Biopsychology

Question 1

LoF - What is it?

Answer 1

Localisation of function suggests specific brain areas control specific functions

Question 2

LoF - What opposes it?

Answer 2

Lashley theory of holism; higher order thinking requires multiple parts of the brain.

Question 3

LoF - What observable evidence do we have?

Answer 3

Neurological Evidence such as Tulving’s brain scans for memory stores.

Question 4

LoF - What case evidence do we have?

Answer 4

Phineas Gage - severed frontal lobe; different personality suggests frontal lobe responsible for personality/consciousness.

Question 5

LoF - What methodological refute can we think of?

Answer 5

Lab settings for brain scan studies; weak ecological validity; brain may act differenly in natural environments.

Question 6

LoF - What case study refute do we have?

Answer 6

Phineas Case Study - hard to generalise case study to entire populations.

Question 7

HL - What is it?

Answer 7

The dominance of one hemisphere for certain functions.

Question 8

HL - example?

Answer 8

Language prod/understanding left hemisphere function only.

Question 9

HL - Contralateral flow?

Answer 9

Hemispheres controlling the function of opposite sides of the body, e,g, left hemisphere controlling right arm.

Question 10

HL - Famous contralateral opportunist?

Answer 10

Sperry with the split-brain studies. (1968)

Question 11

HL - Describe split-brain studies: Who, How, What - use example of keyring.

Answer 11

11 epileptic patients who had their corpus callosum split.

Measured contralateral functioning using tachistoscope.

Hands hidden under screen, computer in front of them; stared at red cross in centre of screen.

Word such as ‘Key Ring’ displayed on screen. Joined brain would say they saw ‘keyring’.

Left controls speech: right eye contralaterally controlled by left hemisphere, so they could say ‘Ring’ and draw a ‘Key’ but not put the two together.

Evidence of contralateral functioning.

Question 12

HL - What’s great about Sperry’s study?

Answer 12

Supporting evidence!

Lab high internal validity!

Question 13

HL - What’s not so great about Sperry’s study?

Answer 13

Low population validity - 11 patients who all had Epilepsy, which could’ve affected their performance..

Lab - high control - low ecological validity.

Question 14

PLAS & FR - What are they, how do they link?

Answer 14

Plasticity - the brain’s ability to bridge/prune synapses to adapt to functions carried out by individual.

Functional Recovery - ability of other areas in the brain to take over functions of damaged area through synaptic bridging.

Question 15

PLAS & FR - Shit tonne of supporting studies, give 2.

Answer 15

Taijiri et al (2013):
Rats w/ lesions affecting their neural performance.
Addition of stem cell neurons allowed functional recovery - bridging between lesioned area and working area.

Maguire et al (2007):
Field exp. on London taxi drivers.
Significantly larger hippocampus than control.
Same routes travelled repeatedly longitudinally, bridging formed.
Hippocampus responsible for spatial awareness.

Question 16

PLAS & FR - What refutes Taijiri’s study though?

Answer 16

Ethology - to what extent can we extrapolate animal studies to humans?

Question 17

PLAS & FR - What other refutes can we think of?

Answer 17

Well, Hirstein found theoreticised negative plasticity:

Phantom Limb Syndrome in 60-80% amputees…

Question 18

PLAS & FR is great at a young age but..

Answer 18

Declines with age.

Question 19

BRAIN - What are the 3 concentric systems?

Answer 19

Cerebral cortex - higher order functioning
Limbic system - emotional intelligence
Central core - unconscious activity/primal drive

Question 20

BRAIN - 4 Lobes and their functions?

Answer 20

Frontal - Conscious personality/motor cortex
Parietal - Somatosensory cortex
Occipital - Visual cortex
Temporal - Auditory cortex

Question 21

BRAIN - Broca/Wernicke’s Area

Answer 21

BrOca’s area - Speech PrOduction

WErnickE’s area - Speech ComprEhEnsion.

Question 22

BRAIN - Broca/Wernicke’s evidence?

Answer 22

Peterson et al Brain Scan’s:
Reading/Listening tasks:
Broca - production/reading highlights
Wernicke - understanding/listening highlights

Question 23

BRAIN/LoF - Support for Peterson’s study?

Answer 23

Methodology on point

Question 24

BRAIN/LoF - Refute for Peterson’s study?

