Biopsychology
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Biopsychology - Leaderboard
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| 🇬🇧 | 🇬🇧 |
| What is the sensory neuron? | They carry messages from the PNs to the CNS. They have long dendrites and short axons. |
| What is a relay neuron? | These connect the sensory neurons to the motor neurons or other relay neurons. they have short dendrites and short axons. |
| How big is a neuron? | Neurons vary in size from less than a millimeter to up to a meter long, |
| What is the cell body and dendrites ? | The cell body includes a nucleus, which contains the genetic material of the cell. Branchlike structures called dendrites protrude from the cell body. These carry nerve impulses from neighbouring neurons towards the cell body. |
| What is the axon? | The axon carries the impulses away from the cell body down the length of the neuron. The axon is covered in a fatty layer of myelin sheath that protects. The axon and speeds up electrical transmission of the impulse. |
| What and why is the myelin sheath segmented? | If the myelin sheath was continuous this would have the reverse effect and slow down the electrical impulse. Thus, the myelin sheath is segmented by gaps called nodes of Ranvier. |
| What happens to the transmisstons after the myelin sheath? | These speed up the transmission of the impulse by forcing it to ‘jump’ across the gaps along the axon. At the end of the axon are terminal buttons that communicate with the next neuron in the chain across a gap known as the synapse. |
| What charge is the neuron at resting state? | Negativley charged comapred to the ouside |
| How does a action potential occur and what does it create? | When a neuron is activated by a stimulus, the inside of the cell becomes positively charged for a split second causing an action potential to occur. This creates an electrical impulse that travels down the axon towards the end of the neuron. |
| What are neurotransmitters? | Chemicals that diffuse across the synapse to the next neuron in the chain. |
| What happens to the neurotransmitters (the journey)? | Once a neurotransmitter crosses the gap, it is taken up by the postsynaptic receptor site on the dendrites of the next neuron Here, the chemical message is converted back into an electrical impulse and the process of transmission begins again in this other neuron. |
| What does each neurotransmitter have in structure? | Specific molecular strucutre fits perfectly into the postsynaptic receptor site. |
| What is acetylcholine? | Is found at each point where a motor neuron meets a muscle, and upon its release, it will cause muscles to contract. |
| What is excitation? | Causes excitation of the postsynaptic neuron by increasing its positive charge and making it more likely to fire. Eg: adrenaline |
| What is inhibition? | Causes inhibition in receiving neuron, resulting in the neuron becoming more negatively charged and less likely to fire. Eg: Serotonin |
| What is the nervous system made up of? | The peripheral nervous system: Transmits messages via millions of nerve cells to and from the CNS The central nervous system: made up of the brain and the center of all awarenss, the spinal cord |
| What is the brain responsible for? | Higher mental functions. Conscious awareness |
| What is the spine for? | Extension of the brain, passes messages to and from the brain. Connects to the PNS, involved in reflexes |
| What is somatic? | Governs muscles movements and receives sensory information |
| What is autosomatic? | Governs vital functions in the body eg: breathing, heart rate and digestion |
| Example of sympatheic state and parasympathtic state? | Fight or flight Rest and digest |
| 6 charactersitics of the sympathetic state? | Increase heart rate Increases breathing rate Inhibits saliva production Contracts rectum Inhibits digestion Dilates pupils |
| 6 charactersitics of parasympathic state? | Decrease heart rate Decrease breathing rate Simulates saliva Relaxes rectum Stimulates digestion Constricts pupils |
| How does the sympathtic and parasympathetic state work together? | They work together antagonistically (oppose each other) |
| What is the endocrine system? | Work alonside the nervous sytem to control vital finctions - acts more solwy but has widespread and powerful effects. Seen with glands in the body like thyroid gland |
| What do hormones do and how do they work? | Hormones are secreted into the bloodstream and affect any cell in the body that has a receptor for that particular hormone. |
| What does the adrenal gland produce? | Adrenaline |
| Where is the pituitary gland and function? | Found in the brain and is said to be the boss. |
| What does the thyroid gland do? | Make energy for food and there are 4 parathyroid glands which controls calcium |
| What are the 2 reproductive glands? | Testes and ovaries |
| What produces hormones? | Glands |
| What happens when adrenaline is released? | Increased heart and respiration rate - necessary for fight or flight |
| What happens first when encountering a threatening stimulus? | Firstly, the hypothalamus activates the pituitary gland to activate changes in the Autonomic nervous System. The ANS changes from its normal resting state (the parasympathetic state) to being physiologically aroused (sympathetic state). |
| What does this trigger the release of? | Adrenaline from the adrenal medulla gland. |
| What happens when the threat subsides? | The parasympathetic nervous system returns the body to its natural state. |
| What is the chronic/long term stress called? | The HPA axis (Hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal) |
