Paper 2 : Biopyschology Flashcards
Central nervous system
Brain and spinal cord
Peripheral nervous system
Somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system
Autonomic nervous system
Parasympathetic and sympathetic
Somatic nervous system
Contains sensory and motor neurones, used for reflexes
Sensory neuron
Carries signal from a receptor to the CNS
Cells body sticks out from its side
Lomg dendirtes
Short axon
Relay neuron
Carries signal from sensory neurone to motor neurone
Only found in CNS
Short dendrites, short axon
Motor neuron
Carries a signal from CNS to a muscle/gland
Short dendrites, long axon
Excitatory neurotransmitters
More likely to reach action potential and fire
Inhibitory neurotransmitter
Less likely to reach action potential and fire
Pituary gland
Growth hormones, ACTH
Regulates other hormones and glands
Adrenal gland
Adrenaline
Causes fight or flight response
Pineal gland
Melatonin
Tiredness
Ovaries
Progesterone and oestrogen
Promotes female sex characteristics
Testes
Testerone
Promotes male sex characteristics
Fight or flight response
- Stressor or threat is recognised by amygdala
- Amygdala alerts hypothalamus
- Activates sympathic nervous system
- Adrenal gland releases adrenaline
- Create fight or flight response
- Once threat has passed hypothalamus alerts parasympathetic nervous system and this calms the body down
What’s the role of cortisol
Long term stressor. Cortisol gives body extra energy but inhibits immune system
Localisation of function
Theory that different parts of the brain are solely responsible for certain tasks or abilities
Broca’s area
Responsible for producing speech
Motor cortex
Responsible for generating voluntary movement
Somatosensory cortex
Responsible for sensations
Visual cortex
Registers visual information
Wernickes area
Responsible for processing lanaguage
Auditory cortex
Register audio information
Localisation of function ev.
Wernickes and Broca’s aphasia
Patient HM had hippocampus removed and lost specific ability
Brain scan evidence specific regions are activated during specific tasks fMRI scans
Functional recovery
Reductionist
Equipotentiality
Hemispheric lateralisation of function
The left hemisphere and right hemisphere have different functions
Split brain research
Used to treat epilepsy
Corpus callosum cut
Stops two hemispheres from communicating
Sperry used 11 spilt brain patients and shown words on either side of the screen Sperry found that they were able to say the words that appeared to the right of the screen (and therefore their left hemisphere), but not the left of the screen (right hemisphere)
Language must be in left hemisphere
Gazzaniga
Found facial recognition was in right hemisphere
Function lateralisation evaluation
+Sperry
+evolution, dual task
-patient JW learnt to read words on the left side too
-hemispherectomy under 5 patients could still have full function
Plasticity of brain
The ability for the brain to change
Bridging
New synapses are made as neurons grow new axons to connect to other neurons. The more connections, the more abilities the brain has
Pruning
Unused connections are destroyed to make the brain more efficient
Plasticity evaluation
+maguire, black cab taxi drivers had a more condense hippocampus as they had to learn all the streets of London
+patient JW
Functional recovery
Regaining a lost ability
Neuronal unmasking
After damage to an area the function may be regained by activating a previously dormant area
Stem cells
Unspecialised cells can be transplanted to differentiate into the needed cells
Functional recovery evaluation
-Schneider found people with university level education were more likely to be able to do functional recovery than people who had high school level education
-correlation doesn’t mean causation
fMRI
Measures blood flow using oxygen
+high spatial resolution (can see where it is)
-lacks temporal resolution (can’t see when it happened)
EEG
Measures electrical activity using electrodes on scalp
+high temporal resolution
-low spatial resolution
ERP
EEG but patient is asked to repeat activity over and over again. Reduces brain noise
+stimulus response and temporal validity
-needs lots of trials so limits type of task
Post-mortem
Brain after death
+detailed analysis
-retrospective can’t see cause and effect
Circadian rhythms
Sleep wake cycle controlled by SCN
Body temperature, as temp lowers Boyd prepares for sleep
Hormone production (cortisol and melatonin), melatonin makes us sleepy
Circadian rhythms evaluation
Siffre lived in a cave without natural light for several months. Kept a fairly normal sleep wake cycle
RWA heart attacks are more common in morning so medications can e taken at night
Extraneous variables, siffre used artificial light
Individual differences
Infradian rhythms
Less than once a day eg menstrual cycle or seasonal affective disorder
Infradian rhythms evaluation
- cycles may be controlled externally rather than only by these hormones McClintock women sychronisjed to other womens of exposed to their sweat pheromones
+phototherapy improved depression
-could be other seasonal factors
Ultradian rhythms
More than once a day eg sleep stages. We experienced 5 stages of sleep in 90min cycles
Basic rest activity cycle 90min cycle of alert and fatigue
Ultradian rhythms evaluation
Dement and Kleitman woke people up during REM or non REM. 89% woken up during REM recalled dreaming. Only 8% recalled dreams from non REM
Sleep cycles varies through life
Ericcson saw violinist noticed consistent 90min cycle practice and napped more frequently
RWA lunch breaks
Endogenous pacemakers
Internal cues to help regulate rhythms eg SCN has its own protein life cycle that lasts 24 hours
Endogenous pacemakers evaluation
Morgan bred hamsters with 20 hour SCN and thier offspring adopted 20 SCN
Siffre
Exogenous zeitgebers
External cues to regulate rhythms, light is received by photoreceptors in retina which inhibits melatonin levels to keep us alert
Social cues
Exogenous zeitgebers evaluation
Czeisler used artificial light and changed peoples sleep wale cycle from 22 hours to 28 hours
Siffre kept 25 hour sleep wake cycle
