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Psychology > Biopsychology > Flashcards

Biopsychology Flashcards

1
Q

What 2 systems in the nervous system divided into?

A
  • CNS
  • PNS
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2
Q

What is the CNS made up of?

A
  • The brain and spinal cord
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3
Q

What does the PNS do?

A
  • Transmits messages via millions of neurones to and from the CNS
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4
Q

What is the PNS subdivided into?

A
  • The somatic system
  • The autonomic system
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5
Q

What is the somatic nervous system?

A

-voluntary movements

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6
Q

What does the autonomic nervous system do?

A
  • Involuntary movements, controls heart rate and breathing
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7
Q

What is the autonomic nervous system divided into?

A
  • Sympathetic and parasympathetic
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8
Q

What dos the sympathetic division do?

A
  • Initiates fight or flight response
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9
Q

What does the parasympathetic division do?

A
  • Initiates the rest response
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10
Q

What do neurones do?

A
  • Transmits electrical impulses down the neurone, then caries chemical impulses
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11
Q

What do sensory neurones do?

A
  • Carry messages TO the brain from the sensory receptors in the PNS
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12
Q

What do relay neurones do?

A
  • Found in the CNS
  • Allow sensory and motor neurones to communicate
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13
Q

What do motor neurones do?

A
  • Carry messages AWAY from the brain to trigger a muscular response via the PNS
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14
Q

What is synaptic transmission?

A
  • Process by which neurones communicate with one another by passing the information across the synaptic cleft
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15
Q

What are the steps involved in a synaptic transmission?

A

1 - Vesicles containing neurotransmitters are released into synaptic space (move and fuse to end of pre-synaptic membrane)
2 - The neurotransmitters cross the synaptic space receiving to the neurone
3 - Neurotransmitter binds to receptor sites located on dendrites on post-synaptic neurone

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16
Q

What are excitatory neurotransmitters?

A
  • Nerve impulses
  • The release increases the likelihood of an action potential
  • It is positively charged so something will happen
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17
Q

What is an example of an excitatory neurotransmitter?

A
  • Noradrenaline creates action for fight or flight
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18
Q

What are inhibitory neurotransmitters?

A
  • Nerve impulses
  • The release makes action potential LESS likely
  • As they are negatively charged
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19
Q

What is an example of an inhibitory neurotransmitter?

A
  • Serotonin where a neurotransmitter is released in times of stress and makes us feel calmer
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20
Q

What happens after fight or flight?

A
  • If the stresses is ONLY temporary, after a few minutes the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system kicks back into work to bring body back to a state of balance
  • Shuts of sympathetic branch
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21
Q

What does the endocrine system do?

A
  • Controls vital functions in the body and also influence certain behaviours
  • Acts slower than nervous system but has widespread and powerful effects
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22
Q

What are hormones?

A
  • Chemical messengers secreted into the bloodstream
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23
Q

What does the pineal gland do?

A
  • Release of melatonin
  • Controls sleep/wake cycle
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24
Q

What does hypothalamus do?

A
  • Responsible for stimulating and controlling release of hormones from pituitary gland
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25
Q

What does the pituitary gland do?

A
  • Acts as the master gland
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26
Q

What does the thyroid gland do?

A
  • Produces thyroxine
  • Regulates metabolism
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27
Q

What does the thymus do?

A
  • Production of T-Cells
  • Releases hormones
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28
Q

What does the pancreas do?

A
  • Detects blood glucose levels
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29
Q

What do the adrenal glands do?

A
  • Release adrenaline and stress hormones
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30
Q

What do testes and ovaries do?

A

-Testes produce testosterone
- Ovaries produces oestrogen

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31
Q

Describe steps involved in SAM system

A

1 - Hypothalamus activates ANS to change from parasympathetic to sympathetic state
2 - Pituitary gland releases ACTH (hormone)
3 - Adrenal medulla releases adrenaline into the blood stream
4 - Adrenaline prepares body for fight or flight which increases heart rate

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32
Q

What is localisation of function in the brain?

A
  • Refers to the theory that different areas of the brain are responsible for different behaviours, processes or activities
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33
Q

Where is the motor area found?

A
  • Back of the frontal lobe in BOTH hemispheres
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34
Q

Explain how hemispheres deal with movement

A
  • Left hemisphere deals with movement on right hand side of body
  • Right hemisphere deals with movement on left hand side of body
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35
Q

Where is the somatosensory area?

A
  • Front of BOTH parietal lobes
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36
Q

What does somatosensory area deal with?

