Biopsychology Flashcards

Question

What structural changes in the brain occur during recovery?

Answer 1

Axonal sprouting - growth in new nerve endings connecting to undamaged nerve cells Reformation of blood vessels Recruitment of homologous areas - opposite side of brain carries out function

Answer 2

``` Practical application Negative plasticity Age and Plasticity Support from animal studies Concept of cognitive reserve ```

Answer 3

Contributed to field of neurorehabilitation - shoes brain can fix self to extend but also need intervention for complete success

Answer 4

Can cause behaviour consequences e.g Medina et al (2007) - 60-80% of amputees suffer phantom limb syndrome due to cortical reorganisation in somatosensory cortex

Answer 5

Tends to reduce with age but Bezzola et al (2012) - 40 hours of golf training produces changes in neural representation in ptps age 40-60. Observed reduced motor cortex activity in novice golfers than control, shows neural plasticity continues throughout life span.

Answer 6

Hubel and Wiesel (1963) sewed one eye of kitten shut and analysed brains cortical responses found continued to process information from open eye

Answer 7

More time brain injury patients had spent in education the greater their chance of a disability free recovery. 2/5 of patients who had DFR spent more than 16 years in education.

Answer 8

FMRI Electroencephalogram (EEG) Event Related Potentials (ERP) Post Mortem Examinations

Answer 9

Strength - doesn't use radiation, risk free and harmless. Easy to use. High spatial resolution Weaknesses - expensive, must stay perfectly still, poor temporal resolution and can only measure blood flow in brain.

Answer 10

Strengths - valuable in diagnosis and understanding stages of sleep, high temporal resolution. Weaknesses - generalised information. Signal not useful in pinpointing exact source of neural activity.

Answer 11

Strengths - more specific, high temporal resolution, can identify many types of ERP Weaknesses - lack of standardisation in method, background noise must be completely eliminated which is not always possible

Answer 12

Strengths - vital for early understanding | Weaknesses - issue of causation and ethical issues of consent

Answer 13

``` Practical Application to Shift Work Practical Application to Drug Treatments Use of Case Studies and Small Sample Poor control in studies Individual difference ```

Answer 14

Boivin et al (1996) - night workers experience period of reduced concentration at around 6am = mistakes more likely.

Answer 15

Circadian rhythms coordinate with body's processes showing there are certain times when drugs are most effective - leading to drug dosing guidelines

Answer 16

Participants in study still had access to artificial light - Siffre turned lamp on everytime he woke up. Czeisler et al (1999) adjusted ptps circadian rhythms from 22 to 28 hours using dim light

Answer 17

Individual cycles can vary from 18-65 hours. Duffy et al (2001) - some people have natural preference for going to bed early. Therefore difficult to generalise

Answer 18

``` Evolutionary basis for menstrual cycle Methodological limitations in synchronisation studies Evidence supports stages of sleep Animal studies Practical application ```

Answer 19

Valuable for ancestors - new borns born together to make social group and increase survival

Answer 20

Confounding variables may affect women's cycle such as stress and diet. Research also involves small samples and self reporting on own cycle. Other studies failed to show same evidence.

Answer 21

Demet and Kleitman (1957) - monitored 9 participants in sleep lab, brainwave activity recorded with EEG and caffeine and alcohol controlled. Found REM activity during sleep highly correlated with experience of dreaming. All participants woke during dreams gave accurate recall. Replications had similar findings. Small sample criticised

Answer 22

Knowledge of pheromones come from animal studies - not know effect on humans

Answer 23

Phototherapy for SAD sufferers - light box stimulates strong light in morning and evening - relieved symptoms for 60% of sufferers, placebo effect on 30% - doubt on chemical influence

Answer 24

``` Beyond suprachiasmatic nucleus Ethics in animals studies Influence of exogenous zeitgebers may be overstated Methodological issues in studies Interactionist system ```

Answer 25

Changed feeding patters in mice altered circadian rhythms of liver cells of up to 12 hours but SCN unaffected - shows other influence to sleep/wake cycle other than SCN

Answer 26

Miles et al (1997) man had circadian rhythm of 24.9 hours - despite social cues and sedatives at night and stimulants in morning it wouldn't change.

Answer 27

Rare that endogenous pacemakers are free running and unaffected by exogenous zeitgebers - in real life they interact

Answer 28

Have yet to be replicated. A major confounding variable - may have been some limited light exposure to participants eyes Isolating one exogenous zeitgeber does not give us insight into other zeitgebers that influence the sleep/wake cycle

Answer 29

The idea that the 2 hemisphere of the brain are functionally different and certain processes and behaviours are dominated by different hemispheres.

Answer 30

Sperry (1968)

Answer 31

Group of individuals who had undergone commissurotomy - corpus callosum and other tissues which connect 2 hemispheres is cut down middle to separate them, used to control severe epileptic seizures.

Answer 32

Image/word projected to patients right visual field (processed by left hemisphere) and the same or different image could be presented to left visual field (processed by right hemisphere) In split brain patients information could not be shared between both hemispheres.

Answer 33

When a picture was shown to a patients right visual field, they could easily describe what was seen. If the object was shown to the left visual field the patient could not describe and typically said there was nothing there. This is due to language being in left hemisphere

Answer 34

Patients could not attach a verbal label to objects projected to left visual field but they could select a matching object using their left hand. When placed behind a screen the left hand could also chose the object most closely associated with object presented in left visual field.

