Modules 1-5 Flashcards
Biopsychologists aim to study
a) psychological states
b) movements and behaviours
c) psychological states through experience
d) mental phenomena relevant to human experiences
e) all of the above
e) all of the above
The elevated plus maze (EPM) assesses fear by measuring
open arm exploration, fear response in rats
Diazepam
a) increases fear/anxiety only in humans
b) reduces fear/anxiety only in humans
c) increases fear in non-human animal models
d) is not effective in rats
e) none of the above
e) none of the above
Which of the following statements is correct:
a) the rat brain does not contain the primary visual cortex
b) the rat brain is a scaled-down version of the human brain
c) human and rat brains have a similar arrangement of motor and sensory areas
d) the human brain is not more complex than the brain of a rat
e) all of the above are correct
c) human and rat brains have a similar arrangement or motor and sensory areas
What are class-common behaviours?
behaviours performed by all members of a class of animals
the main difference between the brains of humans and those of related species are more ______ than ______
quantitative; qualitative
the main difference between human brains and the brains of other mammalian relatives is that human brains tend to be bigger and ___
have more cortex
Tony is testing the effectiveness of a new drug to improve the lives of people with PTSD, What type of research is this?
Applied research
Thiamine-deficient rats display
memory deficits and brain damage
The research of a biopsychologist working for a drug company would largely be
Pharmacological and applied
Which behavioural test is used to measure anxiety in rats?
elevated plus maze (EPM)
According to Module 1, which ability lies at the core of human behaviour?
complex movement
The visual system bases its perceptions of motion on a comparison between movement of the image on the
retina and neural commands sent from the brain to the eye muscles
What is the corpus callosum?
neural pathway that connects the right and left hemispheres
One of the fundamental differences between philosophy and psychology is the fact that…
only psychology has evolved into an empirical science
Cross-modal brain plasticity refers to;
Shifts in the functional organization of the brain between sensory modalities
Neurons in area MT are responsive to
visual motion
Applying stimulation to the occipital lobe/visual cortex during Braille reading will;
interfere with reading performance
When is brain plasticity at its greatest?
In young brains
What is intra-modal plasticity?
shifts in the functional organization of the brain within sensory modalities
Epigenetics refers to
inheritance mechanisms not directly related to the genetic code
one of the major cell types in the cortex are
pyramidal cells
environmental enrichment increases
cortex weight, corpus callosum thickness, dendritic length and branching, spine density
enrichment can involve
increased societal interactions, physical activity, increased exploration, increased sensory stimulation
nerves that carry signals away from the CNS are
efferent nerves
The ANS nerves that project from the thoracic and lumbar regions of the spinal cord are part of the
sympathetic nervous system
What do sympathetic nerves do?
stimulate, organize and mobilize energy resources in threatening situations
the vagus nerves are the longest
cranial nerves
the inner most meninx is the
pia mater
The cerebral ventricles, central canal , and subarachnoid space are filled with
cerebrospinal fluid
convergent evolution produces structures that are
analogous
Each strand of DNA is a sequence of ____ bases
nucleotide
The sensitive period for the development of a particular trait is the period
during which a particular experience must occur to have a major effect on the development of the trait
CNS is to PNS as oligodendrocytes are to
Schwann cells
a cross-section of the spinal cord gray matter reveals four arms; among these are the two
ventral horns
in general, afferent nerves carry sensory information
towards the CNS
