Midterm #2 Flashcards
1
Q
What is neuroscience?
A
the study of the brain and the nervous system
2
Q
What were the 4 methods that human neuroscience relied on several decades ago?
A
examining autopsy tissue, testing the behaviour of patients with damage to certain parts of their brain, recording brain activity through electrodes attached to the surface of the scalp, animal studies
3
Q
What is neuroimaging?
A
techniques that allow for studying brain activity and structure by obtaining visual images in awake humans
4
Q
What is an EEG?
A
electrodes attached to scalp, output is brain waves, measures electrical activity in the brain
5
Q
What is a CT Scan?
A
x-ray type images that may require dye, take lots of images and layer them to create cross section, measures brain structure
6
Q
What is a MRI?
A
uses magnets and scans, builds 2D or 3D image, very clear image, measures brain structure
7
Q
What is a PET Scan?
A
small dose of radioactive substance injected that emits positrons, different colours on scan indicate tissues, measures brain function
8
Q
What is an fMRI?
A
uses magnets, measures activity in the brain based on amount of oxygen in the blood, displays function and structure
9
Q
What is learning?
A
process by which experience produces a lasting change in behaviour, something you didn’t do before but now did, observable
10
Q
What is Behaviourism?
A
focus on how organisms learn and the processes by which experience influences behaviour
treated organism as tabula rasa, explained learning in terms of directly observable events
11
Q
What is Classical Conditioning? What can it also be called?
A
aka Pavlovian or Respondent
learning based on association of 2 stimuli
premise - some things we encounter in the world naturally elicit a response in us
12
Q
What is an example of Classical Conditioning?
A
ex.
UCS - meat powder
UCR - salivation
after repeated pairings of meat powder with the neutral stimulus of the scientist, the dog eventually began to salivate at the sight of the scientist
CS - scientist
CR - salivation
13
Q
What are the 4 key components in Classical Conditioning?
A
unconditioned stimulus (UCS), unconditioned response (UCR), conditioned stimulus (CS), conditioned response (CR)
14
Q
What did Pavlov’s study discover?
A
studied dog’s salivary responses, notice dogs salivate at sounds (ex. footsteps or tone) without prior learning
15
Q
What are the phases of Classical Conditioning?
A
acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery
16
Q
Explain the acquisition phase of Classical Conditioning.
A
results from repeated USC-CS pairings
optimal learning occurs when there is a short delay between unconditioned stimulus and conditioned stimulus are presented
(ex. tone presented first but still present while food is presented)
17
Q
Explain the extinction phase of Classical Conditioning.
A
inhibits responding but does not erase by reducing or removing learned behaviours
CS is presented in absence of UCS, CR weakens
18
Q
Explain the spontaneous recovery phase of Classical Conditioning.
A
after a rest period and without any new learning trials, the reappearance of previously extinguished CR
19
Q
What is Generalization?
A
when stimuli similar to the initial CS elicit a CR
20
Q
What is Discrimination?
A
when the CR occurs after only one stimulus but not another
21
Q
What is Operant Conditioning? What can it also be called?
A
aka Skinnerian or Instrumental
learning as a result of consequences that follow
emit a behaviour (operate on the environment) and then associate this behaviour with a positive/negative outcome
22
Q
Explain Thorndike’s Law of Effect.
A
response followed by a satisfying consequence becomes more likely to occur
response followed by an unsatisfying consequence is less likely to occur
23
Q
What is the difference between a reinforcer and a punisher?
A
reinforcer - increases likelihood of a behaviour
punisher - suppresses behaviour
24
Q
Describe primary and secondary positive reinforcers.
A
primary - stimuli that has survival value so is intrinsically rewarding (ex. food)
secondary - neutral stimulus that becomes rewarding when associated with primary reinforcer
25
Describe reinforcement and punishment from both a positive and negative approach.
positive reinforcement - adding to environment, increasing behaviour (ex. candy, smile)
negative reinforcement - removing from environment, increasing behaviour (ex. buzzer, pain)
positive punishment - adding to environment, decreasing behaviour (ex. slap, shout)
negative punishment - removing from environment, decreasing behaviour (ex. time out)
26
What is Chaining?
reinforcing each response with the opportunity to perform the next response, develops a sequence of behaviours
27
What variables increase effectiveness of training?