Answer 35

If 2 words were presented simultaneously, one on either side of of the visual field, the patient would write with their left hand what they saw in the left visual field and say the word in the right visual field.

Answer 36

Right hemisphere dominated in terms of recognising faces. When asked to match a face from a series of other faces, the picture processed by the right hemisphere was consistently chosen and the picture from left hemisphere was constantly ignored. When a picture made up of 2 different halves of a face was presented - one to each hemisphere , the left hemisphere dominate in description and the right dominated in selecting a matching picture.

Answer 37

``` Demonstrated lateralised brain functions Strengths of methodology Theoretical basis Issues with generalisation Differences in function may be overstated ```

Answer 38

Split brain patients were an unusual sample of people and only 11 who took part. Some patients experienced more disconnection than others. The control group of 11 with no history of epileptic seizures may be inappropriate

Answer 39

Use of highly specialised and standardised procedures. Ensured patients would not have time to move eye across image and spread information across both visual fields. Useful and well controlled procedure.

Answer 40

The degree of communication between the 2 hemispheres in everyday functioning. Some theorists eg Pucetti (1977) suggest the 2 hemispheres function so differently that in effect we have 2 minds. Others argue that the 2 hemispheres form an highly integrated system and most are involved in everyday tasks.

Answer 41

Neuroscientists say the distinction is less clear cut and many behaviours typically associated with one hemisphere can be performed by the other when the situation requires it.

Answer 42

Produced a good amount of findings - main conclusion = left hemisphere is associated with analytic and verbal tasks where as right is associated with emotional, holistic content and language. Left = analyser, Right = synthesiser

Answer 43

That all parts of the brain are involved in the processing of thought and action

Answer 44

The theory by Wernicke and Broca that different areas of the brain are responsible for different behaviours processes or activities

Answer 45

That some physical and psychological functions are dominanted by a particular hemisphere

Answer 46

Frontal, occipital, parietal and temporal. Each lobe has particular function

Answer 47

At the back of frontal lobe in both hemispheres, controls voluntary movement in opposite side of body. Damage results in lack of control over fine movements

Answer 48

Front of both parietal lobes - separated from motor area by central sulcus. Where sensory information from the skin is represented.

Answer 49

The occipital lobe at back of brain. Each eye sends information from right visual field to left visual cortex and from left visual field to right visual cortex. Damage to left hemisphere can produce blindness in right visual field of both eyes.

Answer 50

In the temporal lobes which analyses speech-based information. Damage may cause partial hearing loss, more extensive the damage the more extensive the loss. Damage to Wernickes area in the temporal lobe may affect ability to comprehend language.

Answer 51

Causes Broca's aphasia which is characterised by slow speech, laborious and lacking fluency

Answer 52

Wernickes aphasiais characterised by produci nonsense words (fluent but meaningless speech)

Answer 53

``` Brain scan evidence Neurosurgical evidence Case study evidence Lashley's research Plasticity ```

Answer 54

Peterson et al (1988) 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 - suggests these areas of he brain have different functions.

Answer 55

The practice of surgically removing or destroying areas of the brain to control aspects of behaviour. Dougherty et al (2002) reported on 44 OCD patients who had undergone cingulotomy (lesioning of cingulate gyrus) a post surgical follow up after 32 weeks - 1/3 had met the criteria for successful response to the surgery and 14% for partial response. Success of procedures like this strongly suggest that symptoms and behaviours associated with serious mental disorders are localised

Answer 56

Phineas Gage - metal rod went through left frontal lobe, survived but changed from calm and deserved to quick tempered and rude. Suggests frontal lobe is responsible for regulating mood

Answer 57

Lashley (1950) suggests higher cognitive functions e.g learning is not localised but more holistic. Removed 10-50% of the cortex of rats brains that we're learning a maze. No area was proven to be any more important than another are in terms of the rats ability to learn the maze. Process of learning appeared to require every part of the cortex. Suggests learning is too complex to be localised.

Answer 58

When the brain becomes damaged and a particular function is lost, the rest of the brain appears able to reorganise itself to recover the lost function. = law of equipotentiality. Common is stroke victims.

Answer 59

Sex hormones (et testosterone) present larger quantities in men than women

Answer 60

Sex hormones (e.g. Oestradiol) present in larger quantities in females than males

Answer 61

An inherited disorder of the adrenal gland causing the levels of male sex hormones in foetuses of both sexes to be unusually high.

Answer 62

The idea that boys play with boy toys e.g. diggers and girls play with girl toys e.g. Dolls.

Answer 63

They play more than other girls with boys toys and when they grow up women are more likely than other women to choose male-dominant professions, enjoy rough sports and have non-heterosexual orientation.

Answer 64

Studied transsexuals undergoing hormone treatment and found female-to-male transsexuals who were exposed to high dosages to testosterone showed increased aggression where as male-to-female transsexuals who were exposed to female hormones showed lower levels of aggression.

Answer 65

``` Association between sex hormones and sex typed behaviour and aggression no cause and effect. Used samples (transsexuals and congenital adrenal hyperplasia) not generalisable. Individual differences e.g levels of testosterone. ```

Biopsychology Flashcards

(89 cards)