Biopsychology Flashcards
(187 cards)
1
Q
What are the 2 functions of the nervous system?
A
- to collect, process and respond to info in the environment
- to co-ordinate the working of different organs and cells in the body
2
Q
What are the 2 parts of the nervous system broken down into?
A
the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system
3
Q
What does the CNS comprimise of?
A
the brain and spinal cord
4
Q
What is the role of the spinal cord?
A
passes messages to and from the brain and connects nerves to the PNS
5
Q
What is the role of the CNS?
A
processes, interprets and stores info and issues orders to muscles, glands and organs
6
Q
What are the 2 parts the PNS is divided into?
A
somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system
7
Q
What is the role of the peripheral nervous system?
A
transmits messages via neurons to and from the CNS
8
Q
What is the role of the autonomic nervous system?
A
governs vital functions in the body like breathing and heart rate, digestion and stress response
9
Q
What organs are controlled by the ANS?
A
heart
lungs
eyes
stomach
blood vessels
10
Q
What are the 2 parts of the ANS?
A
sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system
11
Q
What is the somatic nervous systems role?
A
consists of nerves carrying sensory signals from all over the body (sense organs) to the CNS
it controls muscle movement and recieves info from sensory receptors
12
Q
What is the role of the sympathic nervous system?
A
activates physiological arousal and prepares the body for fight/flight to cope with stress
13
Q
What are examples of physiological changes from the SNS?
A
increase blood pressure
increases breathing rate
increase heart rate
pupils dilate
inhibition of saliva production and digestion
14
Q
What is the role of the parasympathetic nervous system?
A
activates rest and digest response to bring the body back to its resting state after stress has passed
15
Q
What are examples of the physicological changes from the PSNS?
A
decrease heart rate
decrease blood pressure
decrease breathing rate
pupils contrict
stimulates digestion
16
Q
What is the role of neurons?
A
Transmit nerve impulses and signals chemically and electrically to allow communication in the nervous system
17
Q
What do dendrites do?
A
Carry nerve impulses to the cell body
18
Q
What does the axon do?
A
Carries away nerve impulses away from the cell body down the length of the neuron
19
Q
What is the myelin sheath?
A
protecttive layer that wraps around nerve cells
20
Q
What are all the features of a neuron?
A
dendrite
soma
nucleus
myelin sheath
node of ranvier
axon terminal
schwann cell
21
Q
What are the 3 types of nerve cells?
A
sensory neurone
relay neurone
motor neurone
22
Q
What is the role of motor neurons?
A
they connect the CNS to muscles and glands
carrying messages away from the brain
they can cause movement
23
Q
What is the role of sensory neurons?
A
they carry messages from senses to the brain
24
Q
What is the role of relay neurons?
A
they connect sensory neurons to motor neurons
25
What causes the release of neurotransmitters?
electrical impulse travels down the axon towards the end of the neuron
26
What are excitatory neurotransmitters?
increase the chance of the next neurons firing
27
What are inhibitory neurotransmitters?
they decrease the chance of adjacent neurons firing
28
What are the 2 functions of the endocrine system?
1. to provide a chemical system of communication via the blood stream - by secreting hormones
2. to secrete hormones which are required to regulate the activity of cells and organs in the body
29
What does the hormone thyroxine do and where is it produced?
produced by the thyroid gland
affects various cells - heart cells to increase heart rate
influence metabolic rate so can affect growth rates
30
Where is the pituitary gland located?
in the brain
31
What is the pituitary gland also known as ?
the master gland
32
What is the role of the pituitary gland?
it controls the release of hormones from all other endocrine glands in the body
33
What is the order of the sympathomedullary system?
SHAM ARFF
1. stressful situation
2. hypothalamus - detects and activates SNS
3. the SNS stimulates the adrenal medulla to release adrenaline
4. response - various sympathetic physiological reactions
5. flight or fight
34
What is the role of adrenaline?
to prepare the body for flight or fight resposne by acting on various organs
35
What are sympathetic responses with adrenaline?
pupils dilates
inhibits digestion
increase heart rate
increase breath rate
increase blood pressure
diverts blood to the brain and skeletal muscles
36
What did Taylor state on female animals studies on flight or fight?
doesnt reflect female resposne - more likely to tend and befriend to protect themselves and their young through nurturing behaviours and forming alliances
37
What is localisation?
the theory that specific areas of the brain are associated with particular physical and psychological functions
38
What is the holistic theory of the brain?
