A2 biopsychology

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define "localisation of function"
the theory that different areas of the brain are responsible for different behaviours, processes or activities within the brain
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what is the outer layer of both hemispheres of the brain called
the cerebral cortex: covering the inner parts of the brain
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define the "motor area"
a region of the frontal lobe responsible for voluntary movements by sending signals to muscles in the opposite side of the body
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define the "somatosensory area"
region of the pariental lobe that receives incoming sensory info from the skin to produce sensations related to temp, pain etc. the amount of somatosensory devoted to a particular area denotes it's sensitivity
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define the "visual area"
region in the occipital lobe that receives and processes visual info(colour, shape, movement). each eye sends info from the right visual cortex to the left visual area
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define the "auditory area"
region in the temporal lobe that is responsible for analysing and processing auditory info. the primary auditory area is involved in processing simple features of sounds such as loudness, pitch and tempo.
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define "broca's area"
an area of the frontal lobe in the left hemisphere(for most people) responsible for speech production. Broca's aphasia leads to slow speech lacking in fluency.
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what did broca discover
The Broca’s area is named after Paul Broca, who discovered this region while treating a patient named Leborgne, who was more commonly referred to as ‘Tan’. Tan could understand spoken language;he was unable to produce coherent words apart from "tan"
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define "wernicke's area"
another language centre located in the left temporal lobe(for most people) involved in language comprehension. people with damage(wernicke's aphasia) produce fluent, meaningless sentences and struggle to comprehend language
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what did wernicke conclude
Wernicke concluded that language involves a separate motor and sensory region. The motor region is located in Broca’s area, and the sensory region is located in Wernicke’s area.
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evaluate localisation of the brain
peterson: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, suggesting these areas have different functions
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evaluate localisation of the brain
lashley:the equipotentiality theory,which suggests that the basic motor and sensory functions are localised but higher mental functions are not. he claimed that intact areas of the cortex can take over responsibility for specific cognitive functions
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evaluate localisation of the brain
plasticity:when the brain becomes damaged through illness or accident, the brain is able to reorganise itself in an attempt to recover lost function
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define plasticity
plasticity describes the brain's tendency to change and adapt(functionally and physically) as a result of experience and new learning
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define functional recovery
a form of plasticity. following damage through trauma, the brain's ability to redistribute or transfer functions usually performed by a damaged area to other, undamaged areas
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describe how the number of synaptic transmissions changes over the human lifetime
during infancy, the number of synaptic transmissions grows, peaking at 15,000 at age 2-3 years(Gopnick et al). this is twice the amount in the adult brain. rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used ones are strengthened-synaptic pruning
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why does snyaptic pruning take place
recent research suggests that at any time in life existing neural connections can change or new nueral connections can form,as a result of learning and experience.
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describe some research into plasticity
maguire(2000): found that there was significantly more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus, the part assosiated with the development of spatial and navigational skills, than in a matched control group of bus drivers.
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cont.
as part of the training, london cabbies complete "the knowledge", which assesses the recall of routes, it appears that learning this has altered the structure of the brain. the longer they had been in the job, the more structural change(+ correlation
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describe supporting evidence to maguire et al's findings
deaganski(2006): imaged the brains of medical students three months and after their exams. learning-induced changes were seen to have occurred in the posterior hippocampus and parietal cortex presumably as a result of the exam.
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describe more supporting evidence for plasticity
mechelli et al(2004): found larger parietal cortex in the brains of people who were bilingual compared to those who were monoligual.
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desrcribe functional recovery to the brain after trauma
after trauma, healthy brain areas healthy brain areas can take over functions of those that are damaged, destroyed or even missing. neuroscientists suggest that this process can happen quickly after trauma(spontaneuous recovery); some weeks or months
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what happens in the brain during recovery
the brain is able to rewire and reorganise itself by forming new synaptic connections close to the area of damage. this is done by axona sprouting, reformation of blood vessels, recruitment of similar areas of the opposite side of the brain
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what is axonal sporouting
the growth of new nerve endings which conenct with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathaways
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describe recruitment of similar areas to the opposite side of the brain to perform specific tasks
an example would be if broca's area was damaged on the left side of the brain, the right-sided equivalent would carry out the function. after time, the functionality may then shift back to the left side
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Evaluate plasticity and functional recovery
Research has contributed to the field of neurorehablitation. Following illness or injury to the brain, spontaneous recovery tends to slow down after a few weeks--> physical therapy,electrical stimulation, movement therapy development. intervention
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Evaluate plasticity and functional recovery
negative plasticity: prolonged drug use results in poorer cognitive function as well as increased risk of dementia(Medina et al 2007). approx 70% of amputees develop the continued experience of sensations of the missing limb as if it was still there.
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cont.
these sensations are unpleasant, painful and are thought to be due to cortical reorganisation in the somatosensory cortex that occurs as a result of limb loss
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Evaluate plasticity and functional recovery
age: functional plasticity tends to reduce with age. the brain has a greater propensity for reorganisation in childhood as it is constantly adapting to new experience.
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describe research contradicting this
bezzola et al(2012) demonstrated how 40 hours of golf training produces changed in the neural representation of movement in p's aged 40-60. fMRI- observed reduced motor cortex activity in the golfers compared to a control group. more ef. af training.
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what is hemispheric lateralisation
Lateralisation is the idea that the two halves of the brain are functionally different and that each hemisphere has functional specialisations, e.g. the left is dominant for language, and the right excels at visual motor tasks.
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what is split-brain research
a series of studies which began in the 1960s involving epileptic patients who had experienced a surgical separation of the hemispheres of the brain. this allows researchers to investigate the extent to which brain function is lateralised
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SPLI
sperry(1968): involved a group of individuals who had undergone the same surgical procedure(commissurotomy in which the corpus callosum and other tissues
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

what is the outer layer of both hemispheres of the brain called

Back

the cerebral cortex: covering the inner parts of the brain

Card 3

Front

define the "motor area"

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

define the "somatosensory area"

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

define the "visual area"

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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