biopsychology Flashcards

Question

synaptic transmission

Answer 1

neurotransmitters help the nerve impulse to cross the gap between the pre-synaptic and post-synaptic neuron. -nerve impulse travels down the axon -impulse reaches synaptic terminal -this triggers the release of neurotransmitters -neurotransmitters are fired into the synaptic cleft -neurotransmitters then bind with receptors on the dendrite of the adjacent neuron -if successfully transmitted the neurotransmitter is taken up by the post-synaptic neuron -message will continue to be passed this way via electrical impulse.

Answer 2

increases the probability of an action potential occurring in the post-synaptic cell (on switch)

Answer 3

the nervous systems 'off switches' which are responsible for calming the body and inducing sleep. it also filters out unnecessary excitatory signals.

Answer 4

instructions for the body -the post synaptic receptor translates this information

Answer 5

Franz Gall proposed that a persons personality was reflected by bumps on the skull- this idea was called phrenology. Gall believed that functions were localised to specific regions of the brain. -this eventually became a an extremely influential viewpoint

Answer 6

the brain is split into two hemeispheres -generally the L side of the brain controls R sided functions -the R side of the brain controls L sided functions

Answer 7

cerebal cortex -responsible for high level brain functions -e.g. language and memory -3mm thick -filled with neurons

Answer 8

controls voluntary movements in the opposite side of the body. -motor area is found here -disturbance of motor function is typically characterised by loss of fine movements and strength of the arms, hands and fingers -it is also concerned with higher brain functions such as decision making, planning and consciousness of emotions

Answer 9

somatosensory area -found at the front of the parietal lobe -it receives sensory input from receptors in the skin including touch, pain, pressure and temperature from all areas of the body surface

Answer 10

visual area is found here -each eye sends information from the right visual field to the left visual cortex -disorders that are located in the occipital lobe can cause visual hallucinations and illusions

Answer 11

the auditory areas which analyse speech based information -receives input directly from the ears -damage to this area can lead to hearing loss -wernicke's area within the temporal lobe affects the ability to comprehend language

Answer 12

speech comprehension -damage results in wernicke's aphasia, which is characterised by the use of nonsensical words, no awareness of using incorrect words, but no issues with pronunciation and intonation

Answer 13

responsible for speech production and it is located in the frontal lobe (usually the L hemishpere) -damage results in broca's aphasia, characterised by difficulty forming sentences and understanding sentences, as well as aiming to understand the order of words in sentences and who they are directed towards

Answer 14

brain scan evidence: tulving et al demonstrated using PET scans that semantic memories were recalled from the left prefrontal cortex whilst episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex. this shows that different areas of the brain are responsible for different functions as predicted by the localisation theory. this is further supported by peterson et al. he used brain scans to demonstrate that the wernicke's area was active during listening tasks and the broca's area was active during a reading task.

Answer 15

injured by a blasting rod which intersected the left side of his face, tearing through both the left and right prefrontal cortices in a pattern that causes a defect in rational decision making and processing of emotion. this demonstrates the idea that specific parts of the brain are responsible for different functions

Answer 16

suggested learning was not a localised function and was actually distributed more holistically -between 10%-50% of the brain was removed in rats -rats had to learn a maze, they found that there was no specific area that was partially important in learning the maze -this suggests that learning is not localised and is perhaps to complex to be localised

Answer 17

the idea that the two hemispheres of the brain are functionally different and that certain mental processes and behaviours are mainly controlled by one hemisphere

Answer 18

split brain is when the two hemispheres have been separated by cutting the corpus callosum (2 hemispheres cannot communicate) -they were cut to reduce a persons epileptic seizures

Answer 19

-used a quasi experiment in a lab with an independent measures design -there were 11 pp's with split brain and they were studied using a special set up, in which an image or word could be projected to a participants R visual field (processed by the L hemisphere) and the same, or different image, could be shown in the L visual field (processed by the R hemisphere). -in the 'normal brain' the corpus callosum would immediately share the information between both hemispheres giving a complete picture of the visual word. however, presenting an image to one hemisphere of a split brain pp, meant the information cannot be conveyed from that hemisphere to the other

Answer 20

when a picture was shown in the pp's RVF (linked to LH), the pp could describe what was seen but they could not do this if the picture was shown to the LFV (RH)- they said there was nothing there. this is because the hemispheres cannot communicate, so the RH couldn't relay the message to the language centre in the LH. -pp however could select a matching objject out of sight using their left hand (linked to RH). the left hand was also able to select an object that was most closely associated with the image presented in the LVF

Answer 21

the observations show how certain functions are lateralised in the brain and support the view that the LH is verbal and the RH is 'silent' but emotional

Answer 22

+ research showing that even in connected brains the two hemispheres process information differently. Fink used PET scans to identify which brain areas were active during a visual processing task. when pp's were asked to attend to a whole image, there was more activation in the RH, when required to focus in on specifics the LH tended to dominate. + research support from more recent split brain research. Luck et al showed that split brain pp's actually perform better than connected controls on certain tasks. e.g. faster at identifying the odd one out in an array of similar objects. in the normal brain, the LH's better cognitive strategies are watered down by the inferior RH. the supports Sperry's earlier findings that the hemispheres are different. X there are generalisation issues within Sperry's research. the split brain pp's were compared to a control group, however none of this control group had epilepsy- major confounding variable. any differences observed may be due to the epilepsy not the split brain.

Answer 23

the brains tendency to change (functionally and physically) as a result of experience and learning new things

Answer 24

found that the brains of taxi drivers have significantly more grey matter volume in the posterior hippocampus. -16 taxi drivers and control subjects -vozel based morphology and pixel counting were used to measure the density of grey matter -this part of the brain is associated with the development of spatial and navigational skills in humans -found a positive correlation between length of time in the job and how pronounced the structural differences were -main findings was that the posterior hippocampus of taxi drivers were significantly larger than those in the control subject

Answer 25

found that medical students had a change in their brains pre and post exams, the brain was studied before and after the final exams. -the posterior hippocampus and parietal cortex were seen to have changes which was presumed to be through learning for the exam

Answer 26

X brains adaptations to prolonged drug use led to poorer cognitive functions and increased risk of dementia. 60-80% of amputees have phantom limb syndrome. this suggests that the brains ability to adapt to damage isn’t always beneficial. + may not decline with age. 40 hours of fold practice produced neural changes in neural representations in pp aged 40-60. motor cortex activity increased compared to controls, this shows continuation throughout lifespan. + plasticity changes depending on season, superchiasmatic nucleus shrinks in spring and expands in autumn.

biopsychology Flashcards

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