
Medulla and Pons
What is independent – and processes various reflexes without brain input
Spinal cord
What is the main function of the Spinal cord ?
distribute motor information to the appropriate muscles for motor production
- collects somatosensory information and send it to the brain
what are 2 neuroanatomical Techniques?
Golgi Stain and Nissl stain
Describe the Golgi Stain
silver chromate is taken up by some neurons, dying them black
allows scientists to view the shapes of different neurons
Describe Nissl Stain
uses cresol violet that allows cell bodies to be stained
allows anatomists to do cell counts in a given area
What is Potential in a cell? and how is it measured ?
stored up energy (electrical energy)
measured by placing an electrode inside the axon and one outside
what is the resting potential of a cell ?
-70 mV
What does it mean for a cell to be Polarized?
It is at rest
What does it mean for a cell to be Depolarized ?
if the charge is in the positives
What does it mean if the cell is hyperpolarized ?
It means the charge is below -70 (roughly -80 mV)
what does electrostatic pressure mean?
particles with the same charge will repel whereas particles with opposite charged attract one another
What is Orthodromic conduction?
conduction of an action potential from the cell body along the axon to the terminal button (the normal direction)
Antidromic Conduction
if sufficient electrical stimulation is applied at the terminal button, an action potential can be triggered travelling backwards up he axon toward the cell body
what do Ionotropic Receptors contain?
contain activated ion channels
What are Metabotropic Receptors?
receptors associated with signal proteins and G-proteins
what is a G-protein?
a protein that conveys messages to other molecules when activated
what are Autoreceptors?
receptors on the presynaptic side that monitor and control much of the neurotransmitters that are released
What are 7 of the main Neurotransmitters?
Serotonin dopamine acetylcholine anandimide norepinephrine GABA Glutamte
what is serotonin used for?
mood and temp regulation, aggression and sleep cycles
what is dopamine used for?
Motor function and reward
what is acetylcholine used for
muscle contraction, cortical arousal
what is Anandimide used for?
pain reduction, increase in appetite
what is Norepinepherine used for?
brain arousal and other functions, liike mood, hunger, and sleep
what is GABAs main function?
main inhibitory neurotransmitter
What is Glutamate Used for?
main excitatory neurotransmitter, participates in relay sensory information and learning
what are the 3 classes of small-molecule neurotransmitters? what is the bonus 4th class?
amino acids, monoamines, and acetylcholine
unconventional neurotransmitters
what neurotransmitters are considered amino acids?
Glutamte, GABA
Which Neurotransmitters are Monoamines?
Dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine
serotonin
What is associated with low Serotonin levels?
mood and anxiety disorders
What makes Unconventional neurotransmitters unconventional?
what is the con of studying these?
they do not bind to receptor sites
they are produced in the neuron’s cytoplasm
hard to study because they only exist for a few seconds
Name the 5 Neuropeptides
Pituitary peptides hypothalamic peptides brain-gut peptides opioid peptides miscellaneous peptides
what are two ways Drugs influence neurotransmitters?
Agnostic: facilitates the effects of a neurotransmitter
Antagonist: interferes with the effect of a neurotransmitter
If a patient has positive symptoms of schizophrenia, what type of drug will help these symptoms? Hint: patients with schizophrenia have too much dopamine
drugs that are dopamine antagonists
If a patient has parkinsons disease what type of drug will help? Hint: patients with parkinsons do not have enough dopamine
drugs that are dopamine agnostics
What does caffeine do to GABA receptors? explain how it works
acts as an antagonist to the neurotransmitter adenosine
adenosine builds up during the day resulting in sleepiness, caffeine blocks the build up so you feel more awake
what is Spatial summation
the integration signals that originate at different sites on the neurons membrane to form greater EPSP and IPSP, if EPSP and IPSP fire at the same time they cancel each other out
Describe Computerized Axial Tomography (CT Scan)
- Uses Xrays from different angles, and the tissues absorb different amounts of X-rays
- creates 8-9 2d images are created to make a full 3D Image
What are pros and cons of the CT scan?
Pros: cheap, fast, and can identify lesions, tumours
Cons: Images are only on a horizontal plane and its low resolution
Describe Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
measures radio-frequency waves that hydrogen atoms emit as they align with the magnetic field
What are Pros and Cons of MRI’s
pros: non-invasive (no X-rays), anyone can do it (kids), high-resolution 3D images, can look at the brain from sagittal, frontal, and horizontal angles
Cons: expensive, cannot have metal in your body, doesn’t show timing information or connectivity of the network, limited availability to scientists
Describe Audiography
animal is injected with radioactive 2dg, the areas that are active used more 2dg, the animal is then euthanized and the brain is treated in a solution, the brain is then sliced and stored in developed like films
Describe Functional MRI (fMRI)
produces images representing the increase in oxygenated blood flow to active areas of the brain
Describe Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)
it is a form of MRI
Measurement of the restricted diffusion of water in order to produce neural tract images
What are 3 versions of fixation sectioning?
perfusion
fixation
sectioning
What is perfusion?
the blood is removed from the vessels and replaces by the saline solution
What is Fixation?
the brain is placed in a fixative which hardens and preserves the tissue
What is sectioning?
slicing the brain into sections for further examination
Describe Electroencaphalographic Recording (EEG)
macro electrodes placed at different position of the scalp, measures activity of many neurons in an area
- can reveal different states of consciousness
Describe Magnetoencelography (MEG)
Measures the magnetic properties of action potentials
-expensive
Describe Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
magnetic pulse is used to temporarily disrupt neural firing in the cortex
-can draw causality
