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Biopsychology Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the nervous system divided into

A

-Central nervous system
-Peripheral nervous system

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2
Q

What is the central nervous system

A

-Brain and spinal cord connections to PNS
-highly developed in humans
-reflex actions

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3
Q

What is the peripheral nervous system

A

-Autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic)
-Somatic nervous system (body)

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4
Q

What is the endocrine system

A

-Instructs glands to release hormones directly into the bloodstream
-These hormones are carried towards the target organs in the body
-Communicates via chemical

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5
Q

What is the Master gland

A

The Pituitary Gland

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6
Q

How are hormones distributed

A

Via the blood stream

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7
Q

Name the different types of neurons

A

-Sensory
-Relay
-Motor

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8
Q

What is the Sensory Neuron

A

-Carry messages from PNS to CNS
-Long dendrites
-Short axons

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9
Q

What us the Relay Neuron

A

-Connect the sensory neurons to motor neurons or other relay neurons
-Short dendrites
-Short axons

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10
Q

What is the Motor Neuron

A

-Connect the CNS to effectors such as muscles or glands
-Short dendrites
-Long axons

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11
Q

What is the structure of neurons

A

-Cell body contains the nucleus
-Dendrites
-Axon
-Myelin sheath covers the axons
-Myelin sheath divided by Nodes of ranvier

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12
Q

What do dendrites do

A

-Branchlike structures petruding from cell body
-Carry nerve impulses from neighbouring neurons to the cell body

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13
Q

What is the nucleus

A

-Contains all genetic information of the cell

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14
Q

What is the axon

A

-Carries impulses away from cell body down length of neuron

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15
Q

What is the Myelin sheath

A

-Fatty layer protecting the axon by covering it
-Speeds up electrical transmission of the impulse

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16
Q

What are the Nodes of Ranvier

A

-Divide up the myelin sheath to speed up transmission of electrical transmission by forcing it to jump across the gaps

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17
Q

Where are the majority of neurons found

A

-97% found in the brain

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18
Q

What is electrical transmission in neurons

A

-In resting state neuron is negatively charged
-When activated by stimulus neuron becomes positively charged
-This causes an action potential creating an electrical impulse that travels down the neuron

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19
Q

What is synaptic transmission

A

Process by which neighbouring neurons communicate with each other by sending chemical messages across the gap (synapse) that seperates them

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20
Q

What are neurotransmitters

A

-Brain chemicals released from synaptic vesicle
-Relay signals across synapse to one neuron to another
-Either excitatory or inhibitory

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21
Q

What is excitation

A

-When a neurotransmitter, such as adrenaline increases the positive charge of the postsynaptic neuron
-Increases likelihood for postsynaptic neuron to pass on the electrical impulse

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22
Q

What is inhibition

A

-When seratonin increases negative charge of postsynaptic neuron
-Decreases chance of passing on electrical impulse

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23
Q

What is summation

A

Action potential only reached if the sum of exhitory or inhibitory reaches threshold

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24
Q

Name the different ways of studying the brain

A

-Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
-Electroencephalogram (EEG)
-Event related potentials (ERG)
-Post mortems

