Biopsychology

Question 1

What is the nervous system?

Answer 1

Specialist network of cells in the human body, collects and responds to information and coordinates organs and cells in the body

Question 2

What is the Central nervous system?

Answer 2

Consists of the brain and spinal cord, is the origin of all complex commands and decision. Spinal cord is responsible for reflex actions

Question 3

What is the Peripheral nervous system? + the 2 divisions?

Answer 3

Transmits messages via neurons to and from the CNS.
-Autonomic: Works vital functions in the body (heart rate, digestion)
-Somatic: Works muscle movement and receives information from sensory receptors.

Question 4

What are the 2 divisions of the Autonomic system?

Answer 4

-Sympathetic: prepares the body for physical activity when the hypothalamus detects a stimuli, triggered when the body is in an ‘alert’ state. adrenaline is released to fuel activity, as well as physiological changes (increased heart rate, fight or flight response)
-Parasympathetic: Returns the body to usual state and preserves energy, enables ‘recovery’ mode (rest & digest)

Question 5

What are neurons?

Answer 5

Provide the nervous system with the ability to communicate

Question 6

Sensory Neurons

Answer 6

Carry messages from the PNS-CNS, have long dendrites and short axon, located outside of the CNS in the PNS in clusters called Ganglia.

Question 7

Relay Neurons

Answer 7

Connect sensory and motor neurons, short dendrites + axon, 97% of all neurons, most found within the brain and visual system

Question 8

Motor neurons

Answer 8

Connect the CNS to effectors (muscles + glands), short dendrites and long axon, cell bodies may be in CNS, long axons may form in the PNS

Question 9

What is synaptic transmission?

Answer 9

Neurons communicate within neural networks, signals within neurons are electrically transmitted, when electrical signal reaches the Presynaptic terminal, neurotransmitters are released.

Question 10

What are neurotransmitters?

Answer 10

Chemicals that diffuse across the synapse, taken up by dendrites of the next neurons postsynaptic receptor, signal is converted back to electrical. Each neurotransmitter has a specific molecular structure

Ach- found where a motor neuron meets a muscle, makes muscles contract

Question 11

What is Excitation?

Answer 11

Increases the postsynaptic receptors positive charge, making it more likely to fire.
Adrenaline: stimulates action potential

Question 12

What is Inhibition?

Answer 12

Increases the neurons negative charge, less likely to fire.
Serotonin: inhibits action potential

Question 13

What is Summation?

Answer 13

The process of whether a postsynaptic neuron will fire or not

Question 14

What is Action Potential?

Answer 14

Only triggers the neuron if the excitation or inhibition limit is reached

Question 15

What is the Endocrine system?

Answer 15

instructs glands to release hormones directly into the bloodstream (chemical)

Question 16

What are Glands and Hormones?

Answer 16

Gland: An organ that synthesises substances
Hormones: Biochemical substance that only affects target organs.
Glands produce hormones, hormones are secreted and affect and cells that have that specific hormones receptor

Question 17

What hormones do the Pituitary, Thyroid, Pancreas, Adrenal Medulla control?

Answer 17

Pituitary: is in the hypothalamus, controls all other glands
Thyroid: thyroxine, increases heart rate, increases metabolic rates
Pancreas: produces insulin
Adrenal medulla: releases adrenaline

Question 18

What is the Fight or Flight response?

Answer 18

-A threat is perceived, the hypothalamus activates the Pituitary gland and triggers the sympathetic state
-Adrenal Medulla releases adrenaline into the bloodstream
-Adrenaline then triggers the sympathetic state and physiological changes in the body; increased heart rate, inhibited digestion
-After the threat has passed, the parasympathetic state returns the body to resting state (rest+ digest)

Question 19

What is a fMRI?

Answer 19

-Detects changes in oxygenated blood flow in the brain. An active area will consume more oxygen.
-Uses large magnets to produce a 3D image
-More active area= brighter colour image

Question 20

fMRI evaluation:

Answer 20

+ High spatial resolution, allows an insight into how the brain works
+ Non-invasive and doesn’t use radiation, not harmful, ethical validity
-Low temporal resolution, 5 second delay, may mi9ss some information

Question 21

What is an EEG?

