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Josh's Decks > p2 biopsych > Flashcards

p2 biopsych Flashcards

1
Q

The nervous system is…

A

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

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2
Q

central nervous system is…

A

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

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3
Q

the peripheral nervous system…

A

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

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4
Q

the somatic nervous system…

A

controls muscles and receives info from sensory receptors

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5
Q

the autonomic nervous system…

A

governs vital functions and transmits info to and from bodily organs

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6
Q

structure of neurons

A

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.

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7
Q

Sensory neurons

A

PNS-CNS, unipolar, inform brain about environment

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8
Q

relay neurons

A

most common, allow sensory+motor to commun, multipolar

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9
Q

motor neurons

A

connect CNS to effectors; from synapses with muscles

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10
Q

process of synaptic transmission

A
  • 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.
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11
Q

Hormones are…

A
  • 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
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12
Q

the fight or flight response

A
  • 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.
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13
Q

what is localisation

A

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

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14
Q

what is lateralisation

A

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

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15
Q

Heller and Levy

A

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

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16
Q

motor cortex

A
  • 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.
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17
Q

somatosensory cortex

A
  • 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
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18
Q

Visual cortex

A
  • 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
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19
Q

auditory cortex

A
  • 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.
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20
Q

broca’s area

A
  • 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.
21
Q

wernicke’s area

A
  • 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.
22
Q

why is broca’s area involved in speech production

A

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

23
Q

why is Wernicke’s area involved in speech comprehension

A

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.

24
Q

background of split brain research

A

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

25
Q

who are split brain paitents and why are they helpful

A
  • 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
26
Q

process of split brain research

A
  • 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.
27
Q

3 findings of split brain research

A
  • 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
28
Q

definition of brain plasticity

A

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

29
Q

what did researchers used to believe about brain plasticity

A

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

30
Q

what is Synaptogenesis(plasticity)

A

formation of synapses between neurones in the nervous system

31
Q

what is Neurogenesis(plasticity)

A

neurons are produced by neural stem cells

32
Q

what is synaptic pruning(plasticity)

A

extra neurones and synapses connections are eliminated to increase efficiency

33
Q

why might adults find change more demanding

A

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

34
Q

what did khun et al find

A

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.

35
Q

what did Maguire et al find

A

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

36
Q

what is functional recovery

A

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

37
Q

what is neural regeneration

A

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

38
Q

what is neuronal unmasking

A

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.

39
Q

what is neural reorganisation

A

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.

40
Q

what did danelli

A

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.

41
Q

what are post-mortems and give pro and cons

A

-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

42
Q

what are FMRIs and give pro and cons

A

-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

43
Q

what are EEGs and give pro and cons

A

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

44
Q

what are ERPs and give pro and cons

A

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

45
Q

what is a Circadian rhythm

A

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

46
Q

what is a infradian rhythm

A

lasts 24hrs+, menstrual cycle

47
Q

what is a ultradian rhythm

A

lasts less than 24hrs, feeding and sleep patterns

48
Q

what are Endogenous pacemakers

A
  • internal body clocks that influence patterns e.g pineal gland
  • when light drops suprachiasmatic nucleus fires impulse to pineal to secrete melatonin
49
Q

what are exogenous zeitgebers

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

Josh's Decks (10 decks)

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