biopsychology Flashcards
(60 cards)
1
Q
what nervous system deals with voluntary movement and external stimuli
A
somatic nervous system
2
Q
what nervous system deals with the internal bodily organs
A
autonomic nervous system
3
Q
what is triggered by the sympathetic nervous system during stress
A
fight / flight
4
Q
what system would restore the body to resting levels after stress
A
parasympathetic
5
Q
what part of a neuron receives the signal from a previous neuron
A
dendrites
6
Q
what part of neuron carries the signal away from the cell body
A
axon
7
Q
what is the name for the gap between two neurons
A
synapse
8
Q
what type of neurotransmitter would actually prevent the signal being passed on
A
inhibitory
9
Q
what is the master glad of the body that controls the production of other hormones in the body
A
pituatary gland
10
Q
what type of neuron carries a signal away from the CNS to the muscles of the body
A
motor
11
Q
the theory that different functions are controlled by specific areas of the brain
A
localisation of function
12
Q
what lobe would you find the visual cortex in
A
occipital
13
Q
what lobe would you find the motor cortex in
A
frontal
14
Q
what area of the brain controls speech production
A
brocas
15
Q
what area of the brain controls language comprehension
A
wernick’s
16
Q
what is the name for the brains ability to reorganize and repair itself by forming new neural connections throughout life
A
plasticity
17
Q
the idea that certain functions are controlled by either hemisphere of the brain
A
lateralisation
18
Q
the name of the researcher that studied split brain patients
A
Sperry
19
Q
a brain scanning method that tracks generalised electrical activity in the brain
A
EEG
20
Q
a method of investigating the brain of people after death
A
post mortem
21
Q
a scanning method which attempts to pin point specific electrical activity in response to stimuli
A
ERP
22
Q
the name for whether there is a lag time between the brain’s activity and it showing on a scan image
A
temporal resolution
23
Q
what happens as the brain develops - the reducing of unused neurons in the brain and strengthening of used one
A
synaptic punning
24
Q
in plasticity the name for the growth of new neurons in the brain
A
axon sprouting
25
the internal body clocks that control our biological rhythms
endogenous pacemakers
26
the external cues that can affect our biological rhythms
exogenous zeitgebers
27
the name of the cave explorer that spent months in a cave to investigate the effects on his biological rhythms
siffre
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the rhythm that happens once every 24 hours
circadian
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the rhythm that occurs less than once every 24 hours
infraradian
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the rhythm that happens more than 24 hours
ultraradian
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the endogenous pacemaker that controls our circadian rhythms and that contains info on light from the optic nerve even when are eyes are shut
super crasmatic nucleus
32
the gland that produces melatonin that aids sleep
pineal gland
33
explain broca's area
- responsible for speech production
- left frontal lobe
- damage to this area causes broca's aphasia characterised by speech that is slow and lacking in fluency
- broca's patient tan - stoke only able to say the word tan - damage to left frontal lobe
34
explain Wernicke's area
- responsible for language comprehension
- back of the temporal lobe
- they produce fluent but meaningless speech
35
explain the motor cortex
- back of the frontal lobe and is responsible for voluntary movement by sending signals to muscle in the body
- hitzig and fritsch found that muscles are coordinated by diff areas of the motor cortex by electrically stimulating the motor area of dogs
- arranged logical order eg fingers, hand, arm etc
36
explain the somatosensory cortex
- front of the parietal lobe
- receives incoming sensory information from the skin to produce sensations related to pressure, pain, temperature etc
- robertson found that this area of the brain is highly adaptable with braille readers heaving larger areas in the somatosensory area for their fingertips compared to normal signed participants
37
explain the visual centres
- back of the brain in the occipital lobe
- receives and processes visual information
- info from the right handed side visual field is processed in the left hemisphere and vise versa
38
explain auditory centres
- temporal lobe
- analysing and processing acoustic info
- info from the left ear goes primary to the right hemisphere (same for other side)
- primary auditory area is involved in processing simple features of sound including volume tempo and pitch
39
what is the corpus callosum
connects the two hemisphere of the brain and allows us to use both sides together
40
what would happen if the corpus callosum was cut in half
info from each hemisphere couldn't pass between the two
this would disable some functions that are only available in one hemisphere such as speech
41
split brain research - sperry
patients
patients with severe epilepsy who's corpus callosum have been cut can be pps
allows psychologists to observe how the brain can work when info from the hem cannot be communicated in the usual way
42
split brain research - sperry
procedure
quasi experiment
11 split brain patients
performance on tasks compared with people without split brain
pps asked to fixate on a dot on the centre of the screen the researchers would then project a stimulus on either the left or right hand side of the fixation point - for less than 7/10 of a second
43
split brain research - sperry
findings
- patients can verbalise an image shown to their right visual field (as left hem contains the speech centres)
- patients cannot verbalise an image shown to their left visual field but they can draw it with there left hand
- if patient is shown an image in both visual fields they will say they've seen the one in the right visual field processed by left hemisphere but draw the image they've seen in the LVF with their left hand
44
explain plasticity as a result of life experiences
The brain constantly adapts to a changing environment;
When we learn something, new pathways in the brain
develop (especially through repetition).
