biopsychology

Question 1

the nervous system

Answer 1

central nervous system

peripheral nervous system

Question 2

central nervous system

Answer 2

brain - cerebral cortex is outer layer, highly developed in humans

spinal cord - connects brain to PLS, reflect actions

Question 3

pheripheral nervous system

Answer 3

autonomic nervous system - sympathetic and parasympathetic

somatic nervous system

Question 4

the endocrine system

Answer 4

glands and hormones

fight or flight

Question 5

glands and hormones

Answer 5

hormones distributed in the blood steam

pituitary is the master gland

Question 6

fight or flight

Answer 6

sympathetic arousal

pituitary -> adrenal gland -> adrenaline

Question 7

localisation versus holistic theory

Answer 7

are brain functions in specific areas or across the whole brain

Question 8

hemispheres of the brain

Answer 8

brain (cerebrum) divided in half

each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body - lateralisation

Question 9

motor, somatosensory, visual and auditory centres

Answer 9

each of the four lobes of the brain (frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes) is linked to different functions

Question 10

language centres of the brain

Answer 10

broca’s related to production (left frontal)

wernicke’s related to understanding (left temporal)

Question 11

evidence from neurosurgery

Answer 11

isolation - severing connections of cingulate gyrus - improves OCD in 30% of participants

Question 12

evidence from brain scans

Answer 12

broca’s and wernicke’s area identified - petersen et al
semantic and episodic areas identified - buckner and peterson

counterpoint - learning in rats is holistic not localised - lashley

Question 13

language localisation questioned

Answer 13

multiple pathways eg RH and thalamus not just broca’s and wernicke’s dick and tremblay

Question 14

case study of localisation

Answer 14

unique case studies support localisation eg phineas gage but lack generalisability

Question 15

localisation and lateralisation

Answer 15

some functions localised eg vision or localised and lateralised eg language

Question 16

left and right hemispheres

Answer 16

language areas in LH
LH is analyser
RH is synethesiser

motor areas are contralateral

visual areas are contralateral and ipsilateral
LVF of both eyes to RH and RVF to LH

same for auditory areas

Question 17

lateralisation in the connected brain

Answer 17

global elements processed by RH and finer detail by LH - fink et al

Question 18

one brain

Answer 18

certain hemispheres dedicated to certain tasks but no dominant RH or LH - nielsen at al

Question 19

lateralisation versus plasticity

Answer 19

lateralisation enables multitasking but plasticity allows recovery of lost lateralised functions

Question 20

split brain research

Answer 20

eleven participants, split-brain operation for epilepsy

object shown to RVF - person describes object - shown to LVF - nothing there

object shown to LVF - cannot name but can select item with left hand

pinup picture to LVF - giggles but reports nothing

lateralised brain, LH verbal and RH silent but emotional

Question 21

research support brain research

Answer 21

split-brain participants faster at some LH tasks - luck et al

normally slowed down by inferior RH

Question 22

generalisation issues split brain

Answer 22

epilepsy is a confounding variable when comparing participants to normal controls

Question 23

ethics for split brain

Answer 23

operation not done for the study and participants gave informed consent

but may not have fully understood and participation was stressful

Question 24

types of neurons

Answer 24

sensory, relay and motor neurons

Question 25

structure of neuron

Answer 25

cell body contains nucleus - has dendrites axon covered in myelin sheath divided by nodes of ranvier

Question 26

electrical transmission

Answer 26

positive charge leads to action potential

Question 27

synapse

Answer 27

terminal buttons at synapse, presynaptic vesicles release neurotransmitter

Question 28

neurotransmitters

Answer 28

postsynaptic receptor site receives neurotransmitters from dendrites of adjoining neuron specialist functions e.g. acetylcholine for muscle contraction

Question 29

excitation, inhibition and summation

Answer 29

adrenaline is excitatory, serotonin is inhibitory postsynaptic neuron triggered if sum of excitatory and inhibitory signals reaches threshold

Question 30

psychotherapeutic drugs

Answer 30

SSRIs increase serotonin activity

Question 31

fMRi

Answer 31

detects changed in blood flow to show active areas risk free, non-invasive and high spatial resolution expensive, poor temporal resolution

Question 32

EEG

Answer 32

measures brainwave patterns from thousands of neurons via electrods real world uses - sleep stages, epilepsy, high temporal resolution comes from 1000s of neurons, can’t identify source

Question 33

ERP

Answer 33

types of brainwave triggered by particular events filtered out from EEG recordings more specific than EEG - higher temporal resolution than fMRI no standardised method, background noise not easy to control

Question 34

post-mortems

Answer 34

study of brain after death, in order to link brain areas to observed behaviour deficits early research eg broca causation an issue, consent issues eg HM

Question 35

brain plasticity

Answer 35

research suggests that neural connections can change or new connections can be formed

Question 36

research into plasticity

Answer 36

hippocampus in taxi divers changed structure after leaning the knowledge - maguire et al changes in hippocampus and the parietal cortex before and after exams - draganski et al

Question 37

negative plsticity

Answer 37

drug use may cause neural changes - medina et al phantom limb syndrome due to reorganisation in somatosensory cortex - ramachandran and hirstein

Question 38

age and plasticity

Answer 38

plasticity reduces with age, though Bezzola et al showed how golf training caused neural changes in over-40s

Question 39

seasonal brain changes

Answer 39

songbirds’ SCN shrinks in spring and expends in autumn - tramontin and brenowitz

Question 40

after brain trauma

Answer 40

healthy brain areas take over lost functions after trauma, happens quickly

Question 41

what happens in the brain during recovery

Answer 41

new synaptic connections, secondary pathways - unmasked - axonal sprouting - denervation supersensitivity - recruitment of homologous brain areas

Question 42

real world application of functional recovery

Answer 42

knowledge of axonal growth leads to eg constraint induced movement therapy

Question 43

cognitive reserve

Answer 43

40% recovery for people with 16 years’ education, 10% for those with less than 12 - schneider et al

Question 44

functional recovery - small sample

Answer 44

100% recovery from stroke using stem cells - banerjee - but small sample of 5 people