frequency
- continuous: every response of a particular type are reinforced
- partial: only some responses reinforced
interval/timing
- ratio: certain % of responses reinforced
- interval: certain amounts of time must elapse between reinforcement
- fixed: reinforcement occurs after a fixed number of responses or fixed time interval
- variable: reinforcement occurs after an average number of responses or passage of time
28
What are some applications of operant training?
specialized animal training, education/workplace, token economies
29
What is Social Learning?
learning through observation of others
30
How does conditioning affect arousal?
anything can be conditioned to have meaning and stimulate arousal
classically conditioned associations result in fetishes
31
What is consciousness?
moment to moment awareness of ourselves and the environment
subjective, private, ever-changing, self-reflective
32
Who performed the first investigations on consciousness?
Wundt and Titchener
difficult topic because of it's subjectiveness
33
What is the unconscious? As described by Freud?
the state in which information is not easily accesible to conscious awareness
the repression of bad things out of conscious awareness
34
What is the preconscious?
things that can be brought back into the conscious mind
35
What is non-conscious?
the state of not being conscious
36
Explain Circadian Rhythms.
regulated by the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) which link to pineal gland to secrete melatonin
neurons in SCN = active during day to inhibit melatonin secretion
neurons in SCN = inactive during night to allow melatonin secretion
regulate our sleep/wake cycles
determine if we are morning or night people
37
What are the 4 types of brain waves?
alpha - relaxed/drowsy
beta - active/alert
theta - light sleep
delta - deep sleep
38
Describe the 4 stages of sleep (NREM).
Stage 1
- theta waves
- light sleep, may experience body jerks
- lasts only a few minutes
Stage 2
- sleep deepens; harder to awaken, muscles relax
- sleep spindles (1-2 second bursts of rapid brain activity)
Stage 3
- sleep deepens; harder to awaken
- regular appearance of delta waves
Stage 4
- sleep deepens; harder to awaken
- delta waves dominate
- begins to go back up through other stages including REM
39
Describe REM sleep.
rapid eye movement
high arousal; heart rate increases, brain wave activity increases, erections/lubrication, irregular and rapid breathing
frequent and interesting dreams
40
What is REM sleep paralysis?
when it is difficult for the muscles to contract
41
What in the environment affects sleep?
changes in season, shift work, noise, stress
42
What is the correlation between sleep and age?
as you age you sleep less
more time spent in REM sleep in infancy
time in slow-wave sleep - stage 3,4 - declines
43
What are some things that affect individual differences in sleep time?
genetics, environmental factors (ex. lifestyle, time of day)
44
What are the effects of sleep deprivation?
irritable mood, decrease in cognitive and physical performance, takes several nights to recover
45
What is insomnia?
can't get to sleep, wake too easily
commonly caused by life stressors/anxiety
46
What is sleep apnea?
a stoppage in breathing that deprives the brain of oxygen and causes the sleeper to awaken
47
What is narcolepsy?
suddenly falling asleep, often at exciting high-stress times, often into REM sleep
48
What do we dream about?
what we focus on while we are awake- fears, wishes, plans
49
What is lucid dreaming?
"editing the script"
when someone is aware they are dreaming and are often able to change their dreams
50
Describe Freud's dream theory.
dreams are the gratification of unconscious wishes/needs, driven by aggressive/sexual urges
manifest content - surface story of the dream
latent content - disguised psychological meaning of the dream
51
What is hypnosis?
a state of heightened suggestibility
hypnotic induction = process of leading a person into hypnosis
people under hypnosis have no unique power to behave against their will
52
What are agonists and antagonists?
agonists - increase neurotransmitter activity
| antagonists - decrease neurotransmitter activity
53
What is tolerance?
a decrease in responsiveness to the drug
need larger doses
homeostasis?
54
What are compensatory responses?
physiological responses opposite to those of the drug, bodily imbalances cause brain to readjust
55
What is withdrawl?
compensatory responses after drug use is discontinued
| *see text*
56
What are the 4 main categories of drugs?
depressants, stimulants, opioids, hallucinogens
57
Describe depressants.
decrease nervous system activity
moderate doses - reduce anxiety, euphoria
high doses - slow vital life processes
ex. alcohol
- increase activity of GABA (anxiety reduction)
- decrease activity of glutamate (major excitatory NT)
58
Describe stimulants.
