Biopsychology Flashcards

Question

What is the cerebrum ?

Answer 1

Largest part of the brain Two large cerebral hemispheres Divided into two hemispheres - left and right Each hemisphere is responsible for specific functions Lateralisation - dominance of one hemisphere of the brain in an action

Answer 2

Language areas only found in left hemisphere Broca's area - responsible for converting thought into speech Wernicke's - understanding other people's speech and for producing speech which makes sense

Answer 3

When damage occurs to either of these areas results in aphasia - inability to understand or produce speech

Answer 4

Discovered when Paul Broca had a patient 'Tan' Called Tan because that was the one syllable this patient could express Unusual disorder - able to understand spoken language, unable to speak nor express his thoughts in writing Studied 8 other patients whom all had other similar language defects, lesions in left frontal hemisphere Patients with damage to these areas in the right hemisphere did not have the same problem Identified a language centre in the posterior position of the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere - critical speech production

Answer 5

Carl Wernicke Patients had lesions in their posterior position of the left temporal lobe could speak but were unable to understand language identified language centre critical for speech comprehension

Answer 6

the central core the limbic system the cerebrum

Answer 7

Regulates most primitive and involuntary behaviours such as breathing, sleeping or sneezing Known as brain stem Structures such as hypothalamus in mid brain Regulates eating and drinking as well as regulating the endocrine system in order to maintain homeostasis Homeostasis - the process by which the body maintains a constant physiological state

Answer 8

Controls our emotions Around the central core of the brain, interconnected with hypothalamus, contains structures such as hippocampus, key roles in memory

Answer 9

Regulates higher intellectual processes Outermost layer - appears grey because of the location of cell bodies Each of our sensory systems sends messages to and from this cerebral cortex Cerebrum made up of left and right hemispheres which are connected by a bundle of fibres called the corpus callosum The corpus callosum enables messages that enter the right hemisphere to be conveyed to the left hemisphere and vice versa

Answer 10

The frontal lobe - control thoughts, memory, planning, problem solving, cognitive and social behaviours such as facial expressions. Contains motor area and one language areas (Broca) Temporal lobe - Location of auditory area and the centre of memory acquisition. Part of language area (Wernicke) Parietal lobe - Somatosensory area : controls behaviour involving the senses Occipital lobe - Contains the visual area. Visual info are processed such as colour, shape and distance

Answer 11

+ brain scan evidence, peterson used brain scans to demonstrate how Wernicke's area was active during a listening task and Broca's area was active during a reading task, suggesting that these areas involved in the processing of language info, objective methods for measuring activity which provide scientific evidence + Neurosurgical evidence, extreme treatment destruction of healthy brain tissue, lobotomy, still used today for treatment resistant severe depression and OCD, success of these procedures suggest that symptoms and behaviour associated with serious mental disorders are localised - Higher cognitive functions are not localised, Karl Lashley suggests that the basic motor and sensory functions were localised, but higher mental functions were not, intact areas of the cortex take over responsibility for specific cognitive functions following injury to the area normally responsible for function, effects of brain damage would be determined by the extent rather than location of damage

Answer 12

the brain's ability to change and adapt as a result of experience. This ability to change plays an important role in brain development and behaviour During infancy the brain grow in number of synaptic connects, 15000 by 3yrs old - Gopnik, twice as many as the adult brain

Answer 13

As we age, rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened

Answer 14

Used to believe changes in the brain only took place during infancy childhood, recent research has demonstrated that the brain continues to create new neural pathways and alter existing ones to adapt to new experiences as a result of learning Gain new experiences, nerve pathways that are frequently used develop stronger connections, neurons that are rarely or never used eventually die Developing new connections and pruning away weak ones the brain is able to constantly adapt to a changing environment Hebbian theory - neurons form networks and that these networks strengthen the more we use them, cells that fire together, wire together

Answer 15

Natural decline in cognitive functioning with age that can be attributed to changes in the brain Led researchers to look for new ways in which new connections can be made to reverse this effect Boyke et al - evidence of brain plasticity in 60yr olds taught a new skill - juggling, increases in grey matter in the visual cortex, although when practising stopped, these changes reversed

