Psychology Paper 2 Biopsychology

Question 1

What is the Sensory, Motor and Relay Neurons?

Answer 1

Sensory - controls neural impulses by using nerves in areas around the body to convert information for the brain e.g. heat
Relay - Allows sensory and motor neurons to communicate with eachother
Motor - Uses synapse and neurotransmitters to send messages to the muscles which leads to muscle movements

Question 2

What is synaptic Transmission?

Answer 2

When neurochemicals are transferred over a synapse gap.

The chemicals are stored in synaptic vesicles which contain neurochemicals. These chemicals start from the presynaptic neuron and cross the synapse gap to be collected by receptors.
Sometimes these neurochemicals are reuptaked by synaptic cleft to keep neurochemicals for later.

Some neurochemicals are more excibatory which makes the synapse fire more often which sends more messages while inhibitory limit the messages being sent

Question 3

What are the endocrine glands?

Answer 3

Pituitary Gland - Master gland that controls other glands
Adrenal Gland - Controls adrenaline in use of fight or flight
Ovaries and Testes - Releases body sex hormones such as testosterone and progesterone
Hypothalamus - controls the pituitary gland

All these glands release the chemicals which are carried throughout the bloodstream to the target part of the body e.g. cells

Question 4

What does each gland release in terms of hormones?

Answer 4

Pituitary - Releases ACTH for glands such as adrenal or testes, if the hormones in the body are too high in other glands the pituitary gland stops releasing hormones for negative feedback

Adrenal - Releases adrenaline for fight or flight or cortisol to respond to stress and increase body protection

Ovaries - produces oestrogen and progesterone

Testes - produces testosterone for body development

Question 5

What is the nervous system?

Answer 5

uses electrical signals to control biological and physical movements

Question 6

What is the Central Nervous System (CNS)

Answer 6

Consists of brain and spinal cord which controls the signals sent throughout the body including the nerves from the peripheral nervous system

Question 7

What is the peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Answer 7

Uses sensory, relay and motor neurons around the body to carry electrical signals around the body, also controls the somatic and autonomic nervous system

Question 8

What is the Somatic nervous system?

Answer 8

Somatic fibres which control voluntary movements of our body

Question 9

What is the autonomic nervous system?

Answer 9

Controls the involuntary movements of our body and also the hormone secretion or body processes such as fight or flight. This is usually controlled by the hypothalamus

Question 10

What is the sympathetic and parasympathetic system?

Answer 10

Sympathetic - Fight or flight which creates a mobilised response of energy e.g. release of adrenaline
Parasympathetic - Rest or digest which is activated when we need to relax

Question 11

What is the motor cortex and where is it located?

Answer 11

Frontal lobe (precentral gyrus) - controls muscles on each side of the body

Question 12

What is the somatosensory cortex and where is it located?

Answer 12

Parietal lobe (postcentral gyrus) controls sensory neurons such as touch through the skin

Question 13

What is the visual cortex and what does it do?

Answer 13

occipital lobe - Controls visual information through each visual field (colour shape and movement) from images entering through the optic nerve

Question 14

What is the auditory cortex and what does it do?

Answer 14

temporal lobe - controls auditory information decoded through the brain stem and the cochlea which sends out an appropriate response when need

Question 15

what is broca’s area and what does it do?

Answer 15

Frontal lobe left hemisphere Language centre - used for speech production

Question 16

What is wernicke’s area and what does it do?

Answer 16

left temporal lobe used to understand language

Question 17

Brain localisation of function a03?

Answer 17

supporting research shows that basic functions are only localised while higher mental functions are not which suggests that these functions can heal based on the extent of brain damage

research suggests that brain communication is more important than localisation as certain cortexs work together to create a response to something

Real life application - aphasia studies show it can damage certain language centres

supporting research Lacks gender bias and supports individual differences - suggests that women have stronger broca and wernicke areas and that individuals may have stronger lobes

Language production is not confined to brocas area alone but other places that can be damaged

Question 18

What connects the brain?

Answer 18

Corpus Callosum

Question 19

What is hemispheric lateralisation?

Answer 19

How each side of our brain controls certain info (visual or language) to process different types of motor behaviour

Question 20

What is Sperry and Gazzaniga’s study on split brain patients to study hemispheric lateralisation?

