the biological area

Question 1

sperry background

Answer 1

epilepsy- condition where abnormal electrical impulses distrupt brain patterns
split brain surgery(commisurotomy)- treats epilepsy by cutting the corpus collosum so abnormal electrical impulses cannot spread through the brain
sperry thought split brain syrgery patients would be useful to look into laterilisation of control

Question 2

sperry aim

Answer 2

to study the functions of seperated and independant hemispheres

Question 3

sperry sample

Answer 3

11 patients who had undergone a commissurotomy as a treatment for epilepsy from a firm in america.

Question 4

blakemore+cooper background

Answer 4

brain plasticity- your brain adapts according to what you do
hirsch and spinelli: interested in neurons in the visual cortex of the brain and found they could change how they aligned themselves controlling what kittens could see as they grew up by seeing horizontal stripes in one eye and vertical stripes in the other.

Question 5

blakemore+cooper aims

Answer 5

1. compare the behavioural consequences of raising kittens seeing only horizontal or vertical stripes
2. investigate the neurophysiological effect on neurons in kittens visual cortex (brain plasticity)

Question 6

blakemore+cooper sample

Answer 6

2 kittens from birth to 1 year olds

Question 7

blakemore+cooper procedure

Answer 7

2 weeks: kittens kept in completely dark room
2 weeks-5 months: put in striped cylinder for 5 hours/day wearing a black collar
after 5 months: taken into well lit room with furniture to test their behaviour

Question 8

blakemore+cooper behavioural findings

Answer 8

initial reactions: navigated by touch, clumsy, no startle response, no visual placing, normal pupilarly reflexes
after 10 hours: recovered from visual placing and startle response but still clumsy with bumping into objects and following moving objects
differences in vertical and horizontal striped cats: both ‘virtually blind’ to opposite orientation to upbringing when a rod was shaken in front of them

Question 9

blakemore+cooper neurophysiological findings

Answer 9

results from scans showed that visual neurons within the visual cortex had aligned themselves to match the environment the kitten was brought up in, with little to no neurons in the other direction.
this is because the cats had no need fir neurons in the other direction and therefore those were moved elsewhere

Question 10

blakemore+cooper conclusions

Answer 10

neurons change position based on the info they get through our vision and therefore from the environment which means our brains can change

Question 11

the principles of the biological area

Answer 11

our behaviour is explained by physiological processes
psychology should study physiological systems to determine the cause of our behaviour

Question 12

the concepts of the biological area

Answer 12

use of scientific equipment
brain plasticity

Question 13

how does sperry link to the principles of the biological area

Answer 13

investigates the role of each hemisphere(physiological system) of the brain by studying comunissurotomy patients

Question 14

how does blakemore+cooper link to the principles of the biological area

Answer 14

investigated how the visual cortex(physiological system) can be changed by giving kittens a restricted visual environment

Question 15

casey background

Answer 15

delayed gratification- the ability to resist a small reward now in favour of a greater reward in the future
marshmallow test- tested this ability in children by giving them one marshmallow, and another in 15 mins if they didn’t eat the first.the children unable to wait were labelled ‘low delayers’ and those who did wait ‘high delayers’

Question 16

casey study 1 aim and sample

Answer 16

see if people who had difficulties delaying gratification at age 4 would still have difficulties 40 years later
people who participated in the original marshmallow test conducted by mischel in 1960s. casey got hold of 27 low delayers and 32 high delayers (all aged 44)

Question 17

casey study 1 procedure and findings

Answer 17

participants were shown faces on a laptop. some had neutral expressions, but in the ‘hot’ version of the tesk they were either happy or fearful. participants had to press a button when they saw a particular expression.
Go/No-Go task: press button when seeing fearful faces, but resist with happy faces.
high delayers were much better at resisting pressing the go button when seeing happy faces then low delayers. shows that delayed gratification is a stable characteristic

Question 18

casey study 2 aim and sample

Answer 18

to see if there is a brain based explanation for the ability to delay gratification
27 out of the 59 participants from study 1 agreed to take part. 11 low delayers and 15 high delayers

Question 19

casey study 2 procedure and findings

Answer 19

participants repeated gi/no-go tasj while inside a fMRI scanner
when low delayers saw the happy faces they had less activity than the high delayers in their inferior frontal gyrus (regulates behaviour), and more activity in their ventral striatum (associated with rewards)
therefore he concluded that differences between people in their ability to show self control can be related to neurobiological differences

Question 20

sperry procedure

Answer 20

visual tasks: flash objects, maths problems, photos in right and left visual fields
tactile tasks: put objects in left or right hand and see what participants point to/ describe

Question 21

sperry findings:

Answer 21

right side of brains role is non-verbal communication and controlling left side of your body
left side of brains role is language ability and controlling the right side of your body

Question 22

maguire background

Answer 22

hippocampus- the part of the brain involved in spacial memory
in some species of animals this enlarges during seasons when demand for spacial awareness is greatest- suggesting the hippocampus has plasticity

Question 23

maguire aim

Answer 23

to find out if the hippocampus might also show plasticity among humans

Question 24

maguire sample

Answer 24

16 right handed male london taxi drivers ages 32-62. they all had to learn ‘the knowledge’ - placing strong demand on spatial memory. all had been drivers for at least 1.5 years since completing this.

Question 25

maguire procedure

Answer 25

quasi experimental part:
all taxi drivers had MRI scans of their brains which were compared against the MRI scans of a control group of 50 of those on record at the wellcome institute in london.
they were analysed through pixel counting of 2D area of the hippocampus, and voxel based morphomentry- a 3D measurement of the whole brain
the correlational part:
the taxi drivers MRS scans were subjected to further analysis to see if there was correlation in the length of time as a taxi driver and the volume of grey matter in the hippocampus

Question 26

maguire findings

Answer 26

the quasi experimental part:
the only region of the brain with a significant difference was the volue of grey matter in the hippocampus. the taxi drivers had: more grey matter in the posterior part of their hippocampus and less grey matter in the anterior.
the correlational part:
positive correlation between the length of time as a taxi driver and the grey matter volumee in the posterior part of the hippocampus and negative correlation for the anterior part.
this shows that the hippocampus has plasticity, and changes can occur in line with the demands placed on taxi drivers by their job