that all parts of the brain were involved in the processing of thought and action
39
Where is the motor cortex located?
the back of the frontal lobe - in both hemispheres controlling opposite sides
40
What is the role of the motor cortex?
generation of voluntary motor movements
different parts of the motor cortex control different parts of the body- parts are arranged logically
41
Where is the somatosensory cortex located?
in the parietal lobe - both hemispheres control opposite sides
42
What is the role of the somatosensory cortex?
detects sensory events arising from different regions of the body toproduce sensations (touch,pain, temp) and localises it to the specific body regions
43
What does the sensitivity of a body part depend on?
the amount of somatosensory area that it occupies
44
What parts of the body take up half the somatosensory area?
hands and face
45
Where is the auditory centre located?
in the temporal lobe in both hemispheres
46
What does the brainstem do to auditory nerve impulses?
basic coding - duration and intensity
47
What were the symptoms of Broca's Tan patient? What was he able to do and not able to do?
he could understand spoken language but couldn't speak or write his thoughts = expressive aphasia
48
What did post-mortems of damage to Broca's area reveal about the 2 hemispheres?
lesions to an area in the prosterior portion of the left frontal lobe = experienced language difficulties
lesions to the same area on the right frontal lobe = did not experience language difficulties
49
where is the visual centre located?
in the occipital lobe on both hemispheres and recieves info from opposite sides
50
What is the role of the visual cortex?
receives visual info and contains different areas for colour and shapes
51
What types of evidence supports localisation?
brain scans and aphasia studies
52
What is Broca's area responsible for?
speech production
53
Where is Wernicke's area located?
in the prosterior portion of the left temporal lobe
54
What are the synmptoms of patients with lesions to Wernicke's area?
could speak but not able to understand language and what they said didnt make sense
55
What is the role of Wernicke's area?
recognition and processing of language
56
What did Peterson et al find using brain scans on the language areas?
demonstrated how Wernicke's area was active during a listening task and Broca's was active during a reading task
the two areas have different functions
57
What is Broca's aphasia?
an impaired ability to produce language
58
What is Wernicke's aphasia?
an impaired ability to understand language
59
How does aphasia studies support localisation?
demonstrates the importance of the language regions in the production and comprehesnsion of speech
60
What study goes against localisation?
Lashley
61
What did lashley find?
intact areas of the cortex can take over cognitive functions following injury to the area normally carrying out that function
62
How does research on plasticity dissprove localisation?
after damage to a certain area = damage to certain function
the rest of the brain has the ability to attempt to recover the function
cases of stroke victims can recover
63
What is lashley's law of equipotentiality?
brain circuits 'chip in' so the same neurologuical function is achieved
64
What is lateralisation?
the dominance of one hemisphere of the brain for particular physical and psychological functions
65
What is the main functions of the right hemisphere?
visual attention and face recognition
66
How are you able to talk about things experienced on the right side of the body when the left hemisphere is responsible for this?
the two hemispheres are connected and info can be transferred through connecting nerve fibres = corpus callosum
67
What is the name of the studies used to investigate lateralisation?
split-brain studies
68
What is the split-brain procedure to treat epilepsy?
cut the corpus callosum and separate the two hemispheres = preventing activities of seizure passing across the hemispheres
69
Who devised split-brain studies?
Sperry
70
What was Sperry's method of split-brain studies? (study 1)
ps were shown an image/word to the ps right visual feild and the same or different image to the left visual field
compared to control group who doesn't have epilepsy or split-brain
71
What did Sperry's study show for split-brains?
the info cannot be conveyed from each hemisphere and each visual field gave different functions = using different hemispheres
72
What was the left side of the brain able to do in Sperry's study?
able to describe the image when shown to right visual field
73
What was the right side of the brain able to do in Sperry's study?
wasnt able to describe images or report anything = the language centres on the left hemisphere
74
What are the strengths of Split-brain studies?
high control
contributed great understanding of brain processes and lateralisation
75
What are the issues with split-brain studies?
issues with generalisability = all patients had epilepsy which could cause unique changes
control group had split-brain with no epilepsy may have been inappropriate
76
How does lateralisation change with age?
lateralised patterns found in younger ps tend to switch to bilateral patterns in adults
language becomes less lateralised after the age of 25
77
How do induvidual differences affect lateralisation?
a persons preffered hand is not a clear indication of the location of the function
78
What % of right handed people had left hemi dominance for language?
