Mind over Matter/Science or Bunk

Question 1

def placebo effect + give an example shown in class

Answer 1

• positive effect produced by sham treatment that cannot be attributed to the properties of the treatment itself and therefore, must be due to the patient’s belief in that treatment
• “Q-ray bracelet” claimed to alleciate chronic pain through enhancing the flow of bio-energy
• sham surgery reduces subjective reports of angina pain despite no biological change

Question 2

What causes motor dysfunction in Parkinson’s Disease?

Answer 2

reduced dopamine levels, less binding onto post synaptic cell receptors

Question 3

What 3 factors are important for proper use of dopamine?

Answer 3

• amount of dopamine released
• # of receptors
• dopamine transporters to “recycle” dopamine back into cell for next round

Question 4

What did DAT knockout mice lack?

Answer 4

dopamine transporters, caused elevated extracellular dopamine rather than takeup

Question 5

What is positron emission topography? How can it be used to look at dopamine?

Answer 5

• a brain scan
• measures the amount of receptors/dopamine in the brain through injecting a patient with a radiotracer
• positrons come off and collide with electrons, this sets off gamma rays that are detected by pet & give exact location

Question 6

What results did the Parkinson’s apomorphine vs saline treatment have?

Answer 6

• sham treatment induced measureable changes in the brain, greater dopamine release
• results very similar to real treatment

Question 7

What do personality, IQ, and black holes all have in common?

Answer 7

all hypothetical constructs
(explanatory variable that’s not actually observed)

Question 8

describe Friedman & Roseman’s study on personality and heart disease associations

Answer 8

• compared type A (competitive), type B (not competitive and happy) and type C (not competitive and unhappy) people and ran ECGs to determine HD risk
• smoking, alcohol, diet and exercise, and family history also measured as variables
• type A had higher prevalence of HD than both
• didn’t look into a lot of possibilities, correlation not causation!

Question 9

What happened with the belief that vaccines caused autism/

Answer 9

• MMR vaccine uptake dropped, measles comeback & outbreak in Canada
• study by Wakefield based claims on parent’s recollection of symptom origin
• a canadian study of n=25000 later found no link