Biopsychology

Question 1

What is localisation of functioning

What did people believe before this

Answer 1

Refers to the theory that different parts of the brain are responsible for different behaviours or processes.

-prior to this scientist believed that all parts of he brain was involved in the processing of thoughts and action I.e- the holistic theory of the brain

Question 2

Where did the early research into localisation of the brain come from

How is local of functioning divided

Answer 2

Dr halows research on phineas Gage, he was proved to be correct through macmillians 2002 research.

The cerebral cortex (outer layer of the brain) (3 mm thick) and is subdivided into 4 lobes each associated with different functions.

Question 3

What is the motor cortex - where is it located

Answer 3

Located in the back of the frontal lobe and controls voluntary movement. Sends messages to the muscles via the brain stem and spinal cord. It is important for complex movement. Both hemispheres have a motor cortex

Question 4

What areas of the brain are involved in movement

Answer 4

Spinal cord and brain- coordinate movement
Premotor cortex - plans a movement prior to executing it
Prefrontal- stores sensory information prior to a movement and works out the probable outcome of the movement

Question 5

What is the somatosensory

Answer 5

Located at the front of the parietal lobes, it is separated from the motor cortex by a valley Called the central sulcus.
Somatosensory refers to sensory information from the skin- perceives touch, pressure, pain and temperate.
The amount of neurones needed is dictated by the amount of somatosensory cortex needed for that area of the body.
Touch sensitive areas such as the the face need more somatosensory cortex.
Each hemisphere has a somatosensory with each side of the brain receiving information from the opposite side of the body

Question 6

What is the visual centre of the brain
Where is this located

How is visual information sent and what does this mean could happen

What happens when light enters the eye

Answer 6

Primary visual cortex
- occipital lobe (back of the brain) - main visual centre

• from the right visual field to the left visual cortex vice versa, so damage to the left hemisphere can produce blindness in the right visual field of both eyes.
• activates the photoreceptors in the retina, nerve impulses are sent via the optic nerve . Most of the impulses are sent to the thalamus which acts as a rely station passing the Information to the visual cortex

Question 7

What area of the brain is necessary for visual perception
What happens if this area is damaged
Where is the visual image transmitted

Answer 7

V1
- completely blind even In there dreams.

• transmitted along 2 pathways, one containing the components of the visual field and other being involved with the location within he visual field.

Question 8

What research supports evidence into a damaged v1 (un conscious vision )

Answer 8

Bridgeman and staggs 1982
Occasionally individual with damage to the area V1 will show a blindside - this is a condition we’re someone appears qualitatively blind- they report no revision but they can locate objects in the visual field by pointing to them. Suggesting that some of the processing in the visual cortex is not conscious.

Overgaard- 31 year old known as GR. in tests asking to detect a letter shown on a screen she could not identify the letter but did report awareness of something despite seeing nothing (haemorrhage in the left occipital lobe)

Question 9

How many primary auditory centre does the brain have

How does it receive information

What happens if it is damaged

What did Meyer et al find out about the primary cortex

Answer 9

2 - one in each hemisphere housed in the temporal lobes.
- receives info through both ears via 2 pathways that transmit info about sound and where it’s located, information from the right ear goes to the left hemisphere but some is transmitted to the left primary auditory centre too. Vice vesa.

• if damaged you do not go completely death- sound can be heard but some complex processing such as music can’t be heard.
• found that it’s not just conscious sound. If someone is watching a silent film their primary auditory cortex will active for instance if a door shuts the Bang will be imagined

Question 10

What are the two language centres in the brain and where are they located

What happens to patients who have damage to brocas and wernicke’s area ( give examples )

Answer 10

Broca’s and wernicke’s area
Located in the left hemisphere
Broca’s- in the left frontal lobe.

Damage
Broca’s - called Broca’s aphasia (not all words are effected equally ) nouns and verbs are often u affected. But some classes of words such as prepositions and conjunctions cannot be spoken. Can’t read out lout “to be or not to be” but can say “two bee oar knot tow bee” also there speech is slow and lacks in fluency.
Tan- understood spoken language but unable to express his thoughts through writing. Broca stidied tan and other patients and found patients with the same damage in the right hemisphere wasn’t affected in the same way - identified a language centre in the frontal lobe in the left hemisphere.

