Biopsychology

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  • Created by: D.P.Giles
  • Created on: 07-06-21 09:38
What is the Central Nervous System comprised of?
The brain and the spinal cord.
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What is the role of the Central Nervous System?
To receive information from the senses and to control the body's responses.
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What is the Peripheral Nervous System comprised of?
Millions of neurons.
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What is the role of the Peripheral Nervous System?
To transmit information between the body and the Central Nervous System.
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What are the components of the Peripheral Nervous System?
The somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system
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What is the role of the Somatic Nervous System?
To receive information from the outside world through sense organs and to transmit the information back to the CNS. It then transmits information from the CNS which directs the muscles on how to act.
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What is the role of the Autonomic Nervous System?
Transmits information between the CNS and internal body organs.
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What are the components of the Autonomic Nervous System?
The sympathetic and parasympathetic branch.
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What is the parasympathetic state?
How a person usually feels. Their heart rate and breathing is normal and the rest of their
bodily functions are normal.
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What happens when a threat is detected by the CNS?
The sympathetic branch of the Autonomic Nervous System is triggered. This sends a message to the adrenal medulla, which releases the hormone, adrenaline, in the bloodstream. This triggers the physiological arousal for the fight or flight response.
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What is the role of the endocrine system?
Is made up of various glands that produce hormones which are secreted into the bloodstream and affect any cell in the body that has the receptor for that hormone.
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Give an example of a hormone, the gland that produces it and it's affect on the body.
Thyroxine is produced by the thyroid gland. It increases the metabolic rate cells and increases heart rate.

Adrenaline is produced by the adrenal medulla. It increases heart rate and blood flow to the muscles and brain.
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What is the role of the pituitary gland?
Acts as the 'master gland' whose primary function is to influence the release of hormones from other glands.
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What is the fight or flight response?
A sequence of activity within the body that is triggered when the body prepares itself for defending or attacking or running away to safety.
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What are some of the biological changes associated with the fight or flight response?
Increased heart and breathing rate. Dilation of pupils. Inhibited digestion and saliva production. Contracted rectum.
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What are some of the biological changes associated with the rest and digest response?
Decreased heart and breathing rate. Constriction of pupils. Stimulated digestion and saliva production. Relaxed rectum.
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What are neurons?
Nerve cells that process and transmit messages through electrical and chemical signals.
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What is the role of dendrites?
They carry impulses from neighboring neurons to the cell body.
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What is the role of a cell body?
It contains the nucleus which contains all the genetic material of the cell.
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What is the role of an axon?
It carries the impulse away from the cell body.
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What is the role of myelin sheath?
It protects the axon and speeds up transmission.
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What is the role of the nodes of Ranvier?
It speeds up the impulse by forcing it to jump across these gaps on the axon.
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What is the role of the terminal buttons?
Allows communication with the neighboring neuron.
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What is the role of a sensory neuron?
Carries nerve impulses from sensory receptors to the spinal cord and the brain.
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What is the role of a sensory neuron?
These allow sensory and motor neurons to communicate with each other.
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What is the role of a motor neuron?
Forms synapses with muscles and controls their contractions.
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How do the types of neurons differ?
Function

Size of dendrites

Size of axon
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What is synaptic transmission?
The process of communication between two neurons.
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What are neurotransmitters?
Chemical messengers that allow communication between neurons.
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Where are neurotransmitters stored?
Terminal buttons.
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How does synaptic transmission start?
A neuron goes from it’s negatively charged, resting state to it’s positively charged, activated state for a split second. This causes an action potential to occur. This creates an electric impulse which travels down the axon.
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What happens when an impulse reaches the end of a pre-synaptic neuron?
Neurotransmitters diffuse across the synapse.
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What happens after neurotransmitters diffuse across the synapse?
They bond with the receptor sites on the post-synaptic neuron.
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What happens after neurotransmitters with the receptor sites on the post-synaptic neuron?
The chemical message is converted back into an electrical impulse.
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What is excitation?
It results in a neuron being more positively charged, increasing the chance of it carrying an electrical impulse and pass on the message.
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What is inhibition?
It results in a neuron being more negatively charged, decreasing the chance of it carrying an electrical impulse and pass on the message.
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What is localisation of function?
The belief that specific areas of the brain are associated with specific cognitive processes.
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Where are motor cortexes located?
The frontal lobe.
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Where is the visual centres located?
The occipital lobe.
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Where are the somatosensory cortexes located?
The parietal lobe.
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Where are the auditory centres located?
The temporal lobe.
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Where is Wernicke's area located?
The left temporal lobe.
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Where is Broca's area located?
The left frontal lobe.
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What is the role of the motor cortex?
Deals with voluntary motor movement.
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What is the role of the somatosensory cortex?
Produces sensations of touch, pressure, pain, and temperature and localises it specific body regions.
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What is the role of the visual centres?
Processes visual information.
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What is the role of the auditory centres?
Processes auditory information.
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What is the role of Wernicke's area?
Involved in the comprehension of language.
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What is the role of Broca's area?
Involved in speech production.
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Name a strength of localisation of function?
Brain scans - different areas are active during different tasks.

