Stimulants Flashcards
1
Q
In biological terms, what is a stimulant?
A
- a substance that raises levels of physiological or nervous activity in the body
- can be quantified by counts/limits
2
Q
What is paradoxical about stimulants?
A
- a suppressant enhances inhibition
3
Q
What does sympathomimetic mean?
A
- it mimics or stimulate activity of the sympathetic nervous system
4
Q
How do stimulants act as sympathomimetic?
A
- physiological arousal of fight or flight (alertness, positive mood)
- parasympathetic suppression (anoretic effects)
5
Q
In behavioural (psychological) terms, what are stimulants?
A
- chemicals that induce temporary improvements in mental/physical function
6
Q
Why is the behavioural definition of stimulates subjective?
A
- effects are determined by ranges and comparisons
- dependent of functionality of behaviour (alert vs anxious)
- James-Lange theory of emotion
7
Q
What is the James-Lange theory of emotion?
A
- emotions are interpreted from physiological effects
8
Q
What is state-dependent memory?
A
- the concept that memory retrieval is more efficient under similar conditions to memory encoding
9
Q
How do stimulants and state-dependent memory interact?
A
- formation neuronal pathway is aversively affected
- consolidative mechanisms do not show selectivity due to hyperactivation
- failure in retrieval
10
Q
What is the speed-accuracy trade off?
A
- there are a lack of practice effects for previously learned behaviours
