Multiple Choice Flashcards
Somatic Approach
Somatic interventions alter the structure or function of the brain to see changes in behavior (e.g. Lesions)
Behavioral Approach
Behavioral interventions change the behavior of an organism and look for changes in the brain.
(e.g. how hormone levels change when people interact).
Correlation Approach
Correlation approaches find the extent to which a given body measure varies with a given behavioral measure
(e.g. brain size and IQ).
Pure Research VS Applied Research
Pure Research is motivated primarily by curiosity. The purpose is to acquire knowledge.
Applied Research is intended to bring direct benefits to humankind.
Key Concepts of BioPsychology.
Biopsychology is the scientific study of the biology of behavior. It is informed by many other fields, such as neurology, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, and neuroanatomy.
Human VS Animal Brains
Human brains differ from animal brains primarily by size and the extent of cortical development.
In other words, the differences are more quantitative rather than qualitative.
Animal brains are good to work on because:
They are simpler, they aid in comparative apprpoaches, and you can do experiments that can’t ethically be done on humans.
Electrical VS Chemical Stimulation
Electrical Stimulation: bipolar electrode delivers weak currents that increase firing of neurons near the tip of the electrode. Often produces the opposite of Lesions - it excites and activates the targeted area.
Chemical Stimulation administers drugs that either increase or decrease the effects of particular neurotransmitters, such as neurotoxins.
Chemical Stimulation activates cell bodies.
(Divisions of Biopsych): Physiological Psychology
Physiological Psychology looks at the neural mechanisms of behavior.
It involves the direct manipulation of the brain.
(e.g. animal studies with stimulation or lesions).
Tends to be pure research rather than applied.
(Divisions of Biopsych): Psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology looks at the effects of drugs on the brain.
(e.g. illegal drugs, how medicines aid speech recovery in stroke patients).
Tends to be applied research.
(Divisions of Biopsych): Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology deals with brain damage in humans.
(e.g. right hemisphere damage causes difficulty with understanding jokes).
Think neuropsych testing - it looks for brain damage. Applied research - deals with brain damaged people and researchers are trying to help them.
(Divisions of Biopsych): Psychophysiology
Psychophysiology looks at the relationship between physiological activity and psychological processes.
Focuses on HUMANS, with NON-INVASIVE measures
(e.g. skin response, eye tracking).
(Divisions of Biopsych): Cognitive Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience looks at the neural basis of cognition (higher intellectual processes) - what neural activity is representative of.
Mostly human subjects.
(e.g. which areas of the brain light up when seeing “cool” images).
(Divisions of Biopsych): Comparative Psychology
Comparative Psychology compares different species to understand evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of behavior.
Includes evolutionary psych and behavioral genetics.
(e.g. gene therapy, how different species evolved learning, epigenetics - how experience alters genes).
(Genetic Engineering Techniques) - Gene Knockout Technique & Problems with Interpretation.
GENE KNOCKOUT TECHNIQUE: procedure that creates organisms that lack a particular gene under investigation.
It is hard to interpret: behavioral traits are influenced by many interacting genes.
Eliminating genes influences expression of other genes.
Genes are also influenced by experience.
(Genetic Engineering Techniques) -Gene Replacement
GENE REPLACEMENT involves removing pathological genes from humans and implanting them into other animals, such as mice.
Neuropsych Testing
Neuropsych Testing: standardized battery of tests to discover brain damage.
Phase of general tests followed by specific tests to see further deficits
(e.g. IQ, memory, card sorting task, digit span, etc.)
Single VS Double Dissociation
SINGLE DISSOCIATION: one factor (brain damage) affects process 1, but not process 2. This means there is insufficient evidence to say there are 2 separate process.
(e.g. a TV can lose color, but color is not independent… you can’t lose the picture and still have color).
DOUBLE DISSOCIATION: Complete loss of one function while other function is unaffected.
(e.g. if you have 2 TV sets, and one is without sound and another is without picture, this means that picture and sound are separate functions).
Conditioned Taste Aversion
Conditioned Taste Aversion was a big influential learning paradigm.
They found that rats learned association between taste and stomach distress and then avoid the new taste - even after one incident and even after a time gap.
This challenged the old view that learning was step-by step, that temporal contiguity was necessary, and that associations between any two stimuli were equal (rats did not associate light with stomach distress).
Afferent VS Efferent Nerves
AFFERENT nerves APPROACH the CNS (A is for Arrive)
EFFERENT nerves EXIT the CNS (E is for Exit).
Ventricles
Ventricals are 4 hollow spaces in the brain filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) - Function
Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) supports the weight of the brain, and helps reduce shock to the CNS caused by accidents.
Sulci and Fissures
Sulci are SMALL furrows in the cortex (as opposed to fissures, which are big)
Fissures are LARGE furrows in the cortex - including lateral, longitudinal, and central fissures.
Neurons - SHAPES
Multipolar Neurons (more than 2 processes extending from cell body - most neurons are multipolar)…
Bipolar Neurons (Neuron with 2 processes extending from cell body)…
Unipolar Neurons (one process)…
Neuron FUNCTION TYPES
Interneurons (short axon or no axon - integrate activity within a SINGLE neural structure)…
- *MOTOR** neurons….
- *SENSORY** neurons.
Neuron SIZES
Small (granule, spindle, stellate)…
LARGE: pyramidal, Golgi Type 1, Purkinje
Oligodendrocytes VS Schwann Cells
OLIGODENDROCYTES: myelin producing glial cells in CNS. Several Segments…
Schwann Cells: myelin producing glial cells in the PNS. One Segment. Schwann can REGENERATE axons.
TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation):
TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation): temporarily disrupts brain activity, using electromagnetic coil,
White VS Grey Matter
White Matter: part of spinal cord containing myelinated axons (the myelin makes it white)…
Grey Matter: Part of the spinal cord containing cell bodies and unmyelinated interneurons.