A
  • Sensory information related to pain, pressure, touch and tempurature
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37
Q

What does central executive do and where is it found?

A
  • Plans decisions
  • Found in frontal lobe
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38
Q

What does Visio-spatial sketchpad do and where is it found?

A
  • Deals with visual centre
  • Found in occipital lobe
39
Q

What does the phonological loop do and where is it found?

A
  • Auditory centre
  • Found in temporal lobe
40
Q

What does the occipital lobe deal with?

A
  • Visual information
  • Information from right eye sends information to left visual cortex
41
Q

What does the temporal lobe deal with?

A
  • Auditory
  • Speech-based information
  • Damage here may cause hearing loss
42
Q

What hemisphere controls language?

A
  • Left
43
Q

What is Broca’s area?

A
  • An area Paul Broca identified in left frontal lobe that deals with speech production
  • Found this after conducting a post mortem on a patient who could only say the word ‘Tan’ but could understand all other spoken language
44
Q

What is Wernicke’s area?

A
  • Wernicke identified an area in posterior left temporal lobe as being responsible for understanding language
45
Q

What is a strength of localisation?

A
  • There is brain scan evidence providing support for different areas of the brain dealing with different functions
  • For example, Peterson et al scanned brains to demonstrate Wernicke’s area of the brain being active during a listening task, and Broca’s area during a reading task. Suggests these areas of the brain have different functions
  • Therefore it is a strength as it’s scientific, observable and increases evidence of localisation theory
46
Q

What is a weakness for localisation?

A
  • There are individual differences
  • In Bavelier’s study, he found a large variability in individual patterns of activation of brain areas. They observed activity in the right temporal lobe, as well as the left frontal, temporal and occipital lobes
  • Therefore, if the brain was truly localised, we would see patterns of brain activity across the whole population
47
Q

What is a weakness of localisation?

A
  • May be more holistic than localised
  • The brain is so complex that no one part acts independently of the rest, so strict localisation is impossible
  • However, it might be that simpler functions are more likely to be localised in the brain
  • Therefore, it is unlikely that true localisation can explain all behaviours
48
Q

What is lateralisation?

A
  • Refers to the fact that each half of the brain, each hemisphere is not exactly alike in function
  • Left brain = dominates language
  • Right brain = creative tasks
49
Q

What was Sperry and Gazzangia’s research into split- brains?

A
  • Split brain patients are those who had severe epilepsy to stop seizures spreading across 2 hemispheres
  • Cut the corpus callosum which stops this from happening
  • Used 11 split-brain patients
  • Patient sits at table with hands under a screen or visual stimuli is projected onto screen
  • Screen divides left and right halves of visual fields
  • Visual stimuli projected for 1/10th second which is too fast for eye movements
  • Patient keeps their eyes focused on the centre and were asked to say what they had seen or draw what they had seen
50
Q

What were the results of split-brain research?

A
  • P’s could only say what they had seen when info had been presented to the right eye (left hemisphere)
  • When info was presented to left visual field (right hemisphere - controls creativity not language) so they could not name what they had seen
  • P’s were able to point to a matching picture using their left hand (right hemisphere) instead of saying what it is
51
Q

What is a limitation to split brain research?

A
  • There is a limited sample
  • it is not a represented sample due to the fact only 11 participants involved had epilepsy and brain surgery
  • Procedure is not common now so hard to generalise to the wider population
52
Q

What is a limitation to split-brain research?

A
  • There is a lack in ecological validity due to the fact most people don’t get tested in such a controlled way and are asked to do specific tasks
  • People don’t also see things for 1/10th of a second in real life
  • So therefore it doesn’t apply to real-life context (mundane realism)
53
Q

What is a strength of split-brain research?

A
  • The research was highly controlled which means it is replicable, objective and scientific
54
Q

What is a limitation to split-brain research?

A
  • There are individual differences within the sample
  • For example, some had taken drug therapy for longer
  • The disconnection in the corpus callosum was not the same in all 11 p’s
  • Therefore it is not certain of cause and effect
55
Q

What are some overall conclusions of lateralisation?

A
  • Age, research has suggested that lateralisation changes with age. Other research in 2006 found that language became more lateralised to the left hemisphere with increasing age in children/adolescents and after the age of 25yrs lateralisation decreases
  • Plasticity, could be argued language may not be restricted to left hemisphere, research evidence to regaining language in either side of brain after brain damage so suggests perhaps lateralisation is not fixed and brain can adapt following damage in certain areas
56
Q

What is plasticity?

