Week 1 - Perspectives on the brain, mind and mental health

Question 1

What is a simplified explanation of what the brain is?

Answer 1

An organ of the human body

Question 2

What is an organ in the biological sense?

Answer 2

A structure of the body (group of tissues) that serves a particular function

Question 3

What is a biological system?

Answer 3

A group of interrelated organs and other tissues which work together to serve a particular function

Question 4

What are neurons?

Answer 4

Cells which relay messages within and between brain areas, and from the brain to the rest of the body

Question 5

What are the names of some of the main types of neurons?

Answer 5

• Unipolar neuron
• Bipolar neuron
• Multipolar neuron
• Pyramidal cell
• Purkinje cell
• Motor neuron
• Granule cell

Question 6

What are some similarities between all types of neurons?

Answer 6

• All have a cell body
• All have lots of branching dendrites

Question 7

What is the function of glial cells?

Answer 7

To clear away waste, such as dead neurons

Question 8

Are two brains identical? If not, why not?

Answer 8

No, due to neuroplasticity

Question 9

What is the field called ‘cognitive neuroscience’?

Answer 9

An area of neuroscience concerned with cognitive functions and the processes in the brain which support these

Question 10

What is the field of neuroanatomy?

Answer 10

An area of neuroscience which is concerned with the structure and organisation of the brain

Question 11

How do cognitive neuroscientists usually study the brain?

Answer 11

With living participants, using technical equipment such as fMRIs (which provide detailed information about brain activity)

Question 12

How might a neuroanatomist study the brain?

Answer 12

With post-mortem techniques such as slicing and staining, in order to make certain features of the brain tissue more easily visible

Question 13

What is the field of neurogenetics?

Answer 13

An area of neuroscience which studies the genetics underpinning the nervous system

Question 14

What is proteomics?

Answer 14

The study of proteins produced by genes

Question 15

What is ‘translational research’?

Answer 15

When research conducted in a lab setting can be carried across to have clinical impact

Question 16

What is neuroplasticity?

Answer 16

The changes which occur in the brain as a result of development, learning and disease process

Question 17

How does Buddhism view the mind and brain?

Answer 17

As completely separate entities

Question 18

What are the three components of the brain that Freud proposed?

Answer 18

• Id
• Ego
• Superego

Question 19

What does the ‘id’ do?

Answer 19

It is the pleasure seeker and drives instinctual behaviour such as hunger

Question 20

What does the ‘superego’ do?

Answer 20

It’s the seat of our social morality - it tells us right from wrong and includes aspirations of our ideal selves

Question 21

What is the ‘ego’?

Answer 21

It mediates the id and superego and is our conscious, decision-making component

Question 22

What is the ‘psychodynamic approach’?

Answer 22

An approach to understanding the mind that infers the mind is created from a dynamic interaction between the id, ego and superego

Question 23

What is the ‘behaviourist approach’?

Answer 23

An approach in psychology which is concerned with observable behaviours rather than the concept of the mind - i.e. it does not take in to account thoughts and feelings

Question 24

What is ‘operant conditioning’?

Answer 24

Learning that involves an association being made between an action and an outcome, such that the delivery of a reward is dependent on behaviour

Question 25

What is ‘cognitive psychology’?

Answer 25

An area in psychology which focuses on the mind and the scientific investigation of mental processes

Question 26

What is the ‘evolutionary approach’?

Answer 26

A scientific view that humans and other biological life forms are a product of biological evolution

Question 27

In what way does the evolutionary approach seek to understand the workings of the human mind/brain?

Answer 27

Through the viewpoint of adaptation

Question 28

What is ‘phenotypic plasticity’?

Answer 28

Changes in response to the environment which occur during the lifespan of an individual organism which might, for example, affect behaviour

Question 29

What is an advantage of phenotypic traits?

Answer 29

The traits may confer an advantage in a particular environment, and can potentially be passed from one generation to another

Question 30

What are ‘epigenetic changes’?

Answer 30

The way different genes are expressed without changing the genetic code

Question 31

Who was Emil Kraepelin (1856 - 1926)?

Answer 31

The credited founder of modern-day psychiatry

Question 32

What is important about Emil Kraepelin?

Answer 32

He published the “Compendium Psychiatric” which became the basis for modern-day psychiatric classification systems

Question 33

What is ‘psychopharmacology’?

Answer 33

A field in psychology that focuses on how substances such as drugs affect the brain and mind

Question 34

Who was Wilhelm Wundt (1832 - 1920)?

Answer 34

The credited father of experimental psychology

Question 35

From whom does the ‘medicalised approach’ to mental illness originate?

Answer 35

Emil Kraepelin

Question 36

What does the ‘biopsychosocial model’ propose?

Answer 36

That biological, psychological and social factors are all important in health and that they interact with each other

Question 37

What is the ‘WEIRD population effect’?

Answer 37

The particular focus of psychological studies on people from the following types of country: - Western - Educated - Industrialised - Rich - Democratic

Question 38

Regarding the WEIRD population effect, what does WEIRD stand for?

Answer 38

- Western - Educated - Industrialised - RIch - Democratic

Question 39

What are the two parts of the nervous system?

Answer 39

- Central nervous system - Peripheral nervous system

Question 40

Which type of neurons carry information from the PNS to the CNS?

Answer 40

Afferent neurons

Question 41

Which type of neurons carry information from the CNS to the PNS?

Answer 41

Efferent neurons

Question 42

What is the function of sensory neurons?

Answer 42

They carry information about both the internal and external environment to the CNS from the PNS

Question 43

What is the function of motor neurons?

Answer 43

They carry signals from the CNS to muscles

Question 44

What is the difference between a hormone and a neurotransmitter?

Answer 44

Hormone: chemical, released from a gland into the blood, circulates the body Neurotransmitter: chemical, released from neurons and acts directly on target cells/organs

Question 45

What are some traits of a pyramidal neuron?

Answer 45

- Cell body shaped like a pyramid - Many dendrites connected to both top of pyramid and its base - The axon emerges from the base of the pyramid

Question 46

What is an axon?

Answer 46

The projection of the neuron which conducts action potentials away from the nerve cell body

Question 47

What are granule cells?

Answer 47

- The smallest and most numerous type of neurons in the brain - Involved in functions ranging from processing visual and motor information to learning and memory