Case studies - Phineas Gage

Neurosurgical evidence - lobotomy patients suggest mental health conditions are localised.
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Name a weakness of localisation of function?
Plasticity

Individual differences - language areas.

Case studies - not generalisable.
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What is hemispheric lateralisation?
This refers to the fact that some mental processes in the brain are mainly specialised to either the right or the left hemisphere.
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What is split brain research?
Research that studies individuals who have been subjected to the surgical separation of the two hemispheres of the brain as a result of severing the corpus collosum.
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What is the corpus callosum?
A bundle of nerve fibres that allows communication between the left and right hemisphere.
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Name three of the four tasks that Sperry gave participants?
Language task
Recognition by touch
Composite words
Matching faces
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According to Sperry's study what was the left hemisphere of the brain responsible for?
Speech and language
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According to Sperry's study what was the right hemisphere of the brain responsible for?
Visuo-spatial processing and facial recognition.
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According to the language task in Sperry's study what are the different hemispheres responsible for?
Right - Reported nothing.

Left - Was able to name the item.
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According to the recognition in Sperry's study what are the different hemispheres responsible for?
Right - Was able to identify the similar item.

Left - Reported nothing.
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According to the composite words in Sperry's study what are the different hemispheres responsible for?
Right - Able to select the item, but unable to name.

Left - Able to name, but unable to select the item.
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According to the matching faces in Sperry's study what are the different hemispheres responsible for?
Right - Better at recognising the picture.

Left - Better at describing the picture.
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Name a strength of split brain research?
Methodological strengths - extremely well coordinated research.
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Name a weakness of split brain research?
Individual differences - language areas.

Confounding variables - epilepsy

Difficult to generalise - epilepsy and small samples
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What is plasticity?
15,000 at 2 to 3 years old.
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What do the synaptic connections peak at and when do they peak?
15,000 at 2 to 3 years old.
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What is synaptic pruning?
When rarely used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened.
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Name a strength of plasticity?
Research support - taxi drivers

Practical application - neurorehabilitation

Negative plasticity - drug use or phantom limb
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What is functional recovery?
Refers to the recovery of abilities and mental processes that have been compromised as a result of brain injury or disease.
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How do neuroscientists suggest functional recovery occurs?
Quickly after trauma (spontaneous recovery) and then slow down after several weeks or months. At this point the person may require rehabilitative therapy to further recovery.
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What processes occur during functional recovery?
Axonal sprouting.

Reformation of blood vessels.

Recruitment of homologous (similar) areas on the opposite side of the brain to perform specific tasks.
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Name a strength of functional recovery?
Research support from animal studies - Tajiri's rats

Educational attainment and functional recovery - the higher a person's ‘cognitive reserve’, the greater their chances of a disability free recovery.
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What is a fMRI?
fMRIs work by detecting oxygenation changes and created 3D images showing which parts are involved in different tasks.
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Name a strength of a fMRI?
Non-invasive and therefore risk free.

Very high spatial resolution.
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Name a weakness of a fMRI?
Expensive compared to other techniques.

Only works if a person remains completely still.

Poor temporal resolution.
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What is an EEG?
Measure abnormal patterns of activity in the brain potentially indicative neurological abnormalities such as epilepsy, tumours and sleep disorders. They do this by measuring electrical activity within the brain rather electrodes.
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Name a strength of an EEG?
Invaluable in diagnosis of the conditions like epilepsy.

Contributed to our understanding of the stages of sleep.

High temporal resolution.
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Name a weakness of an EEG?
Not useful for pinpointing the exact source of neuronal activity.

