biopsychology

what is the human nervous system divided into

1. central nervous system - brain and spinal cord

2. peripheral nervous system- somatic and automatic

What is the autonomic nervous system divided into?

1. Sympathetic Nervous System

2. Parasympathetic Nervous System

brains outer layer

cerebral cortex

what is the cerebral cortex made out of

highly folded grey matter

what is grey matter

tightly packed neurone cell bodies

what is the cerebral cortex involved in

conscious thoughts, emotional, sensory and motor function

what is the left brain associated with

-'rational' part of the brain. -analytical thinking and logical abilities

what is the right brain associated with

-musical and artistic abilities -facