Physiological Psych & Psychopharmacology Flashcards
Neuroimaging studies of individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have linked it to a reduced volume of the hippocampus and:
A) increased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and decreased activity in the amygdala.
B) decreased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and increased activity in the amygdala.
C) increased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala.
D) decreased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala.
B) decreased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and increased activity in the amygdala.
Neuroimaging studies have linked PTSD to several brain abnormalities, including a hyperactive amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex, a hypoactive ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and a reduced volume of the hippocampus, with some studies finding increased activity of the hippocampus and other studies finding decreased activity.
Sam wants a glass of wine and moves the unopened wine bottle on the counter closer to him with one hand and picks up the corkscrew with the other hand. However, he doesn’t open the wine bottle because he doesn’t know what motor actions are necessary to remove the cork from the bottle. This is an example of which of the following?
A) apraxia
B) ataxia
C) akinesia
D) akathisia
A) apraxia
For the exam, you want to be familiar with all of the terms listed in the answers to this question.
Apraxia is the inability to perform purposeful movements in the absence of paralysis, muscle weakness, or impaired coordination and best describes Sam’s inability to remove the cork from the wine bottle.
Ataxia (answer B) involves a lack of muscle control and impaired balance and coordination,
akinesia (answer C) is the loss of the ability to move,
akathisia (answer D) is a feeling of restlessness that makes it difficult to sit or stand still.
The ________ is known as the “body’s clock” because of its regulation of the sleep-wake cycle and other circadian rhythms.
A) suprachiasmatic nucleus
B) pons
C) reticular activating system
D) globus pallidus
A) suprachiasmatic nucleus
The suprachiasmatic nucleus is located in the hypothalamus and controls the body’s circadian rhythms (24-hour cycles), which include the sleep-wake cycle and daily changes in core body temperature and the secretion of several hormones.
Conduction aphasia involves:
A) nonfluent (slow, halting) speech, relatively intact comprehension, some impairment in repetition and naming.
B) fluent (normal) speech, relatively intact comprehension, intact repetition, and impaired naming.
C) fluent (but paraphasic) speech, relatively intact comprehension, poor word repetition, and impaired naming.
D) fluent (but paraphasic) speech, impaired comprehension, and severely impaired word repetition and naming.
C) fluent (but paraphasic) speech, relatively intact comprehension, poor word repetition, and impaired naming.
Conduction aphasia is caused by damage to the arcuate fasciculus which connects Wernicke’s area with Broca’s area and produces the symptoms listed in this answer.
Damage to the frontal lobe is least likely to have an adverse effect on which of the following?
A) motivation
B) judgment
C) memory
D) IQ
D) IQ
Frontal lobe damage often has an adverse effect on motivation, judgment, and memory but not on IQ test scores. One explanation for this is that frontal lobe damage seems to have a negative impact on divergent thinking but not on convergent thinking which is what is measured by standard IQ tests
________ spend the greatest proportion of their sleep time in REM sleep.
A) Infants
B) Children
C) Adolescents
D) Older adults
A) Infants
Infants spend about 16 to 20 hours each day sleeping, with about 50% of this time in REM sleep. The proportion of REM sleep drops to about 25% by age five and continues at that level during the rest of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood
Implicit memories are recorded and recalled without conscious effort. These memories are stored in which of the following areas of the brain?
A) cerebellum and basal ganglia
B) hippocampus and prefrontal cortex
C) cerebellum and hippocampus
D) thalamus and prefrontal cortex
A) cerebellum and basal ganglia
Knowing that implicit memories include memories of learned skills and actions (procedural memory) and conditioned responses would have helped you identify the cerebellum and basal ganglia as the correct answer since these areas of the brain mediate motor responses.
Which of the following theories proposes (a) that emotions are due to a combination of physiological arousal in response to an external event and cognitive attributions for that arousal and (b) that physiological arousal is similar for all emotions and that differences in the experience of emotions is due to differences in the attributions.
