Blakemore and cooper Flashcards
(36 cards)
what were blakemore and cooper interested in?
brain plasticity
what is brain plasticity
where your brain adapts and changes accordingly to what you do in your life
who were B+C inspired by
hirsch and spinelli
what were B+C interested in
neurons in the visual cortex of the brain
they found you could change the way the nerons in the visual cortex alligned by controlling what kittens could see as they grew
what is a visual cortex
part of the brain that receives and processes sensory nerve impulses from the eyes
whats a startle response
backing off reaction of a cat when an object is mpved quickly towards their face
what is visual placing
when a cat puts its feet out to meet the edge of a surface
sample of BC
2 kittens from birth until 1 year of age
what was the environment for the first 2 weeks of the kittens lives
complete darkness
what was the environment from 2 weeks until 5 months
in a striped cylinder for 5 hours a day
they wore a black collar so were only able to see vertical/horizontal stripes
what happened to the kitties when they were 5 months old
taken into a well lit room with furniture to test behaviour
what was the IV in the study
oreientation of stripes within the cyldinder
what was the experimental design
independent measures (each cat exposed to different cylinders)
what controls were used in the study
all had 2 weeks in darkness
all wore striped/black collar
what visual deficits did the cats show
navigated around the room by touch
clumsy
pupilarry reflexes
no startle response
no visual placing
after 10hrs in a well lit room what deficits did they recover from
visual placing returned to normal
startle response returned
after 10hrs in a well lit room what deficits did they not recover from
clumsy
bumped into furntiutre
how did the horizontal and vertical cats differ
cats descrbed as being virtually blind to opposite oreintation
found this by shaking a rod in front of the cat
cat only responded to oreintation they were in
procedure of neurophysical test
- cats were anaesthetised and then paralysed and their eyes open
- electrodes were inserted into the primary visual cortex to take electrical readings from neruons
- visual neuron acticvity was recorded to show optimal oreintation for each neuron when shown bright slits or edges of light
results of neurophysiological test
showed the visual neurons within the visual cortex had alligned themselves to match environment the kitten was brought up in
little to no neurons alligned to the opposite direction
conclusions of BC
difference between the cats suggests that neurons can change their preferred orientation according to the stimulation they recieve, matching the ability of the brain to respond to features in the visual input
what ethics for animals did BC uphold
replacement: no alternitve replacement to animals
reduction: reduced impact to minimum amount of cats (2)
refinement: only had cat in clydinder for 5hrs a day
how can BC be critised in terms of ethics
isnt many practical applications of the research so wasnt worth harming kittens
is ethnocentirsm appropiate to this study
no