A
  • Synaptic connections can change over time (neural plasticity)
  • It is activity driven, based on experience
57
Q

What is the ‘use it’ or ‘lose it’ rule

A
  • ‘Use it’ strengthens neural connectivity
  • ‘Lose it’ weakens neural connectivity
58
Q

What are the types of neuroplastic changes

A
  • Temporary (STM - Chemical)
  • Long-lasting (LTM - Structural and functional)
59
Q

Explain functional changes

A
  • Neurones adopt a new function after strokes
  • Healthy brain tissue can take over functions
60
Q

Explain structural changes

A
  • Sustained activity of a skill
  • Changes in cortical area, more volume with more activity, shrinkage of areas with little activtiy
61
Q

What affects plasticity?

A
  • Childhood trauma
  • behaviour in adulthood
62
Q

Explain physical structural changes

A
  • Dendtritic branching : new connections are formed due to dendrites forming
  • Whole neurones can form creating many connections in a certain area
63
Q

What is functional recovery?

A
  • Another form of brain plasticity
  • Happens specifically after brain trauma
  • Processes happens fast but repair slows down so needs help of rehabilitation (physiotherapy) to recover fully
64
Q

What happens during functional recovery?

A
  • Neuronal unmasking = where ‘dormant’ synapses open connections to compensate for a damaged area of the brain
  • Recruitment of close/similar areas = opposite sides of brain to perform specific tasks (swaps to other hemisphere)
65
Q

What is a strength to functional recovery?

A
  • Practical application = Maguires study
  • Led to development of neurorehabilitation
  • Demonstrates positive application to help improve cognitive functions of people suffering from injuries
66
Q

What was Maguire’s study?

A
  • Aim was to examine whether structural changes could be detected in the brain of people with extensive experience of spatial navigation
  • Structural MRI scans took place. 16 right-handed male London taxi drivers participated, been driving for more than 1.5yrs
  • Results showed that increased volume was found in the brains of the taxi drivers compared with controls in 2 brain regions (right and left hippocampus). The increased volume was found in right posterior hippocampus
  • A correlation was found between the amount of time spent as a taxi driver and volume of right posterior hippocampus
  • Proves evidence for structural differences suggesting extensive practices with spatial navigation affects hippocampus
67
Q

Evaluate Maguire’s taxi study

A
  • Sample was quite small and can’t generalise to non-taxi drivers but can be generalised to taxi drivers
  • It’s a replicable study therefore reliable
  • it is ethical
  • It has internal validity (cause and effect are controlled)
68
Q

What type of experiment was Maguire’s study and what design did they use?

A
  • natural experiment
  • matched pairs design
69
Q

What are the 4 ways of studying the brain?

A
  • Post mortem
  • fMRI
  • EEG
  • ERP
70
Q

What is a post mortem?

A
  • Analysis of the brain after death
  • Areas are examined to identify structural causes after psychological illnesses patients suffered from
71
Q

What is an fMRI?

A
  • Detects changes in blood oxygenation and blood flow during different activities
  • When an area is more active it needs more oxygen
  • Produces 3D image of the brain and shows which areas are more active during different activities
72
Q

What is an EEG?

A
  • Measures electrical activity in the brain via electrodes attached to the scalp
  • Identifies 4 types of ‘brain waves’ and can be used to detect unusual patterns of those ‘waves’ to identify neurological problems
73
Q

What are ERP’s?

A
  • Event related potentials
  • Same procedure as EEG however ERP are able to filter out ‘background’ brain activity and leave specific activity triggered by specific events
  • 2 readings = sensory ERP’s, recordings you get in first 100milliseconds after a stimulus
    = cognitive ERP’s, recordings you get after 100milliseconds
74
Q

What are strengths and weaknesses to fMRI

A

Strengths :

  • Good spatial resolution
  • Non invasive

Weaknesses :

  • Expensive
  • Bad temporal resolution
75
Q

What are strengths and weaknesses to EEG?

A

Strengths :

  • Cheaper

Weaknesses :

  • Bad spatial resolution
  • impractical
  • Only measures surface activity (can’t access deep brain areas)
76
Q

What are strengths and weaknesses to ERP

A

Strengths :

  • Good temporal resolution (can say when - specific)
  • Non invasive

Weaknesses :

  • Impractical
  • Bad spatial resolution
77
Q

What are strengths and weaknesses to post mortem

A

Strengths :

  • Best measurement of structural damage, gives a clear image as you can physically get in the brain

Weaknesses :

  • Can’t measure function/activity so doesn’t have a good spatial resolution
  • Invasive however person is dead so doesn’t matter
78
Q

What are circadian rhythms?