Wernicke’s area - those with damage in the left temporal lobe close to the auditory cortex had specific language impairment. - the inability to comprehend language and anomia (struggle to find words they need ) but they do have fluent speech. Access words quickly but what they said was meaningless. People with wernicke’s area will often produce nonsense words.

Question 11

What did fedorenko et al further discover in Broca’s area

What is wernicke’s area important in

Answer 11

Two regions, one involving language and the other responding to demanding cognitive tasks e.g.- maths problems.

• understanding language and accessing words.

Question 12

How can the localisation be supported

Answer 12

-Peterson et al-
Brain scan to demonstrate that Broca’s area was active during a reading task and wernicke’s during a listening task. Suggesting different functions.
-Tulving- semantic and episodic memories reside in different parts of the prefrontal cortex
- neurosurgical evidence suggest that symptoms associated with mental disorders are localised. Dougherty et al 2002 - 44 OCD patients who had undergone cingulotomy after 32 weeks after the surgery 1/3 had met the criteria for success response to surgery and 14% had partial response.

Question 13

What oils challenge the localisation

Answer 13

-Lashley- rats brains did not find a specific area associated with memory, it appeared to be stored all over the brain. He removed the cortex in rats that was learning a maze. No areas were seen as more important when trying to learn the maze. Suggesting that the learning is too complex to be localised.
Can this be generalised though?
- the fact that’s there rehabilitation following brain injury suggests that there in no localisation. If there were task specific areas then there would be no brain plasticity. The law of equipotentability suggests that in fact areas of the cortex can take over the responsibility for specific functions following damage to the area normally responsible.
- Danelli et al -EB had his left hemisphere removed during surgery at 2.5 years old loosing his linguistic abilities- after a rehabilitation programme he began to improve around the age of 5 and by 8 he had regained most of his ability. This would seem like there’s no localisation/ lateralisation of functioning. However EB never fully recovered as at the age of 17 he had minor grammatical problems and was slow at naming objects and pictures - this suggests there is some localisation with certain areas of the brain.

Question 14

How are the two hemisphere in the brain bridged

Define lateralisation and contralateral

Answer 14

By the corpus callosum - a bundle of fibres is effectively a communication pathway so the two hemispheres can exchange information.

• lateralisation: two hens are functioning different with certain mental process mainly controlled by one hem rather than the other
• contralateral: when the right hem deals with the left hand side of the body and vice Versa.

Question 15

What is the division of functions between the two hemispheres known as

What did toda and Morois find ?

What suggest that the right hemisphere is associated with spatial awareness

Answer 15

Hemisphere lateralisation

• through brain images he found greater activity in the left hemisphere for a visual task and greater activity In the right hemisphere for a spatial task ( working memory model)
• Clarke et al: woman with damage to right hem- she would often get lost if she was not given verbal directions even in familiar places - right hen deals with spatial info.

Question 16

Along side spatial awareness what else is the right hem associated with

What may suggest that the left hem focus on the detail and the right process overall patterns ?

Answer 16

Recognising emotions.work has soon that if a image is presented that has been split with a happy and a sad face, the emotion of the left side of the picture is more likely to be the most recognised emotions, ( heller and levy)

• if somebody asks you to identify the small detail there will be greater level of activity in the left hem however if someone asks you to look at a image holistically this prompts more activity in the right hem.

Question 17

What was the aim, procedure and results of sperrys split brain research

Answer 17

Aim: the effects of hemisphere disconnection and show that each hemisphere has different functions
Method : 11 split brain patients( all undergone disconnection of the cerebral hemispheres ) all suffered a history of epilepsy which couldn’t be controlled through media. Quasi experiment - IV- a person with hemisphere disconnection or not. DV- how participants performed on tasks. Lab conditions and lab equipment - highly standardised.

Results : when presented with a image to the left visual field they could not respond to the same of the stimulus ( information can’t pass to the left where language Is processed)
- participants couldn’t give a description of an image presented to the left visual field but could draw it with there left hand.