| What happens when the brain continues to perceive something as threatening? | Second system kicks in, the initial surge of adrenaline subsides, the hypothalamus activates a stress response system called the HPA axis. |
| What does the hypothalamus do in continued threat? | The hypothalamus releases a chemical messenger called corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) |
| What does CRH do for the pituitary gland? | Causes it to secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) |
| What does ACTH do to the adrenal glands? | Stimulates it - eleases stress hormones called cortisol |
| What does cortisol do? | Releasing stored glucose from the liver (for energy) and controlling swelling after an injury. The immune system is suppressed while this happens. |
| Weakness of flight or fight? | -Some psychologist suggest that there is a inital 'freeze' response -Gary suggests that the first reponse to danger is to avoid confrontation, which is demonstrated by freeze response -During the freeze response human and animlas are hyper-viligant, they analyse the situation to decide the best course of action for the threat -Limited explanation |
| Weakness of fight or flight syndrome? | -Useful survival mechanims for ancestors who actually faced predators, modern day life doesn't really require intense biological response -The stressors of modern day life can repeatldy active the fight or flight repsosne, can have negaative consequences on our health -Eg: humans that face a lot of stress and continually activate the sympatheic nervous sytem, continually incresaes their blood pressure which can damage thier blood vessesl and heart disease -Suggests its malaptive response to modern-day life. |
| Weakness of fight or flight? | -Seen as a typially a male resposne, recent research suggests that females adopt a 'tend and befrined' response to stressful/dangerous situations -Taylor et al said women are more likely to protect their offspring (tend) and form alliances with other women (befriend), rather than fight or flee -Fight of lfihgt response might be counterinutuitve for women, as running can be seen as a sign fo weakness and put offspring at risk -Gender bias |
| A weakness of fight or flight? | -The explanation of responding to stress in research suggest that there may sex differences -Eg: Lee and Harley found that males possess the SRY gene (exclusive to Y chromosome) which is thought to promote aggressive behaviour -Significant bc it would suggest men are more likely to have a fight or flight resposne. The absence of this gene in females would suggest that their behaviour is likley to be different when responding to stress -Suggesting that there may not be one genetic human stress reponse and that there are differences between biological sex. |
| What is the holistic theory? | All parts of the brain were involved in the processing of thought and action |
| What is localisation of function? | Different parts of the brain perform different tasks and are involved with different parts of the body |
| How does Phineas Gage support this? | The part of the brain that was damaged in the accident was the area in the frontal cortex associated with planning, reasoning and control - Gage’s personality changed from him being mild-mannered to rude and hostile. |
| What does the right and left side of the brain control? | Left: controls activity on the right hand side of the body. Right: controls activity on the left hand side of the body |
| What is the cerebral cortext? | The cerebral cortex is the outer later of both hemispheres. |
| What is the frontal cortext? | At the back of the frontal lobe (in both hemispheres) is the motor area which controls voluntary movement in the opposite side of the body. Damage to this area of the brain may result in a loss of control over fine movements. |
| What is the somatosensory area in the parietal lobe? | The somatosensory area is where sensory information from the skin is represented. The amount of somatosensory area devoted to a particular body part denotes its sensitivity, i.e. receptors for our face and hands occupy over half the somatosensory area. Separated from both parietal lobes by the 'central sulcus' |
| What is the temporal lobe? | The temporal lobes house the auditory area, which analyses speech-based information. |
| What happens when there is damage in the temporal lobe? | Damage may produce partial hearing loss. Damage to a specific area of the temporal lobe - Wernicke’s area may affect the ability to comprehend language |
| What is the occipital lobe? | Visual area: Each eye sends information from the right visual field to the left visual cortex and from the left visual field to the right visual cortex. |
| Where is the Broca's area and what does it do? | Left frontal lobe Speech production - damage caues Broca's aphais, charactersied by speech that is slow, laborious, lack fluency |
| Where is the Wernickle area and what does it do ? | Left temporal lobe Language comprehension - damage = Wernickle's aphasia, speech which is fluent but meaningless, nonsense words part of their content of speech |
| A strength of the localisation theory? | -Support from neurosurgery -Used to treatmental disorders eg: cingulotomy involves isolating the cingulate gyrus becuase dysfunction in this area may be the cause of OCD -Dougherty et al studied 44 ppl wiht OCD who had cingulotomy. Follow up, 30% met the criteria for successful resposne and 14% for a partial response -Success of each producedures strongly suggests that behaviours associted with serious mentla disorders may be localised. |