increase neural activity, arouse nervous system
increase blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, alertness
big high, big low
ex. caffeine
- blocks adenosine (indicates when sleepy)
ex. cocaine
- blocks reuptake valves for dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine
59
Describe opioids.
binds to receptors activated by endorphins for pain relief and mood changes including euphoria
ex. morphine, codeine, heroin
highly addicative
60
Describe hallucinogens.
distort/intensify sensory experience, blurs fantasy-reality boundary
psychedelic drugs
61
What is meditation?
turn one's consciousness away from outer world and towards one's inner self and awareness
brain activity similar to early sleep, promotes relaxation
62
What is mindfulness?
relaxed, thinking about thoughts and feelings but detached, with no judgements
63
What is convergent evolution?
development of similar physical characteristics/behaviours in different species that do not share a common ancestor, due to exposure to similar environmental conditions
64
What is fitness?
the ability of an individual to successfully grow to maturity and have offspring that perpetuate the existence of the species it belongs to
65
What is implicit memory?
on display in skills, such as reading, driving
revealed indirectly by performance
66
What is explicit memory?
pieces of knowledge we are fully aware of
conscious, intentional recovery of a memory
67
What is the adaptive theory of sleep?
organisms sleep for the purpose of self preservation, to keep away from predators that are active at night
68
What is the restorative theory of sleep?
we sleep to allow the brain and body to replenish certain chemical resources and eliminate certain chemical wastes
69
How often do we go through a full sleep cycle?
every 90-100 minutes
70
What is the hypnagogic state and when do we go through it?
a pre-sleep period characterized by vivd sensory phenomena, happens in stage 1 sleep
ex. falling hallucination
71
Describe the information-processing theory.
dreams are the mind's attempt to sort and organize the day's experiences and fix them into the memory
72
Describe the activation-synthesis theory.
dreams result from the brain's attempts to synthesize/organize random internally generated signals and give them meaning
73
What is dissociation?
consciousness splits into two parts that both act at once during hypnosis, one part is fully responsive to hypnotist's suggestions, one part is the "hidden observer" processing information that is seemingly unavailable to hypnotized person
74
What is addiction?
psychological or physical compulsion to take a drug resulting from regular ingestion, resulting in changes to behaviour patterns and physical responses
75
What is the reward learning pathway?
activated by pleasurable stimuli, comes to anticipate rewards
76
What is reward-deficiency syndrome?
theory that people might abuse drugs because their reward system is not being stimulated in regular life
77
What is the difference between associative and non-associative learning?
associative - learning through forming associations between stimuli
non-associative - learning that does not involve forming associations between stimuli
78
What is habituation?
non-associative learning, repeated presentation of a stimulus leads to a reduction in response
79
What is sensitization?
non-associative learning, strong stimulus results in exaggerated response to the subsequent presentation of a weaker stimulus
ex. home alone, accidentally knock over a lamp and scream in fear, afterwards jump at cell phone ringing
80
What are the 2 types of associative learning?
classical, operant
81
What is higher order conditioning?
previously conditioned stimulus functions as an unconditioned stimulus for further conditioning
ex. bell on the door becomes paired to arrival of scientist, dog salivates at sound of bell, despite not pairing the bell to the meat powder
82
What is conditioned taste aversion?
classical conditioning, previously neutral stimulus (smell/taste) elicits negative reaction after paired with illness (nausea)
83
What are primary and secondary punishers?
primary - stimulus that is naturally aversive to an organism
| secondary - stimulus that becomes aversive when associated with primary punisher
84
What is shaping?
introducing new behaviour by reinforcing close approximations of desired behaviours
85
What is vicarious learning?
learning that occurs when an individual observes the consequences to another's actions then chooses to duplicate or refrain from behaviour
ex. Bobo doll
86
What are mirror neurons?
neurons fired when an animal/human performs an action or when they see another animal/human perform the same action
ex. monkey's mirror neurons fired when the monkey reached for a banana, but also when watching another monkey reach for the banana
87
What is implicit learning?
acquisition of information without awareness
88
What is latent learning?
learning that is not expressed until there is a reward or incentive
89
What is attention?
getting information into the system
we only capture what we attend to
90
What are neurons?
specialized nerve cells that carry messages throughout nervous system, differ in shape/size/function
91
What are the 3 types of neurons?
