Paper 2: Bio-Psychology

Question 1

What does the nervous system do?

Answer 1

It takes in information from the environment and elsewhere in the body (transmitted across neurons) and co-ordinates a wide range of conscious functions such as thinking and movement, as well as unconscious functions like the control of organs (e.g. heart rate, digestion) and glands.

Question 2

What two areas is the Nervous system divided into?

Answer 2

The CNS (Central Nervous System) and the PNS (Peripheral Nervous System).

Question 3

What two areas is the CNS divided into and what do they do?

Answer 3

The brain for higher psychological processes and the spinal cord for the passing of information between the brain and the PNS.

Question 4

What are the two sub-divisions of the PNS?

Answer 4

The autonomic nervous system transfers information between organs and CNS for involuntary actions. Somatic transfers information between senses and CNS for voluntary actions.

Question 5

What are the two subdivisions of the autonomic nervous system?

Answer 5

The sympathetic is the alert mode. Parasympathetic relaxes the body again.

Question 6

How would the sympathetic and parasympathetic modes affect two organs, eg heart and eyes.

Answer 6

Sympathetic would increase heart-rate and dilate pupils, while the parasympathetic would decrease heart-rate and constrain pupils.

Question 7

What is the function of a neuron?

Answer 7

They are how information is passed through the nervous system. Around 100 billion in the brain.

Question 8

What is the basic structure of a neuron?

Answer 8

The dendrite (receptor) receives a signal
The signal is carried towards a cell body (which contains the nucleus)
The signal travels along an axon (which is protected by myelin sheaths) towards the axon terminal
Terminal buttons at the end of the axon pass the electrical signal to the next neuron in the chain

Question 9

How are signals passed?

Answer 9

They’re passed electrically and the neuron becomes positively charged which sends and impulse to the axon.

Question 10

What is synaptic transmition?

Answer 10

Neurons are separated by gaps of synapses and cross through the process of synaptic transmission. When the signal reaches a synapse it releases neurotransmitters from vesicles and are taken up by the receptors in the dendrites of the other neuron.

Question 11

How are signals between neurons transfered?

Answer 11

Chemically.

Question 12

What the difference between excitation and inhibition and which neurotransmitters are either excitatory or inhibitory?

Answer 12

Excitation increases the likelihood of a neuron firing. Inhibition decreases the likelihood of a neuron firing. Serotonin is generally inhibitory while glutamate is excitatory.

Question 13

What are the three different types of neurons and what are their purposes?

Answer 13

Sensory neurons transfer the information from the senses to the CNS. Motor neurons transfer the information between the CNS and organs/muscles. Relay neurons connect neurons to other neurons and transmit information within the CNS.

Question 14

What is the endocrine system.

Answer 14

System of glands that are responsible for the release of hormones. Pituitary gland regulates the release of hormones from all the other glands and is known as the master gland. Operates slower than CNS.

Question 15

Give me two more glands and their purposes.

Answer 15

Testes release testosterone responsible for male characteristics such as deeper voice. Pineal gland releases melatonin which regulates circadian rhythm and sleep.

Question 16

What is the fight or flight?

Answer 16

The activation of the sympathetic side of the autonomic nervous system. The brain (specifically the hypothalamus) senses a threat
The hypothalamus sends a message to the adrenal glands (specifically the adrenal medulla) to release adrenaline
Adrenaline increases bodily activities to either fight or flee from the threat
For example, heart rate increases to improve blood flow, the bronchioles of the lungs dilate to increase oxygen intake, and the pupils dilate to increase vision. Other bodily activities that are not essential for fighting or fleeing are reduced, such as digestion
Once the brain senses that the threat has passed, the parasympathetic nervous system reduces these activities and returns the body to a resting state (rest and digest rather than fight or flight).

Question 17

What is hemispheric lateralisation?

Answer 17

The two hemispheres are different, left focuses on language processing while the right hemisphere focuses on spatial relationships.

Question 18

Split brain research.

Answer 18

Both sides of the brain are connected by the corpus callosum. The surgeon may cut the corpus callosum to help with epilepsy.

Question 19

Some evidence of the split brain.