A
  • Consistent cyclical variations over a period of 24hours
  • Examples include body temperature, hormone production, sleep/wake cycles
79
Q

Why do circadian rhythms happen?

A
  • We go to sleep when it’s dark, animals hibernate when it gets cold = external factors
  • However, if we stay in lab for a month we still go to sleep so there are internal factors
80
Q

What are the 2 types of pacemakers to do with rhythms?

A
  • Endogenous pacemakers (internal body clock)
  • Exogenous pacemakers (external timekeepers)
81
Q

What is the endogenous pacemaker in our body? Explain this

A
  • The SCN (superachiasmatic nucleus)
  • Sits just above the optic chasm in eye and receives info about light
  • When sun starts rising earlier, morning light automatically shifts clock ahead, putting our body in step with outside world
82
Q

How do melatonin levels work?

A
  • Melatonin increases for a number of hours at night
  • Melatonin stays mostly low during the day
  • SCN kicks in again and starts producing melatonin so level rises again
83
Q

What controls sleep/wake cycle?

A
  • Controlled by internal and external factors
  • Internal body clock is controlled by the pineal gland telling SCN
  • Pineal gland stimulates produce of melatonin
84
Q

Supporting evidence for endogenous factors

A
  • Morgan removed SCN from hamsters and found their sleep/wake circadian rhythms disappeared
  • Rhythms could be re-established by transplanted SCN cells from foetal hamsters
85
Q

Supporting evidence for exogenous zeitgebers

A
  • Miles
  • A blind man from birth (lacks zeitegber of light) had a circadian rhythm for 24.0 hours which he found hard to modify, despite exposure to clocks and social cues
  • He had to take stimulants and sedatives to get his biological rhythm to a 24hour day
86
Q

What is research into circadian rhythms and control of circadian rhythms?

A
  • Michael Siffre isolation study for 6months, he kept internal body clock and got rid of external
  • Cave study indicates the presence of an endogenous pacemaker , he settled to a regular cycle
  • But it also highlights the importance of exogenous zeitegebers in maintaining a 24hour cycle
87
Q

Evaluate circadian rhythms

A
  • Individual differences = circadian cycles may vary in both length and time onset, morning people can have a cycle that runs from 6am-10pm whereas evening people that have the same cycle could begin at 10am and end at 1am
  • May not be 2 separate systems = apart from isolation experiments which are artificial, there is never a time when internal and external cues are separated so running of biological clock is likely to be combined of endo/exo exercise
  • Real-world application = chronotheraputics is the study of how time affects drug effectiveness (when it’s most effective to take certain drugs that work for certain parts of our body)
88
Q

What are infradian rhythms? What is the example?

A
  • consistent cyclical variations in physiological processes that repeat in time over a period longer than 24 hours
  • Menstrual cycle
89
Q

Explain the process of the menstrual cycle :

A

1) Pituitary gland releases FSH

2) FSH travels in the bloodstream to the ovaries so it develops a folical

3) FSH helps eggs to mature, pituitary gland releases another hormone called LH

4) Egg is released from ovary and travels down flopian tube to the uterus

5) The hormone progesterone engorges the lining of the uterus with blood so if the egg gets fertilised. If egg is not fertilised, the uterus lining sheds and becomes the period (around day 28)

90
Q

What is the endogenous pacemaker in an infradian rhythm?

A
  • Pituitary gland
91
Q

What are the external influences of Infradian rhythms/menstrual cycle

A
  • Pheromones are released into the air rather than bloodstream
  • They carry messages from 1 individual to another of the same species
  • Pheromones are known to affect mating in many non-human animals as they give off signals as when women are fertile
92
Q

What are ultradium rhythms? What is the example?

A
  • A cycle lasting less than 24hours
  • Sleep cycle
93
Q

Explain the sleep cycle

A
  • Normally lasts between 90-110 mins
  • A night’s sleep involves 5 cycles
  • Sleep ultradium rhythm occurs over 5 stages
94
Q

Explain process of sleep cycle with non-REM sleep and REM sleep

A

Non-REM Sleep:

Stage 1 and 2 = mostly alpha and beta waves, may be very short time, very light sleep, easily woken, heart rate slows, temperature drops, muscles relax

Stages 3 and 4 = slow wave sleep due to delta waves , very deep sleep, hard to be woken, may last 40 mins, temperature/pulse drops needed for body repair

Then…you enter REM sleep = paradoxical sleep due to beta waves are similar to being awake, muscles are paralysed apart from eyes (dreams happen), if woken may report intensive vivid dreams, likely to enable brain recovery

Psychology (10 decks)

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