The Brain and Neuropsychology Flashcards
What is the nervous system?
Complex network of nerve fibres and nerve cells which pass info around the body.
Complicated, divided into 2 sectors
What 2 sections is the nervous system divided into?
- Central nervous system (CNS)
- Peripheral Nervous Sytem (PNS)
What is the CNS divded into and what does it do?
- Brain
- Spinal cord
- coordinates incoming info and makes decisions about movement/other
What is the PNS divided into and what does it do?
- Somatic nervous system
- autonomic nervous system = 2 parts
- collects info and send it to diff parts of body
What is the autonomic nervous system divided into?
- Sympathetic nervous system
- parasympathetic
Stimulus
smth thats detected by sense receptors, which nervous system will react to
sensory information
info picked up by sense organs of body and passed onto the CNS
What is the SNS?
- made of nerve fibres and neurons that carry msges
- nerve fibres pass info to and from the CNS using sensory and motor neurons
- These are myelinated (fatty wrapping) -helps msg travel faster
Whats the ANS?
- deals with automatic functions like breathing
- our feelings and the way we react in threat situations
- divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic
Order of stimulus to response
sense organs eg eyes –> stimulus
sensory receptors –> sensory neurones
CNS –> spinal cord –> motor neurons –> response
What is the sympathetic division of ANS?
- activated when we feel “under threat”
- prepares body for a state of psychological arousal during “fight or flight”
What is the parasympathetic division of ANS?
- produces oppeffect of sympathetic system
- allows body return to normal resting state after threat has passed
- allows body to store up energy when not under threat
What happens during a fight or flight response?
- hypothalamus detects threat
- respons by instructing sympathetic or parasympathetic NS (ANS) to act
- ANS switches from paras. to sym. activity and releases stress hormone adrenaline into blood
- Causes more deep breathing, heart rate increases, pupil dilate, digestive system changes to aid instant energy absorption - all so that its efficient
- This state is maintained by endocrine system - releases adrenaline to keep in aroused state
- Once threat goes away, ANS switches back to parasym. division – relaxation, back to normal
ANS=autonomic nervous system
Describe the James-Lange Theory of Emotion
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- physical changes come first when we experience an event and then comes the emotion linked to it
- 2 men suggested a similar idea around the same time, combined their surnames
- our emotions is just us noticing and interpreting physical changes
- If there is no physical change we notice, there is no emotion
Strengths of James Lange theory
- Real life examples back up the theory eg phobias and panic disorders
3 types of neurons
- sensory
- motor
- relay
synapse
gap between neurons
neurotransmitters
chemicals passed between synpase
describe structure and function of sensory neuron
- carry info from sense organs to CNS
- One end of neuron receives info from sense organs, other passes it on to CNS
- Responsible for changing external stimuli from environment to internal stimuli
- long dendrites to connect with cells
- short axons
describe structure and function of motor neuron
- stimulate muscle movement
- carry msgs from brain to muscles
- begin in spinal cord, long axon leads to muscles where dendrites connect with muscles
describe structure and function of relay neuron
- surrounded by dendrites
- make millions of connections between other 2 types of neurons
- pass msgs between neurons on the CNS
excitation
when a neurotransmitter binds with a receptor on the postsynaptic neuron and increases its chance of firing an electrical impulse
inhibition
when a neurotransmitter binds with a receptor on the postsynaptic neuron and decreases its chance of firing an electrical impulse
Process of synaptic transmission
- vesiscles release neurotransmitters
- released into synaptic gap
- some picked up by receptor
- some diffuses
- some go through reuptake - back to original presynaptic neuron
vesicles
sack that holds and releases neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap/cleft
synaptic gap/cleft
gap between pre and post snaptic neurons
What is Hebbs learning theory of neuronal growth
- brain is “plastic”
- when we learn, new connections between neurons created
- more we learn, stronger the synaptic connection for that learning/skill will become
cell assemblies
- groups of neurons that fire together
- more they fire, the more the synaptic connections grow and strengthen
neuronal growth
- occurs as the cell assemblies rewire to assist new learning
What did Hebb suggest?