Answer 16

Playing video games involves many different complex cognitive and motor demands Kuhn et al - compared two groups - one control group and the other who were trained for 2 months, at least 30 mins per day on Super Mario Significant increase in grey matter in various brain areas including the cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum, increase was not evident in control group Video game training had resulted in new synaptic connections in brain areas involved in spatial navigation, strategic planning and working memory and motor performance

Answer 17

Worked with Tibetan monks have been able to demonstrate the meditation can change the inner workings of the brain Davidson et al - compared 8 practitioners of Tibetan meditation with 20 student volunteers with no previous meditation experience Groups fitted with electrical sensors and asked to meditate for short periods Electrodes picked up on much greater activity of gamma waves (coordinate neuron activity) in the monks. students showed only a slight increase in gamma wave while meditating Meditation only changes the workings of the brain in short term, may also produce permanent changes

Answer 18

+ research support from animal studies - kempermann et al - investigated whether an enriched environment can alter the number of neurons in the brain, found evidence of an increased number of new neurons in the brains of rats housed in complex environments compared to rats housed in lab cages, increased neurons in the hippocampus - associated with new memories and ability to navigate from one location to another + Maguire et al - studied London taxi drivers to discover whether changes in the brain could be detected as a result of their extensive navigational experience, MRI scanner - calculated the amount of grey matter in brains of taxi drivers and a set of control ppts, posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger, volume was positively correlated with amount of time spent taxi driving

Answer 19

After physical injury or trauma, unaffected areas of the brain are able to adapt and compensate for damaged areas Functional recovery that occurs in the brain after trauma is an example of plasticity Neuroscientists found this can happen very quickly then begins to slow down Regenerative developments in brain function arise from the brain's plasticity

Answer 20

when brain cells are damaged, other parts of the brain take over their functions, occurs through neuronal unmasking = 'inactive' synapses can be reactivated when they receive more neural input than they did previously Wall - identified 'dormant synapses' in the brain Synaptic connections that exist anatomically but their function is blocked Under normal conditions these synapses may be ineffective because the rate of neural input to them is too low for them to be activated Increasing the rate of input to these synapses, would happen when a surrounding brain area becomes damaged, can then open/ unmask these dormant synapses Unmasking of dormant synapses can open connections to regions of the brain that are not normally activated, creating a lateral spread of activation, gives way to development of new structures

Answer 21

The growth of new nerve endings that connect other undamaged cells together. Forms new neural pathways that bypass the damaged areas

Answer 22

Existing blood vessels to an area change and redirect to support the new pathways or new blood vessels form

Answer 23

Use of similar areas on the opposite side of the brain to perform the function of the damaged area

Answer 24

+ Practical application, contributed neurorehabilitation, spontaneous recovery slows down after time, physical therapy required to maintain improvements in functioning, movement therapy and electrical stimulation of the brain to counter the deficits in motor or cognitive functioning after a stroke - Negative plasticity, maladaptive behavioural consequences, Medina et al - prolonged drug use shown to result in poorer cognitive functioning as well as increased risk of dementia in later life Age and plasticity - plasticity reduces with age, Bezzola et al - demonstrated how 40 hours of golf training produced changes in the neural representation of movement in pts aged 40-60. fMRI, researchers observed reduced motor cortex activity in the novice golfers compared to the control group, more efficient neural representations after training

Answer 25

Left - language and speech Right - Visuo - motor tasks

Answer 26

Right side of the brain processes info from left half of body Left side of brain processes info from right half of body

Answer 27

The portion of space which objects are visible at the same moment with gaze in one direction

Answer 28

Quasi experiment, IV is naturally occurring researcher does not change it 11 pts Pts were epileptics who could not be treated with drugs - had corpus callosum split previously First to study the capabilities of the separated hemispheres - Sperry and Gazzaniga To study hemispheric lateralisation send visual info to just one hemisphere at a time in order to study what is known as hemispheric lateralisation Aim - examine the extent to which the two hemispheres are specialised for certain functions Method - image/word is projected to the patient left visual field or right visual field. when info is presented to one hemisphere in a split brain patient, the info is not transferred to the other hemisphere Describe what you see task Tactile test - object placed in hand had to describe what they felt, or select a similar object from a series of alternate objects Drawing task