- afferent/sensory: respond to sensory information from the body
- efferent/motor: send information to the body to stimulate muscles/glands
- interneurons: communicate between neurons
92
What are the 5 parts of a neuron?
cell body - receives information from dendrites and carries out metabolic functions, passes to axon if enough stimulus
dendrites: extend from cell body like branches, receive information from other neurons
axon: carries information away from cell body
axon terminal: end of axon, where neurotransmitters are released
myelin sheath: made of glial cels, insulates/covers segments of axon to speed neural impulses
93
What are the 5 types of glial cells?
astroglia: blood-brain barrier, absorb chemicals released by other neurons, provide growth promoting molecules
oliodendroglia: provide myelin sheath to CNS
Schwann cells: provide myelin sheath to PNS
ependymal cells: line walls of ventricles around brain and spinal cord, fill with cerebrospinal fluid
microglia: clean up debris of dead/degenerating neurons to maintain brain function
94
What is resting potential?
electrical charge of a neuron at rest, negatively charged inside vs outside
95
What is action potential?
sudden reversal of resting potential, stimulus reaches threshold, fires down axon
96
What is depolarization? Hyper-polarization?
depolarization - inside becomes less negative than outside, increases chance of firing
hyper-polerization - inside of neurons become increasingly more negative than outside, decreased chance of firing
97
What is the All-or-None Law?
action potential either fires or does not
98
What is a synapse?
gaps between dendrites of one neuron and axon terminal of another
site of chemical communication, when action potential reaches pre-synaptic axon terminal, neurotransmitters released into synapse, bind to receptors on dendrites of post-synaptic neuron
99
What are neurotransmitters?
specialized chemicals that travel across synapse to allow neuron communication
100
What happens if the neurotransmitters are not taken by receptors?
reuptake - travelling back through synpatic cleft
enzymatic degradation - enzymes clean them up
101
What is dopamine?
mood regulation, movement, reward mechanisms
102
What is norepinephrine?
fight or flight, eating habits, alertness
103
What is serotonin?
sleep regulation, mood, aggression
104
What is GABA?
sleep, arousal reduction
105
What are endorphins?
replaces pain with pleasure
106
What is glutamate?
learning and memory
107
What is neuroplasticity? What are the old and new views on this?
the ability of the brain to reorganize and compensate for damage, change in function and structure
old view - all neurons in place prenatally, "once damage is done it's over"
new view: neurogenesis for repair and replacement
108
What is the autonomic nervous system?
involuntary processes
sympathetic - arouses in response to threat (use energy)
parasympathetic - calms body during relaxation (conserves energy)
109
What is the somatic nervous system?
voluntary processes
110
What are the 3 sections of the brain? What parts do they contain?
Forebrain - thalmus, hypothalmus, pituitary gland, limbic system, basal ganglia, cerebreal cortex
Midbrain - reticular formation, substantia nigra
Hindbrain - medulla, cerebellum, pons
111
What is the thalmus?
relay system for sensory information except smell
112
What is the hypothalmus?
basic biological needs - 4 F's
113
What is the pituitary gland?
hormones for growth/reproduction
114
What is the limbic system?
hippocampus - memory
| amygdala - emotions/fear
115
What is the basal ganglia?
reward system
116
What is the cerebral cortex?
outer covering of cerebral hemispheres, complex mental processes (language, thought)
117
What is the reticular formation?
neural network between hindbrain-midbrain, regulates sleep/wake and arousal
118
What is substantia nigra?
connects forebrain-midbrain, controls eye movements and movement fluidity
Parkinsons!!
119
What is the medulla?
bodily functions (heartbeat) and reflexes (coughing)
120
What is the cerebellum?
motor coordination and balance
121
What is the pons?
facial movement
locus coerulus - neurons with long axons through brain/spinal cord, uses norepinephrine to regulate attention/arousal
122
What is the Cerebrum?
left/right hemispheres
4 lobes each
mirror images of each other
123
What is the Corpus Collosum?
bundles of axons that connect 2 hemispheres
124
What are the 4 lobes of the brain?
frontal - planning, movement, speech production
Broca's area: speech production
parietal - somatosensory system - sense of touch and position in space
occipital - visual information processing
temporal - processing sound, speech comprehension
Wernicke's area: speech comprehension
125
Explain brain lateralization?
left - math, logistics, language, sequencing
| right - visual, spatial, hearing language, creativity
126
How are brain signals processed?
many primary functions connected to the opposite side of the brain (ex. thing happening on the left processed in right hemisphere)