| A strength of localisation theory? | -There is brain scan evidence to support it -Perteren et al studied brain scans to show activity in Wernickle's area during listening taks and Broca's area during a reading task. -Also, study for LTM by Tulving et al revealed semantic and episodic memories are located in different parts of the prefrontal cortex -Now exists a number of sophisticated and objective methods of measuring activity in the bain, providing sound, scientific evidence of localisation of function |
| A weakness of localisation theory? | -Language localisation model has bene questioning -Dick and Tremblay found that very few researchers still believe that language is only in the Broca's and Wernickle's area -Advanced technologies including fMRI have identified regions of the right hemisphere and thalamus -Suggest that, rather than being confided to a few key areas, language may be organised more holistically which contrast the localisation theory |
| A weakness of localisation theory? | -Some supporting evidence comes from case studies -Unique cases of neurological damage support localisation theory eg: Phinea Gage who lost some of his brain in an explosion and his personality changed -However, there is difficulty to make meaningful generlisations based on a single individual and conclusions may depend on the subjective interpretation of the researcher. -Suggests that some evidnece supporting localisation may lack validity, oversimplyfiying brain process and undermining the theory |
| What does lateralisation mean? | The idea that two hemispheres are functionally different and that certain mental processes and behaviours are mainly controlled by one hemisphere rather than the other. |
| Why is language lateralised? | The Broca’s area and the Wernicke’s area are both located in the LEFT hemisphere ONLY |
| Why is movement not lateralised? | Both the left and right hemispheres are involved with movement The RH controls activity on the left side of the body whilst the LH controls movement on the right side. This is called contralateral wiring (cross-wired). |
| Why is vision not lateralised? | Both the left and right hemispheres are involved with vision Each eye receives light from the left visual field (LVF) and the right visual filed (RVF). The LVF of both eyes is connected to the RH and the RVF of both eyes is connected to the LH. The is called contralateral and ipsilateral (opposite and same-sided) |
| Strength of hemispheric lateralisation? | -Supporting research -Eg: Fink et al used PET scans to identify which brain areas were active during a visual processing task. When ppts with connected brains were aksed to attentd the global elemtsn of an imgage regions of the RH were more active -When required to focus on the finer details areas of LH tended to dominate. Significant bc it shows that even in connected brains the hemispheres process info differently -Suggests, at least as far as visual processing, hemispheric laterlisation is a feature of a connected brain as well as split-brian |
| A weakness of hemispheric lateralisation? | -Idea that LH is the analyser and RH is the synthesiser may be wrong -Nielsen et al analysed brian scans from over 1000 people aged 7-29 years and did fid that people used certain hemispheres for certain task. No evidence of domaniant side -Shows there may be different functions in the RH and LH, but the reseach suggests that we do not have a dominate side of the brain that creates a different personality -Suggests that the idea of someone being right or left brained as wrong. |
| Why are there splitbrain people | Ppl with epilesphy had surgical separation of the hemispheres of their brain to reduce the severity of their epilepsy. Enabled researchers to test lateral functions of the brain in isolation. |
| What was Sperry procedure? | 11 ppl with split-brain operation studied using a selt up which could protect images into someone RVF and the same, or different, image projected to the LVF. |
| Why was this procedure chosen for split-brain research? | -Normal brain, the corpus callosum would share information and give a complete picture of the visual world. -Only one hemisphere in a split-brain ppts means that information cannot be conveyed |
| Findings of Sperry about RVF and LVF? | -Shown to RVF, ppts could describe, not in LVF -Shown to LVF, they could slect a matching object out of sight using thier left hand. Object closely associated with the object |
| What is happens when a pin up picture is seen? | Seen in the LVF, emotional reaction like gigle - but pps usually reported seeing nothing |
| Conclusion of Sperry? | Cerrtain functions are lateralised in the brain and support the view that the LH is verbal and the RH is ‘silent’ but emotional. |
| Strength of split-brain research? | -Supporting research -Gazzaniga shows split-brain ppts atually perfrom better than connected controls on certain task. Eg: faster at identifying the odd one out in an array of similar objects -Significant bc the fact that other researchers can replicate similar findings incrase external valdity of Sperry and imprvoes the temporal validty as they are drawing the same conclusions -Supports Sperry's earlier finding of 'left brain' and 'right brain' being distinct |
| A weakness of split-brain? | -causal relationship hard to establish -Behaviour in Sperry's split-brain ppts were compared to a neurotypical control group. An issues though is that none of the ppts in the control group had epilepsy -Significant bc this was a confounding variables, differnece betwen the groups could have been a result of epilepsy rather than split brain -means that some of the unique features of the split-brain ppts' congitive abilites may have been due to their epilespsy. |
| What is plasticity? | Brain’s tendency to change and adapt (functionally and physically) as a result of experience and new learning. |