Answer 21

-Places electrodes onto the scalp to record brain activity (skull cap)
-Electrodes measure activity of the cells below them, more electrodes= more detail
-Shows brain waves
-Used to diagnose sleep issues and seizures

Question 22

EEG Evaluation

Answer 22

+Useful to study sleep patterns, sleep stages and epilepsy, real-world application
+High resolution, a millisecond
-Generalised activity of all neurons, not useful to source where activity originated

Question 23

What is an ERP?

Answer 23

-uses the same technique as EEG, records when there is activity in a response to a stimulus
-Filters EEG data using a statistical averaging technique, the waves show when a cognitive process occurs (attention and perception)

Question 24

ERP Evaluation

Answer 24

+cheaper than fMRI’s, allows easier epilepsy diagnosis
+High temporal resolution, accurate measurements of electrical activity when a task is performed
-Lack of standardisation between different studies, difficult to confirm findings, extraneous variables

Question 25

What are Post-Mortem examinations?

Answer 25

-Used to determine cause of behaviours during their lifetime -investigates brain structure, infers correlations between brain + behaviours -Alzheimer's is determines by PME Brain is sliced and analysed

Question 26

Post-Mortem evaluation

Answer 26

+Alzheimer's diagnosis, conclusively confirms the disease, real-life usage +Harmless to a living person, as long as consent is given -Hard to gain full consent, limits ethics

Question 27

What is a circadian rhythm?

Answer 27

A biological rhythm that occurs over a 24 hour cycle, if disrupted can increase risk of dementia, diabetes, depression

Question 28

Describe the sleep/wake cycle

Answer 28

The SCN (suprachiasmatic nuclei) is found in the hypothalamus, it detects changes in light present. It controls the release of hormones (melatonin is released when less light is detected).

Question 29

Describe Siffre's study (1962)

Answer 29

-Spent 6 months in a cave, deprived of natural light and sounds, to study the effect on his biological rhythms -RESULTS: Hid sleep/wake cycle remained regular CONCL: Our biological rhythm of 24 hours is free-running.

Question 30

Evaluate Siffre's study

Answer 30

+ Practical application to shift work, it desynchronises circadian rhythms which has economic implications (sick pay) - Case study evidence, results cannot be generalised as well as a lack of control over factors such as artificial light, lack of validity

Question 31

What is an infradian rhythm? and an example

Answer 31

Biological rhythm that occurs less than once in 24 hours, menstrual cycle

Question 32

Explain the menstrual cycle (infradian)

Answer 32

-28 day cycle -Oestrogen levels increase causing an egg to release from the ovaries - Ovulation -Progesterone increases, thickens the womb lining

Question 33

Describe Stern + McClintock's study (1998) and Evaluate

Answer 33

A- To see whether menstrual cycles synchronise as a result of the influence of pheromones M- 29 women with irregular periods, rubbed a cotton pad on their upper lip, this cotton pad had previously been placed in another woman's armpit R- 68% of women's cycles changed, closer to the pheromone donor C- Pheromones can synchronise women's menstrual cycles + Synchrony research can be explained by natural selection. Babies who lost mothers could have breast milk from other synchronised mothers, which improves survival - Synchrony research could have many confounding variables, flawed studies, lack replication

Question 34

What is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)? (infradian)

Answer 34

Winter days (darker and longer) result in more melatonin being released, leading to lower mood and higher risk of depression, and less serotonin is released + Can be treated with light therapy, real-world application

Question 35

What is an Ultradian rhythm? + example

Answer 35

Biological rhythms that occur more than once in 24 hours, stages of sleep

Question 36

Stages of sleep:

Answer 36

1+2: Sleep escalator: 'light sleep', slow alpha waves. Sleep spindles: short bursts of brain activity, common in Stage 2 3+4: Deep sleep: Delta waves, slow and deep with greater amplitude 5: REM sleep: Rapid-eye movement, indicates dreaming is taking place. Brain activity speed up, CNS is cut off when dreams occur. -75% of sleep time is stages 1-4 (NREM) -Brain waves are monitored by an EEG

Question 37

Evaluate the stages of sleep

Answer 37

+ Improved understanding of age-related sleep changes, Elderly lack SWS (slow wave sleep) resulting in a sleep-deficit. To increase SWS, meditation and relaxion is necessary. Ultradian rhythms have practical value - Significant variation between people, Tucker found large differences within stages 3+4, biologically determined. Meaning it is difficult to describe 'normal sleep' + Used laboratory studies, high control over extraneous variables - However, sleeping in a lab is artificial and results would not reflect ordinary sleep patterns.