Question 18

How can sperrys research be evaluated

Answer 18

Support
-quasi + case study - combine qualitative and quantitive data - statistically reliable info.
- Localisation of functioning
Challenge
- 11 ps - small sample however there is not many split brain patients ( ore depth)
- ingenious tasks - highly standardised procedures
- the extent to which the split brains were indicative of normal functioning prior to surgery is an issue, especially as the surgery was to treat a problem with the brain

Question 19

What does diamond say in addition to sperrys’s research

Answer 19

The person feels like 2 people in once body. The left hemisphere takes control of situations and suppresses interference from the right hemisphere by Using smaller pathways that connect the hemisphere

Question 20

What is synaptic pruning

What can be formed as a result of learning and new experiences

Answer 20

Rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened

• neural connections can change or new neural connections can be formed.

Question 21

What is the research into plasticity

Answer 21

Kempermann et at - found evidence of an increased number of neurones in the brain of rats housed in complex environments compared to rats housed in lab cages. Rats housed in complex environments showed an increase in neurones in the hippocampus associated with the formation of new memories and the ability to navigate from one direction to the next.

Maguire et al - studied the brain of London taxi drivers and found that they had more volume of grey matters in the hippocampus than in a matched control group. This was the area associated with the development of spatial and navigational skills in humans and other animals. As part of London cabbies training they must take a test called ‘the knowledge’ which assess their recall of London streets and other possible routes. It appears that the result of this learning experience is to alter the structure of the taxi drivers brain.

Question 22

What are the 3 main anatomic ways the body can replace axon function in the brain after trauma

Answer 22

Axonal sprouting - growth of new nerve endings with connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathways.

• reformation of blood cells
• recruitment of homologous areas on the opposite side of the brain eg- damage to the left hem would result in a similar area in the right hem taking over functionality.

Question 23

What research has been done into functional recovery

Answer 23

Schneider et al - retrospective study. Asked on date from the us traumatic brain injury systems database. Of 769 patients studied 214 had achieved disability free recovery after one year. 39.2% of patients with 16 or more years of education had achieved DFR as 30% of those with 12-15 years of education.

Question 24

What does FMRI stand for and what are they?

Answer 24

Functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Operate in the same way as standard MRI’s but can also show changes in Brian activity as it occurs while a person performs a task.
Measures changes in blood flow in areas which indicate increased neural activity.
Measures the energy realised in haemoglobin - when haemoglobin is oxygenated it reacts differently to when it’s deoxygenated. So when an area of the brain is more active it produces more oxygen, the different amount of energy realised. Y the haemoglobin is detected by the scanner and the change measured.
Dynamic moving picture - showing activity one second after it occurs, it is also accurate to within 1-2mm in the brain. This has important indications in understanding of localisation of function.

Question 25

Evaluate FMRI

Answer 25

- moving picture - patterns of activity can be compared rather than just the physiology of the brain. - it does not rely on radiation like PET scans, this makes it risk free, non invasive and straightforward to use. Produced images that have a very high spatial resolution - providing a c,ear picture of how the brain is localised. - complexity of the brain activity means that interpreting them can be problematic. It is difficult because of the time delay of the scan- poor temporal resolution because there is around 5 seconds lag time between the image on screen and the initial firing neuronal activity. - expensive to buy and maintain and they require trained operators - expensive and difficult to organise. Not as many studies as it's difficult to replicate. - often small sample size in studies due to limited a availability and funding. One captures a clear image if participant is completely still, can't study people with Parkinson's, children- difficult to generalise.

Question 26

What does EEG stand for | What does it do

Answer 26

Electroencephalogram - electrodes are placed on the scalp and they record the electrical activity of the Brian. There can be anything for 2-3 to 100. Electrodes measure the brain activity of the cells immediately under the electrodes so using more electrodes gives a fuller picture. The electrodes are fixed to the scalp using a skull cap. It is often used by clinicians as a diagnostic tool as unusual arrhythmic patterns of activity may indicate neurological abnormalities such as epilepsy, tumours or disorders of sleep.