- suggests that when we learn, new connections in our brain are made
- if a neuron repeatedly excites another neuron, neuronal growth occurs and synaptic knob becomes larger
- during learning, groups of neurons (cell assembies) fire togther, if it happens frequently, neural pathways are developed
- the more we do the task we have learnt, the stronger these new neural pathways become
frontal lobe
- includes brocas area (speech production + language development)
- controls cognitive behaviour - memory, thought, problem-solving, planning
- controls movement - left hemisphere controls right side of body
- If a hemisphere is damaged, it can affect movement
Temporal Lobe
- Wernicke’s area - for language comprehension and production of language, and hearing
- Damage = partial or complete hearing loss
- Damage to Wernicke’s area = Wernicke’s aphasia = difficultly in understanding speech
Parts of the brain (lobes)
- frontal lobe
- parietal lobe
- temporal lobe
- occipital lobe
- cerebellum
occipital lobe
- visual area (colour,shape, distance) - visual info processed here, com. with eyes (also controlled by opp hemispheres)
- damage = right hemis. = blindness to left eye
parietal lobe
- somatosensory - responsible for integrating info. from other areas of brain to form complex behaviours (vision, touch, body)
- if damaged, wont feel pain or change in temperature
- language - words and throughts form
cerebellum
- balance and coordination
- back of the brain
- as we become more experienced and practiced movemnts, it controls these actions = smoother and more automatic
What does Wernicke’s area do and where is it?
Temporal lobe - comprehension, hearing and production of language
What does Broca’s area do and where is it?
Frontal lobe - speech production and language development
What is localisation
Localisation of the function of he brain refers to how certain functions of the brain are associated with particular areas of the brain
Penfield’s Interpretive Cortex Study (1959)
Aim
investigate the localisation of function in the brain
Penfield’s Interpretive Cortex Study (1959)
Method
- brain surgeon probed (touched) diff areas of brain cortex whilst patient was awake
- used gentle electrical stimulation
- asked patient to explain what they experienced
Penfield’s Interpretive Cortex Study (1959)
Results
- Stimulation of temporal lobe = hear a piano playing and could identify the song
- as a control = surgeon would say he was about to stimulate part of brain but not do it, patient wouldnt report experiencing anything
- Another, heared an orchestra when TL stimulated, would stop once electrode removed, felt real
- Boy heard his mother telling his bro some info
- When visual cortex stimulated, they “saw” things like flying balloons
- When stimulated the motor and sensory areas of the brain, patients made diff physical actions or believed smn touched them
Qualitative info
Penfield’s Interpretive Cortex Study (1959)
CONCLUSION
- Findings were evidence for the idea of localisation of function and that the temporal lobe has a strong role in memories
Limitations of Penfields Study
- Patients were epileptic, therefore not representative of the general population, therefore lacks validity because only a small percentage of people are epeiliptic
- Was a case study (focus on 1 person or small sample), Therefore the results were diff for each individual so its hard to make generalisation to everyone. This is because it was taken from a small sample, lacks reliability too as you wouldnt get the same results again
- Ptcps may have found it hard to articulate their experiences into words = difficult to know exactly what they experiences, not accurate
- Ethical issues in a case study = ptcps are so unique, possible to identify them from any reports of the results - this would break their confidentiality
Strengths of penfields study
- demonstrated how certain areas of cerebral cortex were involed in certain functions
- demonstrates how complex memories, like covos, stored in the brain
What is neuropsychology?
cognitive neuroscience: how the structure and fucntion of the brain relate to behaviour and cognition
Type of scans
- CT scan
- PET SCAN
- fMRI scan
How does CT scan work?
- Takes a series of X ray images taken from diff angles around your body/brain
- uses computer processing to create cross-sectional images to build a 3D image
Computed tomography
How does PET SCAN work?
- Work by monitoring a small amount of radioactive chemical which is put into the blood supply
Position emission tomography
How does fMRI scan work?
- Work as the water molecules in the brain cells have tiny MF which can be influenced by the strong mF of the scanner
- they are slightly diff when cell is active rather than quiet
- brain scan only takes 2 seconds
What are CT SCANs useful for?
- Detecting tumours
- blood clots
- damage after head injury
What are PET SCANs useful for?