45
explain plasticity in playing video games
Playing video games makes many complex cognitive
and motor demands
Kuhn et al. (2014) – Ps trained for at least 30 mins a day for 2 months on Super Mario. Significant increase in grey matter in several areas of the
brain involved in spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory and motor performance.
46
explain plasticity via meditation
Davidson et al. (2004) – 8 Tibetan monks and 10 volunteers
who had never meditated before were asked to meditate for
short periods
Measured gamma wave activity and found much greater gamma
wave activity in the monks than the students, even before
meditation began.
They concluded that meditation not only affects the brain in the short-term but may also produce permanent changes
47
why can plasticity be negative
Prolonged drug use leading to poorer
cognitive functioning (e.g. Ket linked with permanent memory issues, via pruning in the hippocampus).
Old age being associated with dementia
48
what is functional recovery
after injury etc eg stroke, unaffected areas are sometimes able to adapt or compensate for those that are damaged
example of plasticity
49
what is denervation supersensitivity
occurs when axons that do similar job become aroused to a higher level to compensate for the ones that are lost
can be bad eg oversensitivity to pain
50
what are stem cells
unspecialised cells that can take on the characteristics of different cells including nerve cells
may provide treatment for brain damage:
- stem cells implanted into the brain directly replace dead/dying cells
- transplanted cells create a network lining at uninjured brain site where new stem cells are made to the damaged region
51
what are FMRI's and what are the three stages
gives an image of the brain showing structure and which structures are active during a specific task
1. blood flow - measures
2. oxygen - if an area in the brain become more active those neurons in the brain use the most energy and require more oxygen
3. magnetic - oxygen released for use by these active neurons at which point the hemoglobin become deoxygenated - has a different magnetic scan
52
what are the 3 stages of EEG's
1. electrode - are attached to the scalp to measure electrical activity
2. the electrodes detect the size and intensity of the electrical activity as well as the frequency of that activity
3. the electrical signal from the different electrodes are plotted on a graph in the form of waves
53
what are the two things involved with ERP's
1. specific - erps study the brain by measuring very small voltage change in the brain that are triggered by stimulus
2. averaged- to establish specific responses to a specific events or stimulus and these responses can then be averaged together
54
what are the 2 stages in post mortem examinations
1. study an individuals behavior when they are alive
2. study the brain after death. when a person dies the researchers can examine the brain to look for abnormalities in the brain etc. they then compare this to a typical and normal brain in order to identify any differences
55
explain the sleep wake cycle
1. our main biological clock is in a small area in the hypothalamus called SCN
2. as light enters the eye it travels to the SCN
3. the SCN regulates the activity of the pineal gland
4. when light decreases the SCN triggers the pineal gland to increase levels of melatonin to make us sleepy
5. when the light increases the SCN triggers the pineal gland to decrease the level of melatonin to make us more awake
56
what are sleep stages
stages where there are different levels of brain activity
stages 1+2 - light sleep - alphal and theta waves
stages 3+4 - deep sleep - delta waves
REM sleep - dreaming - very light sleep
57
what is the basic rest activity cycle (BRAC)
kleitman suggested that we have a similar 90 min cycle that continues throughout the daytime too
this is characterised by a period of alertness followed by a spell of physiological fatigue every 90 mins
58
what is the human menstrual cycle and explain EP and EZ
a series of physical and hormonal changes that prepare the female body for pregnancy
EP: oestrogen and progesterone, pituitary gland and FSH
EZ: diet, exercise, stress, synching up with other women
59
exogenous zeitgebers - light
can reset the bodies main endogenous pacemakers the SCN and thus plays a role in the maintenance of the sleep wake cycle
light has an impact upon melatonin production and therefore sleep / wake fulfillness. light also has an indirect influence on key processes in the body that control such functions such as hormone circulation and blood circulation
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