Question 27

What are the four EEG

Answer 27

Beta waves- found during R.E.M. Sleep. Low amplitude, fast frequency, normal waking state of consciousness- alert, concentration. Alpha waves - relaxation of light meditation, frequency is reduced Theta waves - lights sleep or deep meditation Delta waves -deep sleep, slower frequency and greater amplitude

Question 28

How can EEG be evaluated

Answer 28

- proved invaluable in the diagnosis of conditions such as epilepsy - it has contributed much to our understanding of sleep - unlike FMRI and EEG technology has extremely high temporal resolution of a single millisecond. Brain activity is recorded in real time which means the researcher can measure a particular task with the brain activity associated with it. - very superficial- can't tell us about the activity of some deeper regions e.g. The hippocampus - cheaper method than scanning - more widely available - the info received is of a generalised nature - not useful for pinpointing the exact source of neural activity - it does not allow the researcher to distinguish between activities originating in different but adjacent locations.

Question 29

What are ERP's

Answer 29

Event related potentials Same apparatus as EEGs but record when there is activity in response to a stimulus introduced by the researcher. Using a statistical a averaging technique Looking for - event related potentials - a type of brain triggered by particular events. ERPs are linked to cognitive processes e.g. Attention and perception. For example waves occurring in the first 100 millisecond after presentation of a stimulus are termed sensory ERPs as they reflect the initial response to the stimulus. ERPs generated after the first 100 milliseconds are termed cognitive ERPs as they demonstrate information processing and the manner in which the evaluates the stimulus.

Question 30

What evidence shows that ERPs are more accurate that self report

Answer 30

Costa et at - used this method to record to responded to nude pictures of both sexes in ps 19-29. When asked how they felt men where generally aroused by the female pictures but woman reported neutral feelings to both male and female nude pics. However when costa examined ERPs of both male and female they found a higher response to opposite sex nude pictures than reported.

Question 31

How can ERPs be evaluated

Answer 31

- limitations of EEGs - ERPs excellent temporal resolution ( see it as it occurs) especially when comparing to neuroimaging techniques such as FMRI and this has led to their widespread use in the measurements of cognitive functions and deficits - lack of standardisation in ERP methodology between different research studies which make it difficult to confirm findings. - background noise and extraneous material must be completely eliminated, this is not always easy to achieve. ERPs are small and difficult to pick out therefore a large number of trails have to be carried out to gain meaningful date - this limits the kind of questions the ERP readings can answer.

Question 32

What is the difference between EEGs and ERPs

Answer 32

EEG- general wave activity | ERPs- elicited by specific stimuli.

Question 33

What is a post Morton examination

Answer 33

When a personal body, including the brain is examined after they have died. They can be used to see we're damage has occurred in the brain and how they may explain behaviour exhibited by the individual prior to death. Areas of damage within the brain are examined after death and are compared with neurotypical brains in order to ascertain the extend of the difference and therefore reveal the possible cause of their behaviour.

Question 34

Evaluate post mortem

Answer 34

Post mortem evidence was vital to providing a foundation for early understanding of key processes in the brain. Broca's and wernicke's both relied on post moderate studies in establishing links to language, brain and behaviour decades before neuroimaging ever became a possibility. Improve medical knowledge and help generate hypotheses for further studies. Detailed examinations of anatomical aspects of the brain than are possible with FMRI or EEGs - deeper areas such as the hippocampus and hypothalamus can be examined Carried out retrospectively - drug treatment, age of death and stage of disease could all influence the post mortem brain and confound any differences between cases and control. Ethical issues - consent from patient before death? HM lost his ability to form memory and was no able to form such consent.

Question 35

# Define endogenous peacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers How are biological rhythms evolved What is the most important Rhythm?

Answer 35

EP- internal Boyd clock that regulate biological rhythms eg- sleep EZ- external stimuli- e.g. Light and temperate that influence biological rhythms. - evolved because of the environment with organisms live has cycle changes - day/ night summer/winter. - circadian rhythms ( any cycle that lasts 24 hours ) these rhythms optimise an organisms physiology and behaviour to best meet the varying demands of the day/night cycle

Question 36

How is our boys clock regulated ? What controls our circadian rhythms ? What must the pace makers constantly do?

