p2 biopsych

Question 1

The nervous system is…

Answer 1

a very specialised set of cells and is our primary internal communication

Question 2

central nervous system is…

Answer 2

involved in our physiological processes with the main aim being to maintain life.

Question 3

the peripheral nervous system…

Answer 3

is all the nerves outside of the CNS which communicates info from the CNS to the body and the body to the brain

Question 4

the somatic nervous system…

Answer 4

controls muscles and receives info from sensory receptors

Question 5

the autonomic nervous system…

Answer 5

governs vital functions and transmits info to and from bodily organs

Question 6

structure of neurons

Answer 6

The cell body includes a nucleus, branch like structure called dendrites, an axon that carries impulses away from the cell body, covered in myelin sheath to protect it, the sheath is segmented into the nodes of ranvier that speeds up transmission. At the end are the terminal buttons that communicate with the next neuron.

Question 7

Sensory neurons

Answer 7

PNS-CNS, unipolar, inform brain about environment

Question 8

relay neurons

Answer 8

most common, allow sensory+motor to commun, multipolar

Question 9

motor neurons

Answer 9

connect CNS to effectors; from synapses with muscles

Question 10

process of synaptic transmission

Answer 10

• electrical impulses reach the pre-synaptic terminal
• electrical impulses trigger release of neurotransmitters
• neurotransmitters cross the synapse from vesicles
• neurotransmitters combine with receptors on the postsynaptic membrane
• stimulation of postsynaptic receptors by neurotransmitters result in either excitation (depolarisation) or inhibition (hyperpolarization) of the postsynaptic membrane.

Question 11

Hormones are…

Answer 11

• chemical messengers that travel through the bloodstream to stimulate cells or tissues into action
• The endocrine system secretes these hormones to regulate many bodily functions
• Works together with nervous system to regulate and coordinate behaviour

Question 12

the fight or flight response

Answer 12

• Response generated from the sympathetic branch of the ANS
• Stress response can differ depending on appraisal
• If appraised as particularly stressful the hypothalamus is alerted
• This leads to SAM pathway activation, stimulating the adrenal glands to secrete adrenaline and noradrenaline.

Question 13

what is localisation

Answer 13

the extent to which a function is found in a very specific area

Question 14

what is lateralisation

Answer 14

the extent to which functions can only be found in one hemisphere

Question 15

Heller and Levy

Answer 15

Heller and Levy showed pts split photo (smile/neutral) and recognise emotion shown on left. right hemisphere seems to be dominant in recognising emotions

Question 16

motor cortex

Answer 16

• found in the frontal lobe
• responsible for voluntary motor movements
• damage to one side of the brain in this area will affect the control of movement on the opposite side of the body
• it is also somatotopically organised.

Question 17

somatosensory cortex

Answer 17

• found in parietal lobe
• detects sensory events, producing sensations such as touch, pressure, pain and temperature.
• both hemispheres have somatosensory cortex, with the Cortex on one side of the brain receiving info from the opposite side of the body

Question 18

Visual cortex

Answer 18

• found in occipital lobe and is the primary visual centre, -processing colour, shapes or movement.
• processing actually starts at the retina, nerve impulses from this event transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve for interpretation.
• damage to this Cortex can cause loss of vision and if secondary areas are damaged it can lead to loss of specific areas of Visual perception. e.g prosopagnosia

Question 19

auditory cortex

Answer 19

• found in temporal lobe and is concerned with hearing
• pathway begins are cochlea in the inner ear and travels to the brain stem as a nerve Impulse.
• damage to this produces difficulties in processing and understanding sounds.

Question 20

broca’s area

Answer 20

• broca identified a language centre in the posterior portion of the frontal lobe of the left Hemisphere.
• patience with deficits who could understand but not speak had lesions in the left frontal Hemisphere, however patients with damage in these areas in the right hemisphere did not have the same language problems.
• not all words equally affected, nouns and verbs often seemed fine but conjunctions and prepositions have major problems.

Question 21

wernicke’s area

Answer 21

• this area is in the posterior portion of the left temporal lobe.
• whereas broca’s patients could understand language but not speak patients with lesion in wernicke’s area could speak but unable to understand language, this was coined wernicke’s aspasia.

Question 22

why is broca’s area involved in speech production

Answer 22

it is close to the area that controls the mouth tongue and vocal cords and hence is involved in speech production

Question 23

why is Wernicke’s area involved in speech comprehension

Answer 23

it is close to the area that is responsible for auditory and visual input, input from these regions is thought to be transferred to the wernicke’s area, and hence is involved with speech comprehension.

Question 24

background of split brain research

Answer 24

in cases of severe epilepsy one drastic solution, those that could not be helped by conventional medicine was to have surgery to disconnect the two sides of the brain, this restricts epileptic seizures to only one Hemisphere, reducing severity of the attack

Question 25

who are split brain paitents and why are they helpful

Answer 25

- split brain patients are those that have had the connection between the left and right hemispheres severed - their corpus callosum has been cut - these people have proven useful to psychologists interested in studying how the different hemispheres function

Question 26

process of split brain research

Answer 26

- it uses a split visual field - pts sat in front of a screen and asked to gaze at a fixed point. - visual stimuli is projected onto the screen in either right or left visual fields at high speeds so the participants can't move their head.

