the brain and neuropshychology Flashcards
what are receptors?
pars of neurons that bind to neurotransmitters.
what are neurotransmitters?
chemicals fond within the nervous system that pass messages from one neuron to another.
what is a terminal button?
a end of a neuron.
what are vesicles?
small sacs containing neurotransmitters.
what is a synapse?
the gap between two neurons.
what is a synaptic transmission?
the process where neurotransmitters are released from neurons into the synaptic gap then received again.
what is the central nervous system (CNS)?
the brain and spinal cord which relays messages from the brain to the rest of the body to give instructions.
what is the peripheral nervous system (PNS)?
the system of nerves that connect to the central nervous system to the skin, muscles and organs.
what is the role of dopamine?
plays the role in attention and concetration.
whats is the role of serotonin?
plays a role in mood, not enough of this can make people depressed.
what is the role of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)?
plays a role in calming us down.
what is the asymmetrical function?
the left and right hemisphere/ each participate in different aspects of the brain function.
what does the right hemisphere control?
attention, memory, reasoning and problem solving.
what does the left hemisphere control?
speech, comprehension, arithmetic and writing.
what does the left hemisphere contain?
the broca’s area
what is the broca’s area?
the region of the brain that contains neurons involved in speech and language formation.
what is neurological damage?
the injury or impairment of any part of the nervous system.
what is visual agnosia?
when people can’t recognize common objects e.g. damage to the frontal lobe.
what is prosopagnosia?
when you don’t develop the ability to recognize faces e.g. brain damage.
what is the pre-frontal cortex?
when patients tend to preform poorly on tasks that require the use of LT strategies and inhibition of impulses.
what does the occipital lobe do?
process images from your eyes and link that information with images stored in your memory.
what does the temporal lobe do?
it manages your mood/emotions.
what does the parietal lobe do?
it interprets sensory information, such as taste, temperature and touch.
what does the frontal lobe do?
it controls thinking, planning, organizing, problem solving, short term memory and memory.
where was Phineas Gage working at the time of his accident?
a railway road.
how did the tamping rod go through his head?
it entered through his left cheek, passed behind his left eye and came out his forehead.
what were the aims of the Damsio et al’s (1994) study?
to identify if any other areas other than the frontal lobe have been damaged in the accident.
what were some weaknesses of the Damsio et al’s study?
-lack generalisability
-low validity and reliability because they were guessing
what were some strengths of the Damsio et al’s study?
-can be used to treat similar injurys
-has high validity and uses scientific techniques.
how many different entry and exits points did they match of the rod?
-20 different entry points
-16 exit points
what was the Damsio et al’s study procedure?
-pics and measurements of Gage’s skull
-3D replica model of Gage’s skull
-measured the rod and compared it to parts of the skull that were damaged
-matched 20 entry pints, 16 exit points
-used the replica model to map out which areas would have been damaged in each case
what were the results of the Damsio et al’s study?
-iron bar past through left eye socket and upwards through the head. -all of the damage occurred in the frontal lobe.
-brocu’s area was undamaged
-motor cortices were undamaged
-ventronmedial region of both frontal lobes were damaged, whilst saving the dorsolateral region.
what is the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex responsible for?
its responsible for the abilities that Gage has difficulties with.
what is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex involved in?
its involved with the intact abilities.
what is a post mortem?
an examination of a body after death, often to work out how or why the person died.
what were the aims of Sperry’s (1968) study?
Sperry was interested to investigate how the ‘‘split brain’’ worked compared to a ‘‘normal brain’’.
what were some weaknesses of Sperry’s study?
-lacks reliability and generalisability as only 11 patients did it.
-lacks mundane realism as the tasks were artificial.
what were some strengths of Sperry’s study?
-high reliability as the data was rich and detailed across 6 procedures.
-the design of the study was consistent for every patient.
-clear comparisons.