Answer 19

Those who have undergone the surgery can describe images shown in their right visual field but can’t in their left visual field. However an image shown in the left visual field could use their left hand to pick up an object associated with it as it would’ve been controlled by the right hemisphere.

Question 20

AO3 strengths of split brain research.

Answer 20

Sperry’s research demonstrates a base of evidence for the brain lateralisation.

Question 21

AO3 weaknesses of split brain research.

Answer 21

Extremely rare, Sperry only had 11 participants. Also had epilepsy so not completely reliable. Gazzinga had a participant who could eventually get his right hemisphere and left hemisphere working correctly again. Danelli et al found a boy who had his left hemisphere completely removed yet learnt to speak. Sperry’s research can lead to oversimplification and exaggeration.

Question 22

What is the localisation of the brain functions?

Answer 22

The motor cortex is responsible for voluntary movement, located at the frontal lobes of each hemisphere. The somatosensory cortex is responsible for sensing physical sensations, located in the parietal lobes of each hemisphere. Visual cortex is located in the occipitel lobes of each hemisphere. Auditory cortex is located at the temporal lobes of each hemisphere.

Question 23

What are the two different language centres and what are their roles?

Answer 23

Broca’s area is used for speech production, Wernicke’s area is used for speech comprehension.

Question 24

Where is the Broca’s area located? Where is the Wernicke’s area located?

Answer 24

Broca’s area is in the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere. Wernicke’s area is located in the temporal lobe.

Question 25

AO3 Strengths of the localisation of the functions of the brain.

Answer 25

Case study, Phineas Gage case in which a rail work had a piece of iron that destroyed his left frontal lobe of the brain. Turned his disposition from calm to angry.
Brain Scans, fMRI scans find a correlation of brain activity with different activities.

Question 26

AO3 Weaknesses of the functions of the brain.

Answer 26

Other areas of the brain adapt to take over the function of damaged areas: For example, Danelli et al (2013) describes a case study of a boy who had his entire left hemisphere removed at age 2 and a half. As described above, language function is primarily localised in this hemisphere, and the boy was initially unable to speak. However, his language skills recovered after 2 years, suggesting the right hemisphere adapted to take over this function.
Unused neural pathways are recruited: Wall (1977) observed that the brain contains many dormant neural connections. When healthy neural connections are damaged, these previously dormant synapses activate and form new connections to compensate for the damaged ones.
Axon sprouting: Damage to the axon of a neuron can break its connections to neighbouring neurons. When this happens, the neighbouring intact neurons may grow (‘sprout’) extra nerve endings to reconnect with these damaged neurons.

Question 27

What is neuroplasticity?

Answer 27

The ability of the brain to change shape to adapt to different functions.

Question 28

When is the brain at its most mouldable?

Answer 28

The younger the person it’s in, the more elastic the brain can be.

Question 29

Functional recovery after trauma.

Answer 29

The restructuring of the brain to recover from incidents like strokes or accidents.

Question 30

What ways can the brain act to recover?

Answer 30

Other areas of the brain adapt to take over the function of damaged areas: For example, Danelli et al (2013) describes a case study of a boy who had his entire left hemisphere removed at age 2 and a half. As described above, language function is primarily localised in this hemisphere, and the boy was initially unable to speak. However, his language skills recovered after 2 years, suggesting the right hemisphere adapted to take over this function.
Unused neural pathways are recruited: Wall (1977) observed that the brain contains many dormant neural connections. When healthy neural connections are damaged, these previously dormant synapses activate and form new connections to compensate for the damaged ones.
Axon sprouting: Damage to the axon of a neuron can break its connections to neighbouring neurons. When this happens, the neighbouring intact neurons may grow (‘sprout’) extra nerve endings to reconnect with these damaged neurons.

Question 31

What are the different ways of studying the brain?

Answer 31

fMRIs, electroencephalograms/ERPs and post-mortem.

Question 32

How do fMRIs work?

Answer 32

Use magnetic fields to measure oxygen in the brain. Can track activity through seeing which areas require more oxygen with certain activities.

Question 33

What are the strengths of fMRIs?