95%
79
What % of left-handed people had right hemi dominance for language?
20%
80
What % of left-handed people were bilateral in their language functions?
20%
81
What is plasticity?
the brain's ability to change and adapt as a result of experience
82
Is there more plasticity in childhood or adulthood and why?
childhood = constanly learning and experiencing new things
83
What are the 3 ways a brain recovers from trauma?
axonal sprouting
neuronal unmasking
recruitment of similar areas on opposite sides
84
What is axonal sprouting?
the growth of new nerve endings which connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathways
85
What is neuronal unmasking?
'dormant' (function blocked) synapses in the brain are reactivated by increasing the rate of input into these synapses
86
What was Kemperman's study on plasticity using rats?
investigated whether an enriched environment could alter the no. of neurons
rats in a maze = increase in neurons in the hippocampus compared to rats in a lab cage
87
What is the role of the hippocampus?
formation of new memories and navigational skills
88
What did Maguire et al find on plasticity using london taxi drivers?
found more vol of grey matter in the hippocampus in taxi drivers than novice drivers
89
What did Ballentyne et al find on plasticty and recovery after trauma?
there is more plasticity for recovery after a stroke in infancy and childhood than in adulthood
90
What did Schneider find on enducational attainment and functional recovery?
people with the equivalent of a college education are X7 more likely to be disability-free 1 yr after a traumatic brain injury due to forming many neural adaptations
91
What are the 4 ways you can study the brain?
fMRI
EEG
ERP
post-mortems
92
What does an fMRI do?
detects the changes in blood oxygenation and flow that is a result of neural activity
93
What happens in terms of oxygen in the brain when the brain is active?
when active the specific area of the brain consumes more O2 to meet its demands
blood flow is directed to the active area
94
What are the good things of fMRI?
doesnt use radiation - non-invasive and mostly risk-free
images have high resolution
95
What are the issues using fMRIs?
expensive
person must stay still for a clear image
poor temporal resolution
can only measure blood flow and not the direct activity of the brain - can confuse different activities
96
what is temporal resolution?
there is a lag time behind the image on the screen and the initial firing of the image
97
How do EEGs study the brain?
meaures electrical activity via electrodes attached to the induviduals head using a skull cap
98
What does the recordings from an EEG represent?
brainwave patterns generated from the action of neurons
detects arrythmic patterns that may indicate neurological abnormalities
99
What are the good things with using EEGs?
invaluble in diagnosis of conditions
high temporal resolution
can accurately detect brain activity
100
What are the issues with EEGs?
the info is generalised
it is not useful for pinpointing the exact source of neural activities
101
What is an ERP for studying the brain?
electrodes are attached to the scalp with a stimulus presented to the patient - researcher identifies brain activities linked to the stimulus
102
What are the good things of using ERPs?
more specificity to the measurement of neural processes
high temporal resolution
involved in the allocation of attentional resources and maintenance of working memory
103
What are the issues with using ERPs?
lack of standardisation in methodology
background noise and EVs must be completely eliminated
104
How is a post-mortem used to investigate the brain?
induvidual was likely to have a rare disorder and experienced unusual deficits
the areas of damage aren examined and compared to a neurotypical brain
105
What are the good things of using post-mortems to study the brain?
provided a foundation for early understanding = Broca and wernicke
improves medical knowledge and generate hypotheses
106
What are the issues with using post-mortems?
causation is an issue
obseved damage may not be linked to neural deficits - other unrelated trauma or decay
ethical issues of consent
107
What is a biological rhythm?
changes in biological activity that show regular cyclical variation over time
108
What is a circadian rhythem?
changes in bio activity that show regular cyclical variation over time of 24hrs
109
What are examples of circadian rhythms?
temperature
sleep-wake cycle
hormone production
110
What is an infradian rhythem?
changes in bio activity that show regular cyclical variation over a time period over 24 hrs
111
What is an example of an infradian rhythem?
menstrual cycle
112
What is an ultradian rhythem?
changes in bio activity that show regular cyclical variation over time less than 24hrs
113
What is an example of an ultradian rhythem?
the stages of sleep
114
What are endogenous pacemakers?
internal body clocks that are created from within, they help regulate and control other systems
115
What is an example of an endogenous pacemaker?
the superchiasmatic nucleus in the brain
116
What are exogenous zeitgebers?