Answer 29

Describe what you see - right visual field, could describe what they saw, left hemisphere dominant in language production left visual field - could not describe, nothing present tactile test - right visual field, verbally describe what they felt, could identify the test object presented in the right hand by selecting a similar appropriate object left visual field - could not describe, wild guesses Drawing tasks - right visual field, right hand attempt to draw a picture left visual field - the left hand would consistently draw clearer and better pictures than the right hand, demonstrates superiority of right hemisphere in visual motor tasks Each hemisphere has completely separate functions - left, dominant in language right - dominant in visual motor tasks

Answer 30

- Split brain research has limitations pts who have had this procedure are rare, results of studies are not always replicated, and it may be unwise to draw general conclusions from them - Lateralisation is not fixed changes with age for many types f tasks, healthy older adults have less lateralisation of function, using both hemispheres as they get older, Szaflarski - language lateralisation increase during childhood and adolescence, decreased steadily after age 25, older people's brain recruit both hemispheres to increase their processing power - Language may not be restricted to the left hemisphere, right handed people generally develop their language centre in the left hemisphere but left handed people may have them o either side

Answer 31

Research suspects that a patient's behavioural changes were caused by brain damage, look for abnormalities after the person dies Example - Broca observed patients speech difficulties and found lesions in he brain post mortem H.M's brain extensively investigated post mortem, confirming damage to his hippocampus related to his inability to store new memories, also identified brain abnormalities in schizophrenia and depression

Answer 32

+ Brain tissues can be examined in detail and deeper structures can be investigated - only retrospective data can be collected - use of drugs and age may affect brain tissue so there are many confounding variables

Answer 33

Measures changes in blood flow, indicating increased neural activity, in particular brain areas Useful for identifying which areas of the brain are involved in particular mental activities + non invasive can be used to measure activity in living brain without causing pain + More objective than relying on verbal reports of psychological processes, useful for studying non verbal phenomena - not measuring neural activity directly so findings can be misinterpreted

Answer 34

Measure electrical activity in the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp, shows brain waves over time EEG patterns in patients with epilepsy show spikes of electrical activity Alzheimer's patients often shows slowing of electrical activity Used by clinicians as a diagnostic tool Unusual arrhythmic patterns of activity may indicate neurological abnormalities + Useful for clinical diagnosis + records brain activity in real time so researchers can monitor responses to tasks - Can't pinpoint the exact source of activity - as electrodes detect electrical activity from overlapping areas

Answer 35

EGGs basic and general ERPs way of teasing out and isolating specific neural responses associated with sensory, cognitive, and motor events Interest cog neuroscientists Used statistical averaging techniques filters out extraneous brain activity from original EEG recording leaving only the responses that relate Types of brainwave that are triggered by particular events + provide a continuous measure of processing in response to a stimulus, gives quantitative experimental data + measure brain response without the need for behavioral response or speech, researchers can covertly monitor responses - Requires many repetitions to gain meaningful data, address simple questions

Answer 36

A change in the body processes or behaviour in response to a cyclical changes within the environment Importance influence on the ways in which the body system behaves

Answer 37

The body's internal body clocks that regulate biological rhythms

Answer 38

External factors in the environment which reset our biological clocks

Answer 39

Biological rhythms lasting about 24 hours adapt the body to meet the demands of the day/night cycle

Answer 40

Sleep wake cycle - dictates when we should be asleep or awake, light acts an external cue for when we should be asleep or awake, light detected by the eye, send message to suprachiasmatic nucleus in hypothalamus, uses this info to coordinate activity of circadian system, homeostasis - tells us there is a need to sleep when we have been awake for a long time (energy consumption) Core body temp - is lowest, 36 degrees at 4.30 am and highest at 38 degrees around 6pm Hormone production - melatonin production by the pineal gland peaks during hours of darkness promoting sleepiness

Answer 41

Infradian = cycles with duration longer than 24 hours, example - menstrual cycle Ultradian rhythms - cycle lasting less than 24 hours - example - sleep stages involves a repeating cycle of 90 - 100 mins, 5 stages including REM sleep Understanding of sleep comes from EEG recordings

Biopsychology Flashcards

(66 cards)