Answer 33

Dynamic: fMRI scans record brain activity as it happens, which enables researchers to see activity in the brain over time (unlike post-mortem). For example, when a person switches from working out a maths equation to thinking about a childhood memory, fMRI scanners can pick up the change in brain activity.
High spatial resolution: fMRI scans are able to identify activity in the brain to within 1mm. This provides a highly detailed and accurate picture of brain activity (much more so than EEG).

Question 34

What are the weaknesses of fMRIs?

Answer 34

Expensive: fMRI scanners are expensive to buy and maintain (compared to EEG). This limits their use as psychological research tools, with studies that do use fMRI scanners often consisting of small sample sizes in order to reduce costs.
Low temporal resolution: It takes several seconds between recording brain activity using fMRI and converting it into an image. This means fMRI generates fewer images per minute (compared to e.g. EEG) and brain activity between each image is not recorded.

Question 35

How to ERPs and electroencephalograms work?

Answer 35

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a scan of the brain’s electrical activity. An EEG scan is performed by attaching electrodes to the scalp or by using a hat with electrodes attached.
The electrodes detect electrical activity in the brain cells beneath them. So, the more electrodes that are used in an EEG, the more complete a picture of brain activity the EEG can provide.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) are closely related to EEG scans. They use the same equipment but use statistical techniques to measure changes in brain activity in response to a stimulus. For example, the EEG could initially provide a baseline picture of brain activity, then researchers could introduce a stimulus (e.g. giving a subject some food to eat) and use ERPs to determine how brain activity changed in response.

Question 36

What are the strengths and weaknesses of this form of measurement?

Answer 36

More dynamic, can measure in time to the activities being done. Lower cost that fMRIs. Higher temporal resolution.
Low spatial resolution, can’t pinpoint areas of the brain.

Question 37

Strengths and weaknesses of fMRIs.

Answer 37

Able to study in the deeper parts of the brain than fMRIs.
Unable to show brain activity, have to infer.

Question 38

What are the 3 categories of biological rhythms?

Answer 38

Circadian rhythm, 24 hours eg sleep & wake cycle. Infradian, more than 24 hours such as menstrual cycle. Ultradian, less than 24 hours eg stages of sleep.

Question 39

What are exogenous zeitgebers and endogenous pacemakers?

Answer 39

Endogenous pacemakers: Things within the body that regulate biological rhythms (your ‘body clock’).
E.g. The suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus
Exogenous zeitgebers: Cues in the external environment that inform endogenous pacemakers to regulate biological rhythms.
E.g. Sunlight and darkness prompt the body to release hormones that control sleep and wake cycles

Question 40

AO3 evalutation for the zeitgebers and pacemakers.

Answer 40

Campbell and Murphey found shining natural light on any part of the human body caused the greatest deviation from the circadian rhythm. Ralph et al transplanted the suprachaismatic nuclei of a 20 hour sleep wake cycle hamster to a normal 24 hour hamster and changed the length of its sleep wake cycle. Endogenous pacemakers may be more important than exogenous zeitgebers when regulating circadian rhythms.

Question 41

How is the power of endogenous pacemakers demonstrated in the circadian rhythm?

Answer 41

Siffe shut himself in a cave for 6 months, and found he naturally adopted a 25 hour sleep/wake cycle without sunlight.

Question 42

What did Aschoff and Weaver do similarly?

Answer 42

Conducted a trail with more people for 4 weeks, found everyone adopted a 24 hour cycle aside from 1 person.

Question 43

What are the strengths and weakness of this research?

Answer 43

Has strong practical use for those working shift work eg nurses. Giving more regular shifts to settle the circadian rhythm.
Little sample sizes, often impractical to compare and to generalise.

Question 44

How are infradian rhythms affected by exogenous and endogenous factors?

Answer 44

Menstrual cycle controlled through the hormones of estrogen and proestrogen and Stern and McClintok demonstrated a change in the cycle when exposed to other women’s pheromones.

Question 45

Ultradian rhythm, what are the last two stages of the sleep/wake cycle and how are they demonstrated?

Answer 45

Stage 4 is deep sleep, delta waves peak and brain activity is at its lowest, lasts around 40 minutes. Stage 5 REM sleep, 5-15 minutes, high level of brain activity, dreams more likely to occur and body is relaxed.