external cues from outside the body which are important in maintaining bodily rhythems
117
What are examples of exogenous zeitgebers?
light and social cues
118
What was Siffres study on circadian rhythems?
spent 6 months inside a cave with no EZs like natural light and time
had contact with the outside world via a telephone but he didnt know the time
researchers montiored behaviours like sleep
researchers controlled lights to wake siffre up
119
What were the 2 findings of Siffre's study?
his sleep-wake cycle was erratic at first but settled to 25hrs regular cycle
when he emerged on the 179th day, he thought it was the 151st
120
What did morgan and silver do to investigate the superchiasmatic nucleus' role?
removed the SCN from the hamsters = the circadian rhythems disappeared
transplanted SCN tissue from hamster foetuses and the circadian rhythems were re-established
also has SCN tissue transplanted from mutant hamsters - they took on their circadian rhythems of the donor
121
What was a mutant hamster in morgan and silver's study?
hamsters which has been bred to have longer or shorter circadian rhythems
122
What does morgan and silvers study show about the SCN?
it is a vital endogenous pacemaker and responsible for controlling circadian rhythems
123
What is the medical prac apps for research on circadian rhythems?
important for timing taking bloods and urine tests and for taking drugs
important for chronotherapeutics and pharacokinetics
124
What is chronotherapeutics?
the study of how timing affects drug treatments as there are certain peak times when drugs are most effective
125
What are the prac apps of shift work from research of circadian rhythems?
shift patter of days --> evenings --> nights = the staff had many health problems like heart disease, sleeping difficulties and work-related stress
3 week rotation for 9 months = greater improvement in job satisfaction, productivity and reduced sick days
126
What 2 glands influence the hypothalamus?
pineal gland and pituary gland
127
What are 2 body processes the hypothalamus helps regulate?
body temp and heart rate
128
What was miles et al study on EZs influence on circadian rhythems?
a blind man from birth
24.9 hr circadian rhythem despite being exposed to EZs - clocks and radios
had to take sedatives for sleeping and stimulants to wake him up
129
What does miles et al blind man study show?
light is the main EZ
shows importance of having both EZs and EPs
but the EP can still operate without EZs
130
What are the issues with Siffre's study?
cannot generalise - case study and unsafe to do so
different results acheived from his other studies = our internal clocks change with age
131
What was Fickhards study that supports siffre's study?
12 ps lived in a dark cave for 3 weeks and their clock sped up to 22 hrs cycle
only 1 person adjusted to this = proves you cannot overide endogenous pacemakers
132
What are the issues with morgan and silvers hamster study?
use of foetal cells = may have a different circadian rhythem to an adult hamster
ethical issues
cannot generalise to humans = would be an inappropriate treatment for humans
behavioural discontinuity view = humans are qualitatively diff to animals
results could be due to damage to other area when removing the SCN
133
What is the average length of a mentrual cycle?
28 days
134
What is the endogenous pacemaker in the sleep-wake cycle?
the superchiasmatic nucleus
135
What is the endogenous pacemaker in the menstrual cycle?
the pituitary gland
136
What did McClintock find on women living together and their mentrual cycles?
women that live or spend a lot of time together can have synchronised mentrual cycles
137
What are pheromones?
biological substances that are released into the air and carry messages from one induvidual of one species to another of the same species
138
What was Stern and McClintock study on pheromones and menstrual cycles?
donor women = wore cotten pads under their arms for 8hrs
recipient women = rubbed the cotten pads on their upper lip
repeated daily for several months
dates of menstrual cycles were recorded
139
What did Stern and McClintock find?
68% of recipient women's cycles changed to be more similar to the donor woman's cycle
140
What is a good thing of McClintock's research on mentrual synchrony?
evolutionary advantage = has evolutionary value so women would become pregnant at the same time for babies who lost mothers to have a better chance at survival
synchrony was an adaptive straegy
shared childcare
141
What are 2 issues with McClintock's research on menstrual synchrony?
methodological limitations = other factors involved like diet and exercise - women who were living together may have been experiencing similar lifestyles
mixed reseacrh = some state that synchronisation does not occur
142
How long does a sleep cycle last for?
90 mins
143
How many stages of sleep are there?
4
144
What are the 4 stages of sleep?
REM, N1, N2, N3
145
What stage of the sleep cycles do dreams mostly occur?
