Physiological Psychology Lecture #6 Flashcards
Language
- Larynx changes location 300,000 years ago.
- More sounds, greater vulnerability to choking.
- Speech gene evolved by natural selection 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
When did language emerge?
over 100,000+ years ago.
Lateralization Issues
Left: language in most person (95%)
Right: narrative speech, map reading, prosody, also language.
Left Handedness
10% of the population
- Excel in visual spatial analysis?
- Top 0.1% of SAT 2x as likely to be left-handed.
- Higher level of education.
- Overly represented at the other end of the continuum = criminals
- 2018, more than 2x the risk of developing breast cancer before reaching the menopause than right-handed women.
- Less lateralization than right-handers: 70% (15% R; 15% both).
Future of Language
6000 languages exist.
-80% have not been documented
-90% will become extinct in the coming century.
-One language dies every 14 days.
Broca’s Aphasia
“Broken, Non-fluent”
- Anterior to motor cortex = impaired speed processing.
- Expressive aphasia.
- Worsens with anxiety or pressure demands.
- Generally aware.
BMF = Broca, motor, frontal lobe
Wernicke’s Aphasia
“Fluent”
- Posterior portion of temporal lobe and by the primary auditory cortex = impaired comprehension.
- Receptive aphasia.
- Impaired language comprehension.
- Often unaware.
- Can occur in those who are deaf.
W = wacky, words, or word salad.
Global Aphasia
Impairments in both.
Learning
Acquisition for new information.
Stages of Learning
- Sensory Information
- Short-Term Memory
- Long-Term Memory
Stage 1 of Learning
Sensory Information
- Information is first processed through out senses.
- <1 second
Stage 2 of Learning
Short-Term Memory
- Meaningful/salient information.
- <1 minute.
- Can support via repetition and chunking (7 +/- 2 Rule)
Stage 3 of Learning
Long-Term Memory
- Short term memories are converted into long term memories = consolidation.
- Can be retrieved across a lifetime.
- Increase retrieval (rehearsal = strengthening of memory)
- Involves the hippocampus.
What is the 7 +/- 2 Rule?
*Can remember 7 +/- 2 things at a time
What are the types of learning?
- Stimulus-Response Learning
- Motor Learning
- Perceptual Learning
- Observational Learning
Stimulus Response Learning
Perform behavior when stimulus is present.
Classical Conditioning involves the:
- Amygdala
- Hippocampus
- Thalamus
Operant Conditioning involves the:
- Positive and negative reinforcement/punishment.
- Mesolimbic and mesocortical system support learning.
- Basal Ganglia - takes over actions as “over learned motor behaviors.
Motor Learning
Learning a skilled task and then practicing with a goal in mind until the skill is executed automatically.
- Moving an action from the conscious to unconscious –> Basal Ganglia.
Perceptual Learning
When repeated exposure enhances the ability to discriminate between two (or more) otherwise confusable stimuli.
- Allows us to identify and categorize objects.
- Prior experience influence your perception of stimuli (attribution bias, confirmation bias)
Observational Learning/Social Learning Theory
Process of learning by watching behaviors of models.
- Occurs via operant conditions and vicarious conditioning.
More likely to mimic models who:
- Positive perception
- Shared (perceived) traits
- Stand out
- Familiarity
- Self-Efficacy in mimicry
- Social Media
- Violence in games and entertainment.
Prosocial Modeling
Prompts engagement in helpful and healthy bx.
Antisocial Modeling
Prompts other to engage in aggressive/unhealthy bx.
EXAMPLE: Bandura Bo Bo Doll–physical aggression.
Mirror Neurons
Type of brain cell that respond equally when we perform an action and when we witness someone else perform the same action.
- Essential Neurons for social interactions.
- Lower number is psychopathy and ASD.
- Brain responds the same way to performing, witnessing, and hearing an action.
Believes to enable:
- Empathy/intention
- Skill building through mimicry
- Vicarious experience
No Evidence for What Learning Types?
- Learning styles exist.
- “Mozart Effect”
Evidence exists for what kind of learning?
- Interleaving/spacing learning
- Writing rather than typing
- Studying in natural light.
- Power nap (caffeine hack)
- Context-Dependent Learning
Interleaving
Concerns shorter periods of time–altering between topics during on study session.
Spaced Learning
Enhances when knowledge is repeated after certain intervals.
Procedural Memory
Unconscious recall of how to perform an action or skill. (i.e. how to ride a bike)
Episodic Memories
Involve context–must be learned all at once (i.e. where you park your car)
Semantic Memories
Involve facts without context.
- Facts for which the context does not matter (i.e. the sun is s star)
- Can be acquired gradually over time.
HM and the Hippocampus
Prior to Surgery: suffered from severe, intractable epilepsy. Seemed to have epileptic foci in both medial and temporal lobes.
Bilateral medial temporal lobectomy.
- Included removal of hippocampus and amygdala.
RESULTS:
- Convulsions reduced in severity and frequency.
- IQ increased from 104 to 118
- Remained emotionally stable with generally superior psychological abilities.