Question 38

What are Endogenous pacemakers? and how to they impact the sleep/wake cycle?

Answer 38

-Internal mechanisms which determine our biological rhythms (body clocks) -SCN: induces sleep, sends signals to pineal gland, then produces melatonin -Peripheral oscillators: Other Endogenous pacemakers located outside of the SCN (lungs, pancreas)

Question 39

Animal studies: DeCoursey et al

Answer 39

- destroyed 30 chipmunks SCN connections, then returned them to their natural habitat. Observed them for 80 days, they were attacked as they were active when they should have been asleep. shows the influence of the SCN

Question 40

Animal studies: Ralph et al

Answer 40

Bred mutant hamsters, who had a 20 hour sleep/wake cycle. SCN cells from these mutant hamsters, were put into normal hamsters. The cycle adjusted to 20 hours instead of 24 hours.

Question 41

What are Exogenous Zeitgebers? and how to they impact the sleep/wake cycle?

Answer 41

-External factors that affect our biological rhythms. -Light: can reset the SCN, affects our hormone secretion and blood circulation Campbell + Murphy: Shone a light pad onto back of knee when ppt asleep, this affected the sleep cycle by 3 hours - Maintains the sleep/wake cycle -Social cues: Schedules, that we respond to which can affect rhythms

Question 42

Evaluate Endogenous Pacemakers

Answer 42

- Research may obscure other peripheral oscillators, Damiola: change in feeding patterns, affected the liver by up to 12 hours. -They cannot be studied in isolation, pacemakers and zeitgebers interact in everyday life, so it makes little sense to try and separate them, leads to a lack of validity.

Question 43

Evaluate Exogenous Zeitgebers

Answer 43

-They do not have the same effect in all environments, light has no effect in the Arctic Circle, suggests their is no external effect on the sleep/wake cycle - Evidence challenging Exo Zeitgebers, Miles: study of a man (who has been blind since birth) who has an abnormal circadian rhythm of 24.9 hours, despite exposure to social cues. Social cues have no effect in resetting biological rhythms. + Hood: Elderly insomnia reduced if they became more active and exposed to more natural light.

Question 44

What is localisation of function?

Answer 44

The theory that different areas of the brain are responsible for specific behaviours, processes or activities

Question 45

What is in the Frontal Lobe?

Answer 45

-Motor area: controls movement -Prefrontal cortex: executive functioning (planning, controlling impulses) -Broca's area: speech production

Question 46

What is in the Temporal lobe?

Answer 46

-Auditory area: auditorial processing -Hippocampus: memory and spatial navigation -Wernicke's area: language comprehension

Question 47

What is in the Parietal lobe?

Answer 47

-Somatosensory area: responsible for touch sensation -Governs body orientation -Aids learning of complex precise movements (writing)

Question 48

What is in the Occipital lobe?

Answer 48

-Visual area: Process visual information, helps with depth perception, aids recognition of objects and faces

Question 49

What is the 1.Cerebellum, 2.Brain stem, 3.Sentral sulcus?

Answer 49

1. Controls balance and coordination 2. Controls involuntary responses (reflexes) 3. Separates the motor and somatosensory areas

Question 50

What is Broca's area?

Answer 50

-Left frontal lobe, responsible for speech production -Damage: Broca's aphasia; slow speech which lacks fluency -Patient TAN; damaged Broca's area could only say tan

Question 51

What is Wernicke's area?

Answer 51

-Left Temporal lobe, responsible for language comprehension -Damage: Wernicke's aphasia; produce fluent but meaningless speech

Question 52

Who is patient HM?

Answer 52

-Amnesia -Epilepsy patient who had his hippocampus removed. -Now can't form new memories (LTM damaged) -supports localisation

Question 53

Evaluate Localisation -Strengths

Answer 53

+Damage to areas of the brain has been linked to mental disorders, Cingulotomy isolates the cingulate gyrus, which has links to OCD. Dougherty analysed 44 people with OCD who had a cingulotomy. After 32 weeks, 30% had a positive response. Success shows mental disorders to be localised + Petersen used brain scans to show Wernicke's area to be active when performing a listening task, Broca's when reading. Confirms localisation in everyday life (objective method) +Phineas Gage; linked personality changes, to the frontal lobe (damage changed his personality)

Question 54

Evaluate Localisation- Weaknesses

Answer 54

-Lashley; removed areas of the cortex, in mice, they had to learn a route, no area proved more significant than others, holistic view -Dick + Tremblay; only 2% of researchers believe language is limited to only Broca and Wernicke area's, fMRI's have shown language streams throughout the brain, language may be more holistic -Case study evidence (Gage), results can't be generalised to society, subjective, lack causality

Question 55

What is Hemispheric Lateralisation?