It also doesn’t allow researchers to distinguish between activities originating in different but adjacent locations.
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What is an ERP?
ERPs remove the noise from EEGs by using a statistical averaging technique to isolate these responses. This allows events that may be of interest to neuroscientists to be identified.
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What is the strength of an ERP?
ERPs bring much more specificity to the measurements of neural processes than EEGs.

Excellent temporal resolution.
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What is a weakness of an ERP?
A lack of standardisation in in ERP methodology between different studies makes it difficult to confirm findings.

All background noise and extraneous material must be completely eliminated to establish pure data. This isn't always possible.
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What is a post-mortem examination?
The analysis of a person’s brain following their death.
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What is a strength of a post-mortem examination?
Post mortem examinations were vital in providing a foundation for early understanding of key processes in the brain.

Post-mortem studies also improve medical knowledge and help generate hypotheses for future studies.
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What is a weakness of a post-mortem examination?
Observed damage may be due to unrelated trauma or decay as opposed to the deficits under review. Damage may therefore attributed to the wrong cause.

Patients may be unable to provided informed consent.
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What is a circadian rhythm?
A pattern of behaviour that occurs or recurs approximately every 24 hours.
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Name a circadian rhythm.
Sleep-wake cycle

Core body temperature

Hormone production
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Explain the sleep-wake cycle.
Dictates when we should be sleeping and when we should be awake. Keeps us awake during the day and prompts us to sleep when it’s dark.
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Explain core-body temperature as a circadian rhythm.
Core body temperature is at it’s lowest at 4:30am. Rises in the last hours of sleep making people feel more alert before they wake up. Highest at 6pm making people more drowsy.
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Name a strength of circadian rhythms?
Practical applications - shift workers

Case studies - Siffre
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Name a weakness of circadian rhythms?
Individual differences - larks and owls

Dependence on case studies - not generalisable.
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What is an infradian rhythm?
Cycles that last longer than 24 hours.
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Name an infradian rhythm.
Seasonal Affective Disorder

Menstrual Cycle
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Explain Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Melatonin secreted overnight until dawn when there is an increase in light. Knock on effect for serotonin production in the brain which is linked with depressive symptoms. This results in a depressive disorder with a seasonal pattern of onset.
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Explain the menstrual cycle.
Female reproductive cycle is known as the menstrual cycle. Governed by hormone levels that regulate ovulation. Cycle ranges between 23 and 36 days.
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Name a strength of infradian rhythms.
Practical applications - treatments of SAD

Research support - mate preference changes with menstrual cycle
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Name a weakness of infradian rhythms.
Methodological limitations - self-reporting methods and confounding variables may impact investigations.
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What is an ultradian rhythm?
More than one cycle every 24 hours.
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Name an ultradian rhythm.
Sleep stages
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Explain the sleep stages.
Five distinct stages of sleep over the course of a 90 minute cycle.
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What are the five stages of sleep?
Stages 1 and 2 - Light sleep

Stages 3 and 4 - Deep sleep

Stage 5 - REM sleep
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Name a strength of ultradian rhythms.
Dreaming associated with REM sleep
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Name a weakness of ultradian rhythms.
Individual differences in sleep stages
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What is an endogenous pacemaker?
Mechanisms within the body that govern the internal, biological rhythms.
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Name an example of a endogenous pacemaker.
The suprachiasmatic nucleus

The pineal gland
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What is the suprachiasmatic nucleus?
A tiny bundle of nerve cells located in the hypothalamus in each hemisphere of the brain. It is one of the primary endogenous pacemakers in the mammalian species (including humans) and is influential in maintaining circadian rhythms such as the sleep/wake
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Name a strength of endogenous pacemakers.
Research support - Ralph's hamsters
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What is an exogenous zeitgeber?
An environmental cue, such light, that helps to regulate the biological clock in an organism.
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Name an example of an exogenous zeitgeber.
Light

Social cues
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Explain light as a exogenous zeitgeber.
It can reset the body’s main endogenous pacemaker, the SCN, and thus plays a role in the maintenance of the sleep/wake cycle.
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Explain social cue as a exogenous zeitgeber.
Mealtimes and social activities may compensate for the absence of other zeitgebers such as light.
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Name a strength of exogenous zeitgeber.
Research support - Campbell and Murphy light pad

Practical application - effective way of avoiding jet lag
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Card 2

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What is the role of the Central Nervous System?

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To receive information from the senses and to control the body's responses.

Card 3

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What is the Peripheral Nervous System comprised of?

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Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

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What is the role of the Peripheral Nervous System?

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Card 5

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What are the components of the Peripheral Nervous System?

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