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25
Describe fMRI's
Detects changes in blood flow to show active areas (where oxygen is consumed)
26
Describe EEG's
Measure brainwave patterns from thousands of neurons vias electrodes
27
Describe ERP's
Types of brainwaves triggered by particular events filtered out from EEG recordings
28
Describe post moterms
Study of brain after death in order to link brain areas to observed behaviour deficits
29
Evaluate fMRI's
-Risk free -Non invasive -High spatial resolution -Expensive -Poor Temporal resolution
30
Evaluate EEG's
-Real world uses (sleep stages, diagnosing epilepsy) -High temporal resolution -Comes from thousands of neurons so can't identify a source
31
Evaluate ERP's
-More specific than EEG -Higher temporal resolution than fMRI -No standardisation -Background noise not easy to control
32
Evaluate post-mortems
-Provided early research (Broca) -Causation an issue -Consent ethical issues (H.M)
33
Name the different lobes of the brain
-Frontal lobe -Parietal lobe -Temporal lobe -Occipital lobe
34
Outline the motor area
Region of frontal lobe involved in regulating movement
35
Outline the Somatosensory area
Area of parietal lobe processing sensory information e.g touch
36
Outline the Visual area
Part of the occipital lobe that recieves and processes visual information
37
Outline the Auditory area
Located in the temporal lobe and concerned with analysis of speech based information
38
Outline Broca's area
Located in temp[oral lobe in the Left hemisphere responsible for speech production
39
Outline Wernicke's area
Area of the temporal lobe in the Left Hemisphere responsible for language comprehension
40
What is the debate over localisation versus holistic theory
Are brain functions in specific areas or across the whole brain
41
What divides up the hemispheres of the brain
The Cerebrum
42
What is lateralisation
Each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body
43
Evaluate localisation of function in the brain
-Evidence from brain scans: Broca and Wernick'es area identified, semantic and episodic areas identified -Case study evidence: Phineas Gage supports localisation COUNTERPOINT: lacks generisability -Language localisation question (right hemispheres and hypothalamus), so not just Broca and Wernicke's area
44
What is localisation and lateralisation
Some functions are localised (e.g vision) or localised and lateralised (language)
45
What is in the left and right hemispheres
-Language areas in the LH -Motor areas contralateral -Visual areas contralateral and ipsilateral -LVF both eyes RH, RVF to LH with the same for auditory areas
46
What are the roles of left hemisphere and the right hemisphere
LH is the analyser, RH is the synthesiser
47
Evaluate hemispheric lateralisation
-Research support: Fink et al used PET scans to identify active areas of brain during a visual processing task, when looking at whole picture RH more active, LH more active on specific details suggesting hemispheric lateralisation -Idea if synthesiser and analyser may be wrong: certain hemispheres dedicated to certain task but no dominant RH or LH (Nielsen et al)
48
Outline split brain research
-Sperry (1968) -11 Participants who had split brains due to epilepsy -Object shown to RVF (LH), person describes object, shown to LVF (RH) says "Nothing there" -Oject shown to LVF (RH): cannot name but slect item with hand -Pinup picture to LVF: participant giggles but reports nothing -Conclusion: lateralised bran with LH verbal and RH silent but emotional
49
Evaluate Sperry's split brain research
-Research support: Split brain participants faster at some LH tasks like cognitive strategies (luck et al) -Generisability issues: Epilepsy is a confounding variable when comparing participants to "normal controls" and small sample size
50
What is brain plasticity
Research suggests that neural connections can change or new connections can be formed
51
Outline two researches into brain plasticity
-Hippocampus in taxi drivers changes structures after learning the knowledge (Maguire et al) -Changes om hippocampus and the parietal cortex before and after exams (draganski et al)
52
Evaluate brain plasticity
-Negative plasticity: drugs may cause neural changes (medina et al), phantom limb syndrom due to reorganisation in somatosensory cortex -Does not sharply decline with age, bezzola et al showed how golf training caused neural changes in over 40s.
53
What happens to the brain after trauma
Functional recovery: healthy brain ares take over lost functions after trauma happening quickly
54
What happens in the brain during recovery from brain trauma
-New syanptic connections -Secondary pathways unmaksed -Axonal sprouting -Denervation supersensitivity -Recruitment of homologous brain areas
55
Evaluate functional recovery after brain trauma
-Real world application: knowledge of axonal growth leads to constraint induced movement therapy -Cognitive reserve: 40% recovery for those with 16 years education, 10% for those with less than 12 year education
56
What are circadian rhythms
Bodily rhythms that take 24 hours to complete
57
What are infradian rhythms
Bodily rhythms that take more than 24 hours to complete
58
What are ultradian rhythms
Bodily rhythms that take less than 24 hours to complete