- Also produced devastating amnesia.
When does memory peak?
Age 8
What strengthens long term memory/storage?
Reviewing/rehearing materials.
- Storage is not permanent for a few hour to days.
Anterograde Amnesia
- Failure in explicit memory
- Declarative
- Info available to consciousness
- Capable of perceptual, motor, and SR learning
- Failure of relational learning
Retrograde Amnesia
- Failure of implicit memory.
- Non-declarative.
Strokes
“Occurs when something blocks blood supply to part of the brain or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts”.
Infarcts
Tissue necrosis d/t stroke
Incidence rates of strokes in the U.S.
averaages over 750,000 per year
Risk Factors for CVDs
- Hypertension
- Diabetes
- Smoking
- OSA
- Obesity
Ischemic Strokes
Obstruct the flow of blood.
- Thrombus or Embolus
Thrombus
Blood clot in the blood vessels
Embolus
A piece of material that breaks off and is carried through the bloodstream until it reaches an artery too small to pass through.
Hemorrhagic Strokes
Cause by bleeding in the brain.
88% ischemic; 12% hemorrhagic
Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)
Stroke that lasts only a few minutes.
- 1/3 will eventually have a stroke.
- 50% within 1 year.
Initial Damage in Ischemic Stroke d/t Glutamate Ecotoxicity
Immediate cause of neuron death is the presence of excessive amounts of glutamate.
Decrease O2 leads to neural membranes becoming depolarized which increases glutamate.
- Inflammation attract microglia.
- Microglia attracts WBC that attach to the region which results in CELL DEATH.
Stroke Risk Factors
Age (non-modifiable)
Race (non-modifiable)
Family history (non-modifiable)
- High blood cholesterol
- Smoking
- Obesity
- Medications
- Heart Disease
- Physical Inactivity
- Stress
- Alcohol
- High BP
- Diabetes
Circle of Willis
Where the internal carotid arteries branch into smaller arteries that supply oxygenated blood to over 80% of the cerebrum.
Middle Cerebral Artery (MCA) Stroke
90% of strokes.
- Largest of the brain arteries.
- Supplies most of the outer surface of the frontal, parietal, temporal lobes and the basal ganglia.
- Includes pre-central (sensory) and post-central (motor) gyrus.
MCA Stroke Symptoms
- Contralateral weakness and sensory loss in upper extremities.
- Homonymous hemianopia (loss of visual field)
Left MCA Stroke Results in…
- Speech Deficits
Broca’s aphasia and wernicke’s aphasia
Right MCA Stroke Results in…
Neglect and poor motivation.
- Flat prosody.
Anterior Cerebral Artery (ACA) Stroke
Less Common.
- LACA > RACA
- Feeds deep structures in the brain, frontal, parietal, corpus callosum and bottom of the cerebrum.
Symptoms of ACA Stroke
- Contralateral motor and sensory loss in lower extremities.
- Poor gait and coordination = clumsy
- Slowed initiation (abulia)
- Flat affect
- Urinary incontinence.
Posterior Cerebral Artery (PCA) Stroke
5-10% of strokes
Symptoms of PCA Stroke
- Impaired consciousness.
- Nausea/Vomiting
- Ataxia
- Vision changes
- Nystagmus
Anteriovenous Malformation (AVMs)
Tangle of arteries and veins without connecting capillaries. (1-2% of all strokes)
- Acquired through inborn genetic mutation followed by secondary mutation.
- Variable Size
Damage: compression of neighboring structures, stealing of blood flow from surrounding regions.
Presentation: symptoms onset between 10-40. Intracranial hemorrhage most common presentation.
Depression and Stroke
- Post stroke depression = 1/3 of survivors.
- 6x increase risk of depression 2-3 years post stroke.
- more common in L frontal and basal ganglia strokes.
- adversely effects functional recovery.
- increase risk factors = premorbid depression and social isolation post stroke.
Anxiety and Stroke
- 1/4 meet GAD criteria post stroke
- Less common
Psychosis and Stroke
- more common in right-temporo-parietal-occipito are lesions, seizures, and subcortical atrophy.
- pseudobulbar affect = 10-15% post stroke patients.
- hypmoanic symptoms = 1%
BE-FAST
Balance
Eyes
Face
Arms
Speech
Time
*Tissue Plasminogen (tPA) can be administered within 4.5 hours.
- Helps to restore blood flow to brain regions affected by a stroke.
- After that time, has hemorrhagic effect.
Ingestive Behavior
Correlational mechanisms that replenish the body’s depleted stores of water or nutrients.
Intracellular Fluid
2/3 volume
Extracellular fluid
1/3 volume
What are the 2 types of extracellular fluid?
Intravascular = blood plasma
Interstitial = fluid that bathes the cells
Tonicity
Ability of a surrounding solution to cause a cell to gain or lose water via osmosis.
- Relationship between interstitial and intercellular.
- Solute concentrate determines movement.
Isotonic
equal concentration on both sides
hypertonic
more solute
- water moves out of cells
hypotonic
less solute
- water moves into cells
Negative Feedback Loop
Essential characterist of all regulatory mechanisms.