| What happens to the brain during infacny? | The brain experiences a rapid growth in the number of synaptic connections it has, peaking at approximately 15,000 by the age of 2-3 years old. - This is twice as many as there are in the adult brain |
| What is is called when connections are strengthened? | Cognitive pruning |
| When the brain in a continual state of change? | Growth in early years to change and refinement in adulthood as we learn and experience. |
| What did Maguire study? | Brains of London taxi drivers using an MRI and found significantly more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus than in the matched control group. |
| What is the grey matter in the posterior hippocampus do? | Associated with the development of spatial and navigational skills in humans and other animals. As part of their training London Cabbies must take a complex test called ‘the knowledge’, which assesses their recall of the city streets and possible routes. |
| What was seen with the longer the cab drivers have been doing their jobs? | The job the more pronounced was the structural difference (a positive correlation). |
| A strength of plasticity? | -May not decline sharpyl with age -Bezzola demonstrated how 40 hr of golf training produced change in the neural representations in ppts aged 40-60 -Shown using fMRI scans which displayed motor activity in the novice golfers increased compared to a control group, positive effects after training -Neural plasicity can continue throughout the lifespan |
| A strength of plasicity? | -Seasonal plassticiy occures in response to environmental changes -Tramontin found that the SCN shrinks in spring and expands in autumn in songbrids -Signficiant bc it provides further evidence that the brain is constantly adapting, even throughout the year -Limitation is that it is conducted on animals, cannot extrapolate and generalise the findings to human beings due to being a differnece in behaviour, cognitive functioning and size and structure of their brains. |
| A weakness of plasicity? | -Negative behavioural consequences -Brain's adaptation to prolonged drug us leads to poorer congnitive functioning later life -Moreover, 60-80% of amputees have phantom limb syndrom (experience sensations in missing limb due to changes in somatosenroy cortex) -Suggests that the brain's ability to adapt to damage is not always beneficial and lead to physical and psychological problems. |
| What is functional recovery? | A form of plasticity, the brain’s ability to redistribute or transfer functions: following damage through trauma. |
| What happens after truama? | Forms of trauma such as infection or the experience of a stroke, unaffected areas are sometimes able to adapt or compensate for those areas that are damaged. |
| What is functional recovery an example of? | Neural plasicty. Happens quickly after trauma (spontaneous recovery) and then slow down after several weeks or montsh |
| How does the brain adapt? | Rewire and reorganises itself by forming new synaptic connections close to the area of damage. Secondary neural pathways that would not typically be used to carry out certain functions are ‘unmasked’ to enable functioning to continue. This process is supported by a number of structural changes. |
| What is axonal sprouting? | Undamaged axons grow new nerve endings to reconnect neurons whose links were injured or severed. |
| What is denervation supersensitivty? | Axons that complete a similar job become aroused to compensate for those lost. |
| What is recruitment of homologous areas? | Regions on opposite sides of the brain take on functions of damaged areas. |
| A strength of functional recovery? | -Real world application -Understanding plascitiy has led to neurorehabilitation techniques such as contraint induced movement threapy -Significant as it can improve the quality of life for ppts suffering with limb dysfunction -Showing that research into functional recovery helps medical professionals know when interventions can be made |
| Weakness of functional recovery? | -Nerual plasticiy may be related to cognitive reserve -Schneider looked at the time brain injury ppts had spent in eduction (indication of cognitive reserve) and their chaces of a disability-free recovery (DFR). -Finds shwoed that 40% of ppts who achieved DFR had more than 16 years of education comapred to 10% of ppts with less than 12 years -Suggest that cognitive facotrs can impact biological structures in the brain and how well they recover. |
| A weakness of functional recovery? | -Findings are often significant, but the samples are small -Eg: Banerjee found that recovery from stroke using stem cells led to total recovery compared to just 4% of normal recovery -However, study drew conclusions based on just 5 ppts and no control group. Typical of functional recovery research as ppts are hard to recruit for research -Reseach lack validity, but waiting for larger samples may prevent the development of valuable treatments. |
| What is post-mortem examinations? | This is when the brain of a dead person is dissected (cut up) so researchers can look at the internal structure of the brain. |
| Why do post-mortum study? | -Spot structural abnormalieis -Brown et al found that schizophreina suffers have enlarged ventricles in their brains -Provide evidence for localisation of function |
| What is an EEG ? | -Looks at overall electrical avidity in the brain, picks of signal of neurons together -Electrodes on the scaps, electrical acitivty reocrd to create patterns of waves, looking at arousal and consciousness |
| Why use EEG? | - Useful for sleep studies - Look for abnormal wave patterns - EEG’s can be used as a diagnostic tool |