59
What are biological rhythms
Controlled by internal body clock (endogenous pacemakers) and external cues (exogenous zeitgebers)
60
Outline the sleep/wake cycle
-Governed by daylight and by biological clock (supercharismatic nucleus) -Gets light information from the eyes
61
Outline one research on circadian rhythms
Siffre's cave study: his free running rhythm extended to 25 hours when deprived of light
62
Evaluate research into circadian rhythms
-Medical treatment: timing of drugs, aspirin more effective at night for heart attack (chronotherapeuties) -Cycle length may vary (13-65 hours Czeukser et al) so generalisations may be meaningless -Shift work: reduced concentration at 6am, more accidents, heart disease three times more likely COUNTERPOINT: studies are correlational, effects may be due to disruptive social routines
63
Outline two infradian rhythms
-Menstrual cycle: oestrogen regulations ovulation, progesterone readies body for pregnancy -Seasonal effective disorder (SAD): form of depression triggered in winter months regulated by melatonin, circannual rhythm
64
What is synchronisation
-Menstrual cycles synchronised through pheromones, exogenous factor
65
Evaluate synchronisation
-Evolutionary basis: synchronisation may have an adaptive function, leads to shared care of babies -Methodological limitations: many confounding variables not controlled, so synchronisation may occur by chance
66
Outline the stages of sleep
5 Stages occur in a 90 minute cycle: -Stage 1 and 2: Alpha waves and sleep spindles -Stages 3 and 4: Deep sleep, delta waves -Stage 5: REM sleep, theta waves
67
Evaluate the stages of sleep
-Lab studies of sleep control lack extraneous variables e.g noise COUNTERPOINT: may not represent ordinary sleep patterns -Improved understanding: slow wave sleep reduced with age, explains impariness with old age e.g reduced alertness (cauter et al)
68
What are endogenous pacemakers
Internal body clocks regulating biological rhythms e.g the supercharismatic nucleus and the sleep/wake cycle
69
What is the supercharismatic nucleus (SCN)
SCN recieves information about light from the optic chiasm
70
What is the role of the pineal gland and melatonin related to the SCN
SCN passes information to pineal gland that controls melatonin
71
Outline animal studies related to the SCN
-Sleep/wake cycle disappeared when SCN destroyed in chipmunks (Decoursey et al) -SCN transplanted from mutant hamsters with 20 hour sleep cycle (Ralph et al)
72
Evaluate the SCN
-Mammals use very sleep/wake cycles -Interactionist system: research looks at pacemakers/zeitgebers in isolation so approach lacks validity
73
What are exogenous zeitgebers
External factors that affect or entrain our biological rhythms e.g influence of light on sleep/wake cycles
74
What is the role of light related to exogenous zeitgebers
Light shone on back of knees changed rhythm by up to three hours (Campbell and Murphy)
75
What is the role of social cues related to exogenous zeitgebers
Babies rhythms are jet lagged and are entrained by bedtimes and mealtimes
76
Evaluate exogenous zeitgebers
-Enviromental observations: EZ's do not have same effect on people who live in darkness in summer and little light in winter (inuit) -Case study evidence: man blind from birth sleep/wake cycle of 24.9 hours could not adjust despite social cues
77
What is the automatic nervous system
-Governs vitals functions in the body such as breathing, heart rate, digestion, sexual arousal and stress response -Involentary (automatic)
78
What is the Somatic nervous system
-Governs muscle movement -Recives information from sensory receptors
79
What is the autonomic system divided into
-Sympathetic nervous system -Parasympathetic nervous system
80
Outline the fight or flight response
-Sympathetic arousal results in hypothalamus activating the pituitary gland triggering the sympathetic state -Adrenaline is released into the bloodstream from the adrenal medulla -Trigger of the sympathetic if state is immediate and automatic -Go back to a parasympathetic state once the threat has passed
81
Outline the sympathetic state
-Immediate and automatic -Increased heart rate -Increasing breathing rate -Inhibits digestion -Dilates pupils -Contracts rectum
82
Outline the parasympathetic state
-Branch of the ANS -Returns the body to its resting state -Decreases heart rate -Decreases breathing rate -Constricts pupils -Stimulates digestion -Stimulates saliva production -Relaxes rectum
83
What is adrenaline
-Hormone produced by adrenal glands part of humans who mmediate stress response system -Stronf effect on cells and cardiovascular system: stimulating heart rate contracting blood vessels and dilating air passages
84
What are the two main functions of the nervous system
-Collect process and respond to information in the environment -Co ordinate the workings of different organs and cells in the body
85
What is a gland
An organ in the body that synthesis substances such as hormones
86
What is a hormone
-Biochemical substance that circulates in the blood but only affects larger organs -Proruced in large quantity and disappear very quickly -Effects are very powerful

psychology (12 decks)

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