- Highlight the brain pathways in use
- specific areas of activity
- if there are any blockages in blood flow around the brain
What are fMRI scans useful for?
- Only takes 2 seconds for a complete scan of brain
- enables researchers to explore brain and cognition activity
What division are we mostly in the nervous system?
Parasympathetic division - state of relaxation
Fuctions of the autonomic nervous system
- help us react quickly and strongly to emergency situations
- breathing
- digestion
- its the main link between brain and endocrine system (that releases hormones)
What happens to the body when its in sympathetic activity?
- deeper breathing
- heart rate increases
- blood carries more oxygen
- eyes dilate
- sweat more to cool muscles
- digestive system metabolises sugar quickly = instant energy
- blood thickens -prepares for injury so it clots easily
- brain produces painkiller endorphins
Brocas area vs Wernickes area
Broca = speech control and development - frontal lobe
Wernicker’s = language comprehension - Temporal lobe
Brain stem function
- heart rate
- breathing
- consciousness
Limitations of James Lange Theory of Emotion
- Physiological responses arent specific to emotions - same physical changes in diff emootions like increased heart rate in fear, excitment,anxiety - inaccurate
- emotions can occure w/o changes - anger/sadness, heart rate may not change = people with muscle paralysis still feel
- Lacks validity = not based on research findings from experiments, relied of correlational research and clinical findings to develop their claims
- Cannon-Bard challenged this - says ppl exerpience emotions at the same time as the related physiological arousal
Describe Tulving’s Gold Memory Study 1989 AIM AND STUDY DESIGN
- Explore connection between diff types of memory and brain activity
- Case Study with repeated measures
Tulving’s Gold Memory Study 1989 METHOD
- 6 volunteers injected with a gold radioactive isotope in blood up to brain
- Low risk
- area that isotope went to was measured using a PET scan - measures blood flow to diff areas of brain
- study compared episodic and semantic memories
- Researchers also looked at whether memory was recent or old
- Repeated measures as each were asked to recall episodic and semantic
Tulving’s Gold Memory Study 1989 RESULTS
- 3 ptcps dropped from study because their results were inconsistent
- remaining 3 showed consistent patterns
- when semantic memories recalled, greater flow flow to back of brain
- when episodic recalled, greater blood flow to front of brain
Tulving’s Gold Memory Study 1989 CONCLUSION
semantic and episodic memories produce activity in diff parts of the brain
Limitations of Tulving’s Gold Memory Study 1989
- results only from a sample sample of 6, not generalisable since some got inconsistent results - low validity
- No way to control what ptcps may have been thinking at the time of experiment - lack internal validity as researchers may not acc be measuring what they want to measure
- all volunteers, fully informed, may have been biased and tried harder to make results go a certain way - DC
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Strengths of Tulving’s Gold Memory Study 1989
- Ethical - asked for consent
- one of the first to show how we can investigate cognitive proceses in a living brain
- showed diff areas of brain activity are related cognitive processes
- used scientific methods and produced objective, unbiased findings
- Low risk gold isotope - only had a half life of 30s so risk to ptcps was very small
Strengths of Hebbs Theory
- although it was developed in 1950, its supported by recent research in neuroscience
- practical applications in education
Possible causes to damage in the brain?
- stroke
- head injury
- brain tumour
How is a PET scan used to look at brain functioning?
- they measure metabolic acitivity
- monitor radioactive chemical thats bene injected into blood stream
- Brain cells that are active use more blood - higher metabolism than ones that are inactive
- so PET scan can identify more active parts of the brain
- Diff levels of activity show up as diff colours on the computer screen
Relay neurons carry…
info within the cns
Differences between autonomic nervous system and somatic nervous system
- Autonomic = parasympathetic and sympathetic, somatic = none divided
- Autonomic acts involuntarilym somatic controls voluntary movements
- nerve fibres in autonomic carry msgs more slowly and arent myelinated
Explain how excitation and inhibition are involved in synaptic transmission
- synaptic transmission is how neuron communicate
- state what excitationand inhibition is
Weaknesses of Hebbs Theory
- cant explain why some people require less practice than others in specific skills
- doesnt account for other factors like IQ, genes
Which study had patients with epilepsy?
Penfield