Answer 24

Eco validity weak

Question 25

NervousSys. - Break it down

Answer 25

``` Electrical Impulses CNS - brain and spinal cord PNS - eveything else e.g. motor/sensory neurons PNS -- SNS & ANS: SNS - Voluntary responses ANS - Involuntary response ANS -- Symp/Parasymp Symp - Fight/Flight Excitation Parasymp - Rest/Digest Inhibit. ```

Question 26

NVS - 3 Nerve cell types an what it do.

Answer 26

Sensory/Motor/Relay Sensory - senses stimuli Relay - part of CNS, relays transmission to motor (used in reflex arcs) Motor - Outputs signal to effector gland/muscle.

Question 27

NVS - What does the relay neuron not have?

Answer 27

Myelin Sheath - v.short for impulse to travel so does not need to be insulated.

Question 28

NVS - Synaptic Transmission: What is transmitted

Answer 28

Neurotransmitter chemicals

Question 29

NVS - Synaptic Transmission: | Where does transmission occur

Answer 29

Between the pre & postsynaptic membrane: the synaptic cleft.

Question 30

NVS - Synaptic Transmission: | How does it occur?

Answer 30

NTM Vesicles released upon receiving an action potential; fuse with the membrane and released into the cleft.

Question 31

NVS - Synaptic Transmission: | What is summation and how is this relevant?

Answer 31

Summation occurs on the postsynaptic membrane when the ntm's enter the receptors. - Excitatory and inhibitory ntm's released by presynaptic. - A summation is calculated to determine whether an action potential is sent along the nerve. - Excitatory e.g. noradrenaline - inhibitory e.g. serotonin

Question 32

ENDO - What it do

Answer 32

Hormones secreted by glands travel via bloodstream - have long-lasting effects on body.

Question 33

ENDO - What controls it all; explain how it controls the adrenal gland.

Answer 33

Pituitary 'master' gland. Releases hormones such as adrenocorticotrophic hormone, which zips to destinations (ACTH would go to the adrenal glands to stimulate release of adrenaline or cortisol).

Question 34

Give some gland names, hormones released, | functions of hormones.

Answer 34

Adrenal Glands : - Adrenal Medulla: release adrenaline - fight/flight. - Adrenal Cortex: release cortisol - stress hormone/glucose release. Testes/Ovaries: Sex organs release: - Testosterone - aggression, sexual hormone. - Oestrogen - fertility hormone. Pineal Gland: - Melatonin release: sleeeep.

Question 35

BRAINSTUDY: What are the 4 ways of studying the brain we needa be familiar with?

Answer 35

- ERP's - EEG's - fMRI's - Post-Mortems

Question 36

BRAINSTUDY: Explain EEG's

Answer 36

Electroencephalograms: Measure neural activity of brain with electrodes attached to brain. Stimulus given to patient and neural activity recorded. Very fast recording ability. Activity amplified and output: called an Evoke Potential. + great temporal resolution + real time imagery (PET not) + diagnosis of things such as sleep stages successful. - Hard to pinpoint precisely due to all the neural activity going on.

Question 37

BRAINSTUDY: Explain ERP's

Answer 37

Evoke Related Potentials: Same as EEG's but uses repeated stimuli to calculate a mean; able to cut out any extraneous neural activity. ``` +Temporal res. on point. + Real Time Imagery + Precise due to repetition. - Not easy to remove extra activity. - Time consuming to pick out extraneous from valuable.. ```

Question 38

BRAINSTUDY: Explain fMRI's

Answer 38

fMRI's measure oxygen level of areas of the brain; the more O2 used in a location means the more neural activity going on. Provides 3D imagery. + Deeper understanding of localisation due to 3D imagery. - Not so precise because measuring O2 levels in blood AROUND the neural areas. + Non-invasive; no harmful radiations.

Question 39

BRAINSTUDY: Post-Mortem explanation..

Answer 39

Post-Mortem: conducted on brains of the deceased. Brain cut up into slices to observe structure more thoroughly. Structural abnormalities observed; can compare to neurotypical brain. + Used to understand disorders such as SZ: dopamine related structural abnormalities. + Tan's brain (Evidence) used to theorise Broca's area (area for speech production) - consent... (HM did not give consent..) - EV's such as age, treatment, post-m delay.