Answer 36

The release of hormones like melatonin, metabolic rate and body temperate. - driven by our body clock. Found in all cells and synchronised by the master circadian pacemaker; the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) found in Yh hypothalamus. - must constantly reset so we're in synchrony to the outside world.

Question 37

Give an example of a circadian rhythm

Answer 37

The sleep wake cycle - light and darkness are the external signals that determine when we need to sleep and wake up. Sleep and wakefulness are under homeostatic control- the homeostatic system tends to make us feel sleepier as time goes on, regardless of day or night.

Question 38

What is our core Body temp? During the Normal circadian rhythm when does sleep occur ?

Answer 38

Lowest - at its lowest about 36 decrees at about 4:30 am Highest 38 decrees about 6pm - occurs when the core temp begins to drop and body temp starts to rise during the last hours of sleep.

Question 39

Why encourages sleep ? | Where is this released from?

Answer 39

Melatonin - when it is dark more is produced and when it's light the production of melatonin drops and a person wakes up. - released from the pineal gland in the brain

Question 40

What research shows the effect of circadian rhythms which have been allowed to run free ?

Answer 40

Siffre- cage in Texas for 6 months - settled to a sleep / wake cycle of between 25 and 30 hours. He resurfaced from on the 17th of September believing the date was the 20th august.

Question 41

What research may suggest that circadian rhythms can not be easier altered ?

Answer 41

Folkard - group of 12, lived in a cave for 3 weeks, told to sleep as 11:45 and rose at 7:46, unbeknown to the ps the clock was being sped up to a 22 hour day- none of the ps could comfortable adjust to the new regime.

Question 42

What is a real world application to circadian rhythms

Answer 42

Chronotherapeutics - the study of how timing effects drug treatment. The specific time patients take their medication is very important as it can have a significant impact on treatment success. Chronotherapeutics have been developed with a novel drug delivery system - medications should be taken before the person goes to bed but is not released until the vulnerable period of 6am to noon.

Question 43

What are infradian rhythms

Answer 43

Rhythms that last more than 24 hours eg- menstral cycle which is determined by the endocrine cycle. Eg- hibernation

Question 44

What is the menstrual cycle How may it be influenced by endogenous factors ?

Answer 44

Governed by changes in hormone levels which regulate ovulation. Rising levels of oestrogen cause the ovary to develop an egg and release it after which point progesterone leads to the womb lining growing thicker ready to receive the egg. - stern and McClintock- may synchronise because of the influence of female pheromones. In a sample of 29 women with irregular periods found the women's menstrual cycle was shortened when receiving odourless compounds from the armpits of 9 other women.

Question 45

How can infradian rhythms be evaluated

Answer 45

- the effects of hormones can help explain menstrual synchronicity explaining why women who live together become synchronised. An evolutionary approach would support this as women take care of each other eg- breast feeding another child if a mother dies. - Wilson challenged menstrual synchrony stating that experimental evidence of it existence was over exaggerated.

Question 46

What are ultradian rhythms

Answer 46

Having a period of less than one day | Eg- slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement during the night

Question 47

How long is the slow wave sleep cycle

Answer 47

90 minutes- after several stage of SWS, R.E.M. occurs for 15 mins and the cycle starts again. 4-6 complete cycles in one night.

Question 48

Explain the different stages of the SWS

Answer 48

Stage One- 5 to 15 mins. Brain activity - Less than relaxed wakefulness Physiological effects - heart rates slow and muscles relax, people are still easily woken at this stage. Two- 5 to 15 minutes. Brain activity - sleep spindles, short bursts of activity Physiological - the body continues to relax- easy to wake someone Three - 5-15 mins Brain activity - less sleep spindles in this stage, slow delta waves. Physiological - the body relaxes and it becomes harder for people to wake in this stage Four- 40 mins Brian activity- delta waves increase and the level of activity it lower than other stages Physiological - metabolic rate is low, people are difficult to wake and growth hormones are released R.E.M.- 15 mins lengthening through the night Brian activity - more brain activity than in any other stage. Physiological effects - complete relaxation of the trunk, irregular breathing and heart rate and the probability of dreams