Answer 55

One hemisphere of the brain performing a particular function.

Question 56

What happens in the left hemisphere?

Answer 56

-Language area's -Analyses language

Question 57

What happens in the right hemisphere?

Answer 57

-Synthesizes language

Question 58

How is vision lateralised?

Answer 58

-Each hemisphere receives information form both eyes (contralateral + ipsilateral wiring). -Right hem. controls the left side of the body -Left hem. controls the right side of the body -Loss of vision in one eye results in a lack of depth perception (2D vision)

Question 59

Evaluate Hemispheric Lateralisation

Answer 59

+Fink; used PET scans to identify which area's are active during a visual task: Right; more active when looking at the bigger picture. Left; more active when looking for finer details. -Research suggests that there isn't a dominant sides which create personality. Neilson; analysed 1000 brain scans (age7-29), showed lateralisation but no dominant side

Question 60

What is Spit-brain research?

Answer 60

-Corpus collosum removed, stopping the 2 hemispheres communicating -For epilepsy patients to reduce symptoms

Question 61

Describe Sperry(1968)

Answer 61

A- To investigate how the 2 separated hemispheres work (speech + vision) M-11 patients, who had the operation, were studied. an image was shown to either the left or right visual field R- Right field: ppt could describe what was seen (processed in the left hemisphere) Left field: ppt couldn't describe what was seen (use language), they could use their left hand to draw or select similar objects and showed an emotional reaction C- Certain functions are lateralised LH=verbal RH= silent but emotional

Question 62

Evaluate Sperry

Answer 62

+Gazzaniga~: found split-bran patients to be better at some tasks that normal brains (odd one out), supports distinct hemispheres - Epilepsy is a confounding variable, relationship hard to establish, the split-brain may not be what caused the results -Ethics: repeated testing may cause stress.

Question 63

What is brain plasticity?

Answer 63

The brain's tendency to adapt and change as a result of experience and new learning, growth of new connections

Question 64

What is synaptic pruning?

Answer 64

Rarely-used connections are deleted, frequently-used ones are strengthened Infants: 15,000 connections per neuron Adults: 7,000 per neuron

Question 65

What was Maguire's study?

Answer 65

-Studied London taxi drivers brains -More grey matter found in the posterior hippocampus than the control group -The posterior hippocampus is linked to navigation and spatial skills -Shows how learning alters brain structure

Question 66

What was Draganski's study?

Answer 66

-Analysed medical students brain scans, 3 months before and after exams -Changes in posterior hippocampus + parietal cortex, presumably due to learning.

Question 67

Evaluate Brain plasticity

Answer 67

-May have negative consequences, drug use has caused poor cognitive functioning and increased dementia risk. 60-80% of amputees develop 'phantom limb' syndrome, as they believe their limb is still there. Brain plasticity may not always be positive + Life-long ability, Bezzola: Showed how 40hours of golf training produced changes in neural representations of movement (ppts aged 40-60), shows neural plasticity can continue throughout our lifespan.

Question 68

What is functional recovery?

Answer 68

The brain's ability to redistribute functions performed by damaged areas to undamaged areas

Question 69

Doige's theory

Answer 69

The brain forms new synaptic connections close to the area of damage. New connections enable functioning to continue.

Question 70

Doidge: Axonal Sprouting

Answer 70

Growth of new nerve ending which connect with other undamaged cells, to form new neuronal pathways - a diversion

Question 71

Doidge: Denervation Super-sensitivity

Answer 71

Axons with similar functions become aroused to a higher capacity to compensate for the damaged ones, this can cause oversensitivity - strengthen supporting networks

Question 72

Doidge: Recruitment of homologous areas

Answer 72

Areas on the opposite side of the brain, perform the same function but on the other hemisphere using existing pathways.

Question 73

Evaluate Functional Recovery

Answer 73

+ Real-world application, stroke patients use neuro-rehabitation, to try to use damaged area, by restraining the undamaged area. Helpful in the medical field -Schneider: revealed that the more time that people with a brain injury had education, had a greater chance of fully recovering. Brain damage patients who have insufficient education into recovery are less likely to recover.