Satiety Mechanism
empty stomach
triggers hunger
eating
trigger satiation
stop behavior in anticipation of replenishment.
- hunger negative feedback loop takes times to reach the brain (20 min delay)
2 Types of Thirst
Osmometric Thirst
Volumetric Thirst
Osmometric Thirst
When tonicity of interstitial fluid increases.
- Salty foods.
- Thirst triggered by cell dehydration.
Volumetric Thirst
When intravascular (blood plasma) volume decreases aka hypovolemia.
- Causes - bleeding, vomiting, diarrhea.
- Leads to: increased BP, inhibition of water and sodium secretion.
Osmoreceptors
Neuron that detects change in solute concentration of interstitial fluid.
- Located in the Lamina terminalis (anterior walls of the third ventricle)
Natural Dying
Dehydration of cells in part of body’s natural dying process.
IV fluids do not remain in the vascular system instead cause
- Edema
- Swelling
- Eventual respiratory distress
Reduction in eating = ketosis which results in…
- reduction in appetite and thirst
- pain relief
- euphoria
Ghrelin
Hormone released by the stomach when individuals are fasting, or the digestive system is empty.
Binds to receptors in the hypothalamus.
- Activates orexin producing neurons.
- Stimulates eating behaviors/hunger (i.e. stomach growling)
- Increases before eating; decreases after eating.
High Ghrelin
Increased cortisol = stress/anxiety
Low Ghrelin
Decrease in cortisol = reduced stress and anxiety.
Prader-Willi Syndrome
Genetic multi-system diagnosis.
- Experience hyper-phagia d/t excessive levels of ghrelin. Never feel satiated.
Later Hypothalamus and Hunger
- Stop eating and drinking when destroyed.
- Overeating when activated.
- Produces orexin-motivation to eat.
Rats will continue to eat as long as LH is stimulated and will eat double their weight when VMH is removed.
Ventromedial Hypothalamus and Hunger
- Suppression of eating when activated.
- Overeating when destroyed.
Adjustable Gastric Band
Reduced for first 8 months.
- Reduced volume = ghrelin levels drop sooner.
- At 8 months, 53% higher than pre-surgery.
- Not seen in gastric bypass.
Wegovy (Semaglutide)
Augments insulin secretion to inhibit release of glucagon.
- Increased risk of problems with gall bladder, kidney, diabetic retinopathy, depression, suicidal thoughts/behaviors.
Obesity
Complex, chronic disease which requires medical attention.
- BMI >30 (flawed method).
- Increased 2x in adults and 3x in adolescents since 2000.
Pandemic and Obesity Rates
Adults increased 3%
5-11 year olds, increased 9%
Food Addiction
Dopamine level changes resulting in withdrawal symptoms.
Combination of naltrexone (opioid antagonist) and bupropion (dopamine agonist) produce significant weight loss among individuals with obesity.
Sensory and Social Factors
- Experience of eating helps us feel satiated.
- Nutrition value important.
- Increase age = decrease in taste.
- More options = increased intake
- Larger plate size = increased intake
Deficiency in Vitamin D
- Nearly 40-50% of men and women in Denver metro area are deficient in vitamin D.
- More melanin your skin has, the harder it is to synthesize vitamin D
- Concurrent use with anti-depressant support.
Magnesium Deficiency
- w/ stress can increase agitation, anxiety, sleeplessness, headache, and apathy.
- Can treat restless leg syndrome.
- Slow response time to reach steady state via oral supplementation (30+ weeks).
Omeg-3 Fatty Oils Deficiency
Add on treatment for depression (strong evidence)
- For ADHD (some evidence)
Anorexia
Twin Studies: 58-78% heredity. Risk increases with premature birth or birth trauma.
Associations with Anorexia
- Loss of gray and white matter in the brain.
- Enlarged ventricles and widened sulci (shrinkage of brain tissues)
- Inhibited emotional facial expression despite reporting similar or more intense emotions.
- Tissue loss can. be reversed with successful treatment of the eating disorder.
Starvation Study (Anorexia)
- 6 months ate at 50% baseline.
- Loss 25% of body weight.
- Demonstrated preoccupation w/ food, ritualistic eating, erratic mood, impaired cognition, slowed eating/lingering.
Post Study = complained of fat on their abdomens and legs.
Gender Differences in Anorexia
Women ate less post-fast than men.
TX for Anorexia
CBT, increasing eating speed, stimulation of ACC.
Bulimia Nervosa Associated with
- Decreased blood flow to the precuneus (self-perception/memory)–food as a means of distraaction.
- Amygdala activation. Higher activation when eating than control. Stable when eating post-fasting.
- Feedback loop of DA, 5HTP, and NE
Anticipation of binge, consumption of junk foods, anticipation of purging, purging, stress.
Vomiting and Bulimia
Only eliminates approx. 25% of the calories consumed BUT prolonged dehydration and electrolyte depletion = 5x increased risk of heart attack, overall risk of hypovolemic shock, kidney failure, UTI.