Question 49

What did research by Dement and Kleitman find about the SWS

Answer 49

- dreams tend to be recalled when woken up in the R.E.M. Stage - the research woke them up with a bell and the ps spoke into a recoded device stating whether they were dreaming or not and then give details of the dream. - NREM sleep few dreams were recalled - ultradian rhythms varied between 70-104 average was 92 mins - direction of eye movement was associated with dream content eg- vertical - climbing a ladder. A03 Sleep lab- effects quality of sleep this May effect how long they spend in each stage They may be less relaxed as they keep getting woken up

Question 50

What is the basic rest activity cycle

Answer 50

Kleitman - the 90 minute cycle. Suggesting that this 90 mins of ultradian rhythms continues through the day but instead of passing stage of sleep we go from stages of alertness to fatigue every 90 mins. Suggesting that the human brain can only concentrate for period of 90 minutes before a loss of concentration, fatigue or feeling hungry, this may explain for the 10:30 coffee break in work places.

Question 51

How can the difference in sleep patterns be explained

Answer 51

Some may say non biological factors e.g. Temperature and noise However Tucker- studied participants for 11 days and nights in a strictly controlled lab environment. Assessing sleep duration, time to fall asleep and the amount of time spent in each stage, in deeper sleep stages (3 and 4) the individual differences were significant suggesting that sleeping patterns maybe particularly biological. Ericsson- supported the importance of the basic rest activity cycle (BRAC) and found that elite violinists practice sessions were limited to no more than 90 mins, most of them napped between practice and the best violinists napped the most.

Question 52

What is the most important pacemaker

Answer 52

Suprachiasmatic nucleus Lies in the hypothalamus and plays an important role in generating the body's circadian rhythms. It acts as the master clock. Neurone within the SCN spontaneously synchronise with each other. The peripheral clocks can maintain a circadian rhythm but not for very long so this Is why there controlled by the SCN. SCN receives info about light levels via the optic nerve even when our eyes are shut.

Question 53

What happens if they biological clock is running slow What else does the suprachiasmatic nucleus regulate ?

Answer 53

The morning light automatically adjusts the clock putting it in rhythm with the outside world. - regulates the manufacture and secretion of melatonin in the pineal gland via interconnecting neural pathways

Question 54

What role does the pineal gland play How does melanin induce sleep? Despite the endogenous nature of these clocks why must their activity be synchronised with the light dark cycle of the outside world?

Answer 54

The SCN sends signals to the pineal gland, directing it to increase production and secretion of the hormone melatonin at night and to decrease it as light levels increase in the morning. - by inhabiting the brain mechanisms that promote wakefulness - because of the sensitivity of the pineal gland and SCN to light and the role of melatonin in controlling sleep and activity

Question 55

How can endogenous pacemaker be evaluated

Answer 55

The importance of the suprachiasmatic nucleus has been demonstrated through animal studies Morgan - bred a strain of hamsters so they had abnormal circadian rhythms of 20 hours instead of 24. The SCN from these abnormal hamsters were then transplanted into the brains of normals hamsters who them displayed the circadian rhythm of 20 hours showing that the transplant SCN had imposed it patterns on the recipients of the brain.

Question 56

What is the third type of light detecting cell in the retina that gauges overall brightness and helps reset the internal biological clock ? How was this discovered ? What social cues could be used as zeitgebers? What research could support and challenge the impact of social cues ?

Answer 56

Melanopsin - from studies of blind people. - meal times and social activities. Klein and WegMann found that circadian rhythms of air travellers adjusted more quickly if there went outside more at their destination, exposed to social cue of the new time zone. However Steel studied 6 ps in the artic were it was light day and night and found that 5/6 ps sleep/ wake cycles were longer than 24 hours however they found that sleep patterns were individual and there were no synchronised patterns meaning social cues may not have a strong effect in the absence of zeitgebers.