A) James-Lange
B) Schachter-Singer
C) Cannon-Bard
D) Lazarus-Papez
B) Schachter-Singer
According to Schachter and Singer’s cognitive arousal theory (also known as two-factor theory), the experience of emotion is the result of physiological arousal elicited by an event followed by an attribution (“cognitive label”) for that arousal.
The James-Lange theory (answer A) proposes that exposure to an event causes a physiological reaction that, in turn, is perceived as an emotion and that the physiological states associated with different emotions are distinct from one another.
Like the Schachter-Singer theory, Cannon-Bard theory (answer C) views all emotions as involving similar physiological arousal, but it proposes that the physiological reaction and subjective emotional reaction to an event occur simultaneously and independently.
There is no Lazarus-Papez theory (answer D), but Lazarus developed the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion which predicts that physiological arousal follows the cognitive appraisal of an event and Papez was among the first to link emotions to specific areas of the brain.
Pramipexole and ropinirole are ____________ that are used to treat restless leg syndrome.
A) serotonin agonists
B) serotonin antagonists
C) dopamine agonists
D) dopamine antagonists
C) dopamine agonists
Pramipexole and ropinirole are two of the dopamine agonists that are used to treat restless leg syndrome and Parkinson’s disease.
When one parent has a single autosomal dominant gene for Huntington’s disease, this means that:
A) 25% of that parent’s biological children are likely to have that disease.
B) 50% of that parent’s biological children are likely to have that disease.
C) each biological child of that parent has a 50% chance of having that disease.
D) each biological child of that parent has a 100% chance of having that disease.
C) each biological child of that parent has a 50% chance of having that disease.
Huntington’s disease is caused by a single autosomal dominant gene and, when one parent has that gene with a corresponding normal gene, this means that there’s a 50% chance that each of the biological children of that parent will inherit the defective gene. In other words, there’s a 50% chance that each child will inherit the defective gene and a 50% chance that he/she will inherit the normal gene. It’s not possible to predict what percent of the parent’s children will inherit the defective gene, which is why answers A and B can be eliminated: All of the children, some of the children, or none of the children might inherit that gene.
Which of the following neuroimaging techniques is most useful for distinguishing between neurocognitive disorder due to Alzheimer’s disease and other neurocognitive disorders?
A) MRI
B) CT
C) fMRI
D) FDG-PET
D) FDG-PET
Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is the most commonly used radioactive tracer in PET imaging, and FDG-PET provides information on glucose metabolism in the brain. Because different subtypes of neurocognitive disorder produce distinct patterns of glucose metabolism, FDG-PET can help clinicians distinguish between different disorders – for example, between neurocognitive disorder due to Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal neurocognitive disorder.
Which of the following is true about the pharmacological treatment of major depressive disorder?
A) SSRIs and SNRIs are both considered first-line pharmacological treatments.
B) SSRIs are considered first-line pharmacological treatments and SNRIs are prescribed only when SSRIs have been ineffective.
C) SNRIs are considered first-line pharmacological treatments and SSRIs are prescribed only when SNRIs have been ineffective.
D) SSRIs are considered first-line pharmacological treatments and SNRIs are prescribed only when neuropathic pain is comorbid with depression.
A) SSRIs and SNRIs are both considered first-line pharmacological treatments.
The SSRIs and SNRIs are both generally viewed as first-line pharmacological treatments for major depressive disorder. SNRIs are more effective than SSRIs when neuropathic pain is comorbid with depression, but answer D can be eliminated because SNRIs aren’t prescribed only in this situation.
The distribution of scores obtained by 200 college undergraduates on an introductory psychology final exam is positively skewed. If the scores obtained by these students are converted to percentile ranks, the resulting distribution will be:
A. normally shaped.
B. positively skewed.
C. flat (rectangular).
D. leptokurtic.
C. flat (rectangular).
Answer C is correct. Percentile rank distributions are always flat regardless of the shape of the raw score distribution because percentile ranks are evenly distributed throughout the range of scores: The same number of scores fall between the percentile ranks of 1 and 10, 11 and 20, 21 and 30, etc.