Answer 20

Understood that left visual field goes to the right hemisphere and the right is connected to the left hemisphere.

visual fields would be seperated by a wall and the patients were told to fixate on a dot in the middle and had to make responses to images shown to each visual field or language controlled by the left hemisphere

if an image was flashed to the left visual field it would go to the right hemisphere however the patient couldnt say what they saw because the right hemisphere cant use language to give an answer while the left hemisphere could

Concluded that left hemisphere controls speech and language whilst the right hemisphere specialised in visual and facial recognition

Question 21

What is HPA

Answer 21

The hypothalamus releases CRH in response to stress. This causes the pituitary gland to release ACTH in order to create a fight or flight response by going to the adrenal glands which releases cortisol and also adrenaline to gain quick bursts of energy for a flight response.

The body relegates feedback so it reduces these hormones whenever there is too much

Question 22

What is brain plasticity as a result of life experience?

Answer 22

When a task is done the neurons and matter in our brain improve which also improves the ability of our brain.
Boyke et al found that 60 year olds would do juggling which would improve grey matter in the cortex

Question 23

How does video games improve brain plasticity?

Answer 23

Research shows that people who played Super Mario every day for 2 months would see improved cognitive abilities and see more grey matter in the cortex and hippocampus compared to the control group

Question 24

How does meditation improve brain plasticity

Answer 24

Supporting research shows that tibetian monks who would meditate would be able to produce gamma waves way higher than a normal person

Question 25

How does the brain recover from trauma

Answer 25

Research from the 1960s on stroke victims found that when the brain was damaged the neurons would rewire to other parts of the brain whenever it could take over another function of the brain

Question 26

What is neuronal unmasking?

Answer 26

wall found that we have synapses that are normally blocked due to low activity within the body which prevents them from firing. The synapses start to fire whenever a brain area is damaged so the synapses can create new connections especially in damaged areas

Question 27

How do stem cells benefit recovery?

Answer 27

Stem cells are special cells that can fulfill any other role for a cell. Whenever the brain gets damaged the stem cells convert into more nerve cells to create a network, encourage growth or replace dead cells

Question 28

What is brain plasticity a03

Answer 28

London taxi driver study found that taxi drivers in london had greater cognitive ability due to bigger grey matter and hippocampus involved in their work

animal studies found that rats in complex environments would have improved hippocampi and improved grey matter

People who played videogames would have greater cognitive abilities in their memory and would have improved grey matter due to playing supermario

Supports both nature and nurture

Question 29

What is recovery and trauma a03

Answer 29

animal studies show that rats implanted with stem cells see growth and repair in brain damaged areas after 3 months

age differences research found that children who are younger would experience greater recovery in their trauma

Supporting research found that people who were more educated especially college level would be free from disability for one less year when they were brain damaged

Nature/nurture debate
nomothetic approach generalises laws and is scientific in its method
free will

Question 30

What is an FMRI and what does it do?

Answer 30

Functional magnetic reasoning imaging
Scans the blood flow within the brain where it needs oxygen to indicate neural activity, when this is tested the participant does 2 separate tasks to show the change in activity

Question 31

What is an electroencephalogram?

Answer 31

detects brain waves and electricity within the brain by using electrodes placed on the scalp
Detects beta, alpha, delta and theta waves which are all active during sleep and other procedures

Question 32

What are ERP’S (Event related Potential)

Answer 32

Very small voltage changes occur in the brain such as cognitive processing within a stimuli where stimulus is shown at multiple times to pull an average

Question 33

What are the strengths and weaknesses of using FMRI’S?

Answer 33

Non invasive on the body
reliable and objective way of measuring brain activity
doesnt directly measure brain activity due to only using blood flow
Ignores the network of brain functions

Question 34

What are the strengths and weaknesses of electroencephalograms?

Answer 34

Useful in clinical diagnosis such as epilepsy
Continuously measures brain activity in real time
lacks detail in certain areas such as the hypothalamus
Doesnt exactly pinpoint the source of neural activity

Question 35

What are the strengths and weaknesses of event related potential?

Answer 35

Constantly measures brain activity to particular stimulus
still processes stimuli even when there is no behavioural processes
ERP are small and difficult to get out of electrical activity
does not scan brain activity deep in the brain

Question 36

What is a post mortem examination?

Answer 36

When the brain activity and brain is examined after death for possible abnormalities

Question 37

What is the advantages and disadvantages of post mortem examinations?

