Week 4 - Biological Psychology 3

Question 1

Darwin argued that evolution occurs through what?

Answer 1

Natural selection

Question 2

What is meant by survival of the fittest?

Answer 2

Nature creates fitter animals by selectively breeding the fittest

Question 3

What is Fitness in Darwins sense?

Answer 3

The ability of an organism to survive and contribute its genes to the next generation

Question 4

On average, the human brain is how many times the size compared to mammals of the same body size?

Answer 4

Double

Question 5

How much has the human brain grown in size?

Answer 5

It has tripled

Question 6

The shape of the human brain changes significantly during the first few years of life in response to what?

Answer 6

environmental factors (plasticity)

Question 7

What is Evolutionary Psychology focused on?

Answer 7

How evolution has shaped the mind and behaviour

Question 8

Evolutionary Psychology attempts to explain mental and physiological traits (memory, language etc) as what?

Answer 8

Adaptations ( the functional products of natural selection)

Question 9

According to Evolutionary Psychologists, many traits are programmed how?

Answer 9

Genetically

Question 10

What is a Dominant trait?

Answer 10

Something appearing in all of the first-generation offspring

Question 11

What is a recessive trait?

Answer 11

Something that appears in about one quarter of the second-generation offspring

Question 12

Mendel concluded what (3) things from his experiment?

- Inheritance

Answer 12

Inheritance of each trait is determined by units/factors that are passed onto descendents unchanged (genes)

An individual inherits one such unit from each parent for each trait

A trait may not show up in an individual but can still be passed on to the next generation

Question 13

What does homozygous mean?

Answer 13

Possessing two identical genes for a trait

Question 14

What does heterozygous mean?

Answer 14

Possessing two different genes for a trait

Question 15

What is DNA?

Answer 15

The molecule that holds the genetic information for a cell and an organism

Question 16

Where are genes contained?

Answer 16

In the chromosomes

Question 17

How many pairs of chromosomes do humans have?

Answer 17

23

Question 18

What do Behavioural Geneticists study?

Answer 18

Individuals of known genetic similarity

Question 19

Monozygotic twins share what % of their genes?

Answer 19

100%

Question 20

Dizygotic twins share what % of their genes?

Answer 20

50%

Question 21

Minnesota twin study concluded that 70% of intelligence can be attributed to what?

Answer 21

Genetic inheritance

Question 22

Environment has a decisive influence on the development of what?

Answer 22

The Phenotype

Question 23

What is the Phenotype?

Answer 23

The set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment)

Question 24

What are genotypes?

Answer 24

The entire set of genes in an organism

Question 25

What occurs during Stereotaxic surgery?

Answer 25

Allows a wide range of manipulation of the CNS

• Lesion implants
• Implants of electrodes

Question 26

What is the most used fixation?

Answer 26

Chemical Fixation

Question 27

What is the underlying principle of experimental lesions?

Answer 27

If after the lesion the animal is unable to perform a given behaviour/impairment then it is assumed that the region investigated participates in that behaviour/function

Question 28

What are the advantages of reversible lesions?

Answer 28

repeated measures design

the animal is its own control

Question 29

What occurs to the brain during a reversible lesion?

Answer 29

Temporal inactivation (mins/hours) of specific brain regions by means of microinjections of local anaesthetics

Question 30

What occurs during chemical stimulation?

Answer 30

Indwelling cannula are implanted and injections of agonists/antagonists are made with fine microinjectors

Question 31

What is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)? what does it cause?

Answer 31

A non-invasive method to cause depolarisation in neurons

Question 32

What does TMS use?

Answer 32

electromagnetic induction to induce weak electric currents using a rapidly changing magnetic field

Question 33

What is rTMS used for?

Answer 33

Used for treating neurological and psychiatric disorders including migraines, strokes, Parkinson’s, addiction and depression

Question 34

What are Optogenetics Genetic Techniques

Answer 34

Mapping brain circuits with light

Question 35

How is an Electroencephalogram (EEG) obtained?

Answer 35

By placing large electrodes on the scalp, on the skull (cortical) or deep into the brain (subcortical)

Question 36

What does an EEG do?

Answer 36

Picks up general changes in brain activity

Question 37

An EEG wave is correlated with what?

Answer 37

A specific state of arousal

Question 38

Magnetic Reasonance Imaging (MRI) is what?

Answer 38

A procedure that generates high-resolution images of the brain.

Question 39

What does an MRI measure?

Answer 39

MRI scanners measure the release of energy from water in biological tissues following exposure to magnetic field (radio frequecny)

Waves of hydrogen atoms that are emitted when they become activated by radio frequency

Question 40

What is Positron Emission Tomography (PET scan)

Answer 40

A nuclear medicine imaging technique which produces a 3-dimensional image of picture of functional processes in the body

Question 41

What does a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) measure?

Answer 41

the hemodynamic response (change in blood flow) related to neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans

Question 42

Advantages of fMRI

Answer 42

Relatively low invasiveness, absence of radiation exposure and relatively wide availability