REM
146
What does REM stand for?
rapid eye movement
147
What happens to your body during REM?
eye movements become rapid
breathing and heart rate increase
limb muscles are temporarily paralysed
higher levels of brain activity
148
What happens to the body during N3?
heart rate and breathing rate at its slowest
body fully relaxed
delta waves
149
What is a polysomnograph?
measuring brain activity using an EOG, EMG and an EEG at once
150
What does and EOG measure?
eye movements
151
What does an EMG meaure?
muscle movements
152
What are the two endogenous pacemakers controlling the sleep cycles?
the Raphe nuclei and the locus coeruleus at the base of the brain
153
How does the Raphe nuclei control sleep cycles?
a drop in serotonin in the raphie nuclei onsent non-REM sleep
154
How does the locus coerulus control the sleep cycles?
produces noradrenaline and acetylcholine
155
Who studied humans sleep cycle?
Dement and Kleitman
156
What was the method Dement and Kleitman use to investigate sleep?
lab study
using a polysomnograph to record body temp,pulse rate etc
obsevred ps sleeping for REM
and ps self-reports of dreams
x9 ps studied for 61 nights
157
What 2 things were Dement and kleitman's ps not allowed to consume during the study?
caffeine and alcohol
158
What is an issue with Dement and kleitman's sleep study?
bad validity = different conditions than sleeping at home
159
What was Jouvet's method of studying EPs in sleep using cats?
lesioned the raphe nucleus in cats
and lesioned the locus coerulus in cats
160
What did lesions to the raphe nucleus cause in cats?
resulted in sleeplessness
161
What did lesions to the locus coerulus result in in cats?
loss of REM sleep
162
What is an issue with Jouvets cat study?
trauma to other areas of the brain may have been caused and been a factor in effecting sleep
163
What were the 2 types of studies Sperry did with split brain research?
1. describe or draw what you see
2. recognition by touch
164
What was sperry's study using recognition by touch on split brain patients?
when shown a word in the left visual field (using right hemi), they could select the matching object with their left hand
the patient could not verbally identify the object but they can understand what the object was
165
What is the role of testosterone?
development of male sex characteristics and promotes muscle growth
166
What gland releases adrenaline?
adrenal gland
167
What gland releases oestrogen?
the ovaries
168
What is the role of oestrogen?
controls the femal reproductive cycle
169
What brainwaves are in N1 sleep?
alpha
170
What brain waves are in N2 sleep?
theta
171
What brain waves are in N3 sleep?
delta
172
What gland produces melatonin?
pineal gland
173
How does the SCN and pineal gland work together to promote sleep?
the SCN signals to the pineal gland to increase melatonin production at night which promotes sleep
174
How does light influence the SCN and the pineal gland to promote sleep?
reduced light levels signals to the SCN to signal the pineal gland to increase production of melatonin
175
What 2 psychologists go against the fight and flight response?
Gray and Taylor et al
176
What did Gray state on the freeze response?
the freeze response is the 1st initial response to danger and avoid confrontation, it gives time to make a decision on how to deal with threat
177
Why is F or F an inappropriate response to modern day stressors?
it can have negative effects for health as you are continually activating the sympathetic NS, continually increasing blood pressure which can lead to heart disease
178
How is localisation of function biologically reductionist?
reduces very complex human behaviours and cognitive processes to one specific brain region
179
What individual differences are there in terms of Broca's area and Wernicke's area between men and women?
women have larger Broca's and Wernicke's areas which could explain women's greater ease with language
180
At what age does language become decreasingly less lateralised?
25 yrs
181
What is the real-world implication of brain lateralisation in terms of multi-tasking?
enhances ability to carry out 2 tasks simultaneously by only using one hemisphere for a task leaves the other hemisphere free for other tasks = enhances brain efficency
182
What was found in terms of the effects of musical training and brain plasticity?
there was a significant increase in brain tissue in the motor and auditory areas
183
Why does brain plasticity decrease with age?
neural reorganisation is much greater in children than adults so neural regeneration in adults is less effective
184
How can epilepsy be detected with a EEG?
random bursts of neural activity
185
What did Siffre find on his EP when he was 60?
his internal body clock was a lot slower at 60 compared to when he was younger
186
What does the pineal gland do?
converts serotonin into melatonin
187
What AO1 do you need to know for the menstrual cycle?
-controlled by hormones
- first oestrogen rises which casues the overary to release an egg
- progesterone rises for preperation for implantation of a developing embryo
- if there is no pregnancy, hormone levels drop and the lining of the uterus sheds