Question 27

3 findings of split brain research

Answer 27

- Words projected to the LVF, participants would say that they have not seen anything, suggesting that the left hemisphere is responsible for language - a word was projected to LVF and then the participants would select an object, despite not registering at the participants could select the correct object, suggesting that the right hemisphere does have some language ability for understanding words - a different face was presented to each hemisphere at the same time, participants chose the one presented to the right hemisphere indicating role in identifying faces and shapes, employing the right hemisphere is responsible for visual spatial tasks

Question 28

definition of brain plasticity

Answer 28

this can be defined as the brain's ability to change and adapt because of experience

Question 29

what did researchers used to believe about brain plasticity

Answer 29

that changes only took place during infants say the more recent research has demonstrated that the brain continues to create new neural pathways and alter existing ones as a result of learning and life experience

Question 30

what is Synaptogenesis(plasticity)

Answer 30

formation of synapses between neurones in the nervous system

Question 31

what is Neurogenesis(plasticity)

Answer 31

neurons are produced by neural stem cells

Question 32

what is synaptic pruning(plasticity)

Answer 32

extra neurones and synapses connections are eliminated to increase efficiency

Question 33

why might adults find change more demanding

Answer 33

capacity for neural reorganisation is greater in children than adults, children have 15000 synaptic connections, twice as many as adults, perhaps explaining why adults find change more demanding

Question 34

what did khun et al find

Answer 34

found a significant increase in grey matter in various regions of the brain after playing games 30 minutes a day for 2 months, mainly in the hippocampus. demonstrating the brain's ability to adapt.

Question 35

what did Maguire et al find

Answer 35

found a large amount of Grey matter in the posterior hippocampus of London taxi drivers, which positively correlated with the time spent as a taxi driver, suggesting brains permanently change due to frequent exposure to tasks

Question 36

what is functional recovery

Answer 36

this occurs following physical injuries to the brain when unaffected areas are sometimes able to adapt or compensate for damaged ones

Question 37

what is neural regeneration

Answer 37

also known as ion sprouting and occurs when your nerve endings grow and connect with unaffected areas. this compensates for damaged areas and enables the recovery of previously interrupted functioning

Question 38

what is neuronal unmasking

Answer 38

this is when dormant synapses in the brain are opened and become functional.when the surrounding brain area becomes damaged, the rate of input these dormant synapses with increased opening connections to regions of the brain that are not normally active and allow the gradual development of new structures.

Question 39

what is neural reorganisation

Answer 39

this occurs when the brain transfers functions from the damaged area to working sections of the brain, for example if the broca's area and the left hemisphere was damaged than an area of the right hemisphere might take over. in extreme cases whole areas of the brain can take over the functions of damaged sections.

Question 40

what did danelli

Answer 40

investigated a case of an Italian boy you can most of his left hemisphere removed by Age 2 and a half to remove a tumour. with intensive therapy has right hemisphere was able to take over almost all of the functioning that would normally have been done by the left. this was largely because the boys brain would have shown maximal plasticity.

Question 41

what are post-mortems and give pro and cons

Answer 41

-an after death exam, used to say when damage has occurred and how it might explain behaviour, EG Alzheimer's causes damage to memory and language. brain is sliced into sections and studied on a microscope. +) detailed exams anatomical aspects of brain that non invasive methods couldn't see -)lack of o2 in brain after death alters structure and shape

Question 42

what are FMRIs and give pro and cons

Answer 42

-uses magnetic and radio waves to monitor blood flow takes repeated scans to create image of O2 concentration, areas of high activity will have high blood +) is the moving image such as volleyball and linking activity to behaviour -)interpreting scans can be complex and problematic

Question 43

what are EEGs and give pro and cons

Answer 43

picks up impulses on scalp, small sensors are attached to scalp to identify electrical impulses, measuring amplitude and frequency of activity. +)cheaper than other methods of study -)interpreting output from a machine requires an expert

Question 44

what are ERPs and give pro and cons

Answer 44

similar to eegs in terms of using electrodes however it measures activity in response to a stimulus, used to investigate fast responses others might not pick up +)directly measures neural activity, indicates a conscious cognitive process -)only detect strong voltage across scalp, can't detect deeper, smaller activity

Question 45

what is a Circadian rhythm

Answer 45

lasts approx 24hrs, key example is sleep/wake cycle

Question 46

what is a infradian rhythm

Answer 46

lasts 24hrs+, menstrual cycle

Question 47

what is a ultradian rhythm

Answer 47

lasts less than 24hrs, feeding and sleep patterns

Question 48

what are Endogenous pacemakers

Answer 48

- internal body clocks that influence patterns e.g pineal gland - when light drops suprachiasmatic nucleus fires impulse to pineal to secrete melatonin

Question 49

what are exogenous zeitgebers

Answer 49

- external stimuli providing info about a last time, promoting bodily changes - EPs and EZs interact to control bio rhythms