Answer 37

Allows more access and detail into the brain such as neurochemicals
Has played a major role in learning about Schizophrenia
Diseases and damage can cause problems for the brain
Limited as it struggles to measure active brain activity
Invasive

Question 38

What is the ultradian rhythm?

Answer 38

More frequent rhythm that is our sleep cycle

The REM and NREM we have when we are sleeping. This comes in 4 stages where stages 1-4 are NREM signifying light sleep while stage 5 has REM to signify deep sleep. This lasts for 90-100 minutes then repeats itself.

Question 39

What is the infradian rhythm?

Answer 39

Less frequent rhythm which is our menstrual cycle

These rhythms include men’s testosterone cycles and womens menstrual cycles where there is a change in biological activity in terms of days, weeks and months. A womans menstrual cycle is where ovulation happens to fertilise the egg. this causes oestrogen and progesterone levels to increase.

Question 40

What are endogenous Pacemakers?

Answer 40

Called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) which acts as a master clock which controls the other rhythms in the body, this system uses the circadian rhythm to regulate the body functions according to the day night cycle

Question 41

How is the pineal gland involved with endegenous pacemakers?

Answer 41

Pineal gland regulates the sleep cycle by releasing melatonin to encourage sleep by inhibiting wakefullness.

Question 42

What are exogenous zeitgebers?

Answer 42

outside organism that regulates the biological clock by using light to sync the body glands and organs and social cues such as dinner times which moved their circadian rhythm to wake at that time

Question 43

brain plasticity during life experience?

Answer 43

our brain needs to constantly adapt so when we learn or perform a certain task our brain gets stronger by creating new nerve pathways

Question 44

What do stem cells do?

Answer 44

Unspecialised cells that are able to turn themselves into a specialised cell such as a nerve cell to replace cells that may already be dead.

Question 45

what is the a03 for infradian rhythms and ultradian rhythms

Answer 45

research shows that there are individual differences in peoples sleep stages during a lab experiment

research support shows pheromones perform a role in regulating menstrual cycles

research support shows the menstrual cycle influences mate choice - women prefer good genes during the ovulation period

biological determinism
nature side of the debate
nomothetic

Question 46

what is the circadian rhythm?

Answer 46

day night cycle which dictates when we should be asleep and awake through hormones and homeostasis

also dictates our body temperature where it is the lowest during nighttime and at the highest during daytime

Pineal gland also is controlled through the circadian rhythm where it releases melatonin for sleep.

Question 47

What is the a03 for circadian rhythms?

Answer 47

siffre used artificial light which limits the results as it could’ve affected the body clock

individual differences into biological clocks - some people wake up within the evening and the morning depending on what time they prefer to sleep

siffre is biased as he used himself to conduct his research

nomothetic
nature (biological basis for sleep wake)
nurture (influence of environment)
reductionist (doesnt consider sound)

Question 48

How can biological rhythms be disrupted?

Answer 48

Shift work and jet lag can lead to disruption to biological rhythm as it desyncs the biological rhythms which can lead to issues with fertility or memory lapses. It can also lead to decreased alertness, reduced quality of sleep, higher chance of developing organ diseases and would have 1-2 hours less of sleep

Jet lag could lead to insomnia, nausea and fatigue.

Question 49

What is the role of the SCN?

Answer 49

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus - responsible for managing the biological clock by using neurons within the body to sync with the clock

Question 50

Endogenous Pacemakers a03 (including SCN)

Answer 50

Hamster studies have found that brain transplants from an abnormal hamster to a normal hamster resulted in the scn copying the biological clock

Supporting research found that a student in complete darkness had their endogenous pacemaker stop syncing with other bodily functions

Question 51

Exogenous Zeitgebers a03 (including SCN)

Answer 51

Studies from blind people found that their exogenous zeitgebers still allow their body to sync to the light

Research support for jet lag shows the brightness of the lights when travelling would dictate how much the circadian rhythm would move to that timezone

Artificial light studies show that people exposed to a warm light adjusted to dawn hours whilst blue light would be adjusted to office hours

Question 52

Disruption to biological rhythms a03?

Answer 52

Supporting evidence from basketball teams suggest that the win rate of basketball teams would significantly lower if they travelled east and west due to jet lag (culture bias western norms and natural experiment)

Reductionist as jet lag research only considers performance differences