paper 2 research and findings

Question 1

Siffre - circadian rhythms

Answer 1

lived in cave deprived of natural light for 2 months
found that his biological clock ran at 25 hours when left to free run

Question 2

Knuttson - circadian rhythms shift workers

Answer 2

people with distrupted sleep patterns 3x more likely to develop heart disease

Question 3

Duffy et al - circadian rhythms

Answer 3

People differ in their natural preferences for sleep wake cycles
some people are more inclined to wake up earlier than others

Question 4

McClintock study

Answer 4

investigated the synchronising nature of menstrual cycle using pheremones
29 women with irregular periods
gathered pheremone samples from 9 women at different stages of cycle
29 ppts rubbed sample on upper lip
68% experienced a change to period cycle

Question 5

Cambell and Murphy - exogenous zietgeibers

Answer 5

Woke ppts at various points in the night and shone a light on the back of the knee
managed to deviate some sleep cycles by 3 hours
shows power of EZs and our sensitivity to them

Question 6

DeCoursey - endogenous pacemakers

Answer 6

severed the connection of the SCN in 30 chipmunks
Sleep wake cycle disappeared
many were killed by predators as were awake during the night
shows the role of SCN in controlling our cycles

Question 7

Gazzaniga - split brain research

Answer 7

found that split brain patients actually perform better than normal controls in certain tasks eg faster identifying the odd one out

demonstrates how in a normal brain - connection not severed - LH is is hindered by RH abilties

supports Sperry’s ideas that LH and RH are distinct

Question 8

Fink et al - Hemispheric lateralisation

Answer 8

Used PET scans to identify which areas of the brain most active during specific visual tasks

When normal patients - not split brain - asked to look at the global elements of the picture regions of RH were more active
When asked to look at finer details of the image regions in LH were activated
shows how hemispheric lateralisation is a feature of a normal brain

Question 9

Maguire - Plasticity

Answer 9

Used fMRI scanners to study the structure of the brains of london black cab drivers who took the knowledge
found significantly more volume of grey matter in posterior hippocampus compared to those who didnt take the knowledge

shows how learning alters brain structure

Question 10

Ramachadran - functional recovery

Answer 10

60-80% of amputees develop phantom limb syndrome
cortical restructuring causes painful symptoms where the brain thinks the amputated limb is still there

Question 11

Schneider et al - functional recovery

Answer 11

more time in education ( suggesting greater cognitve reserve) linked with greater chances of a disbaillity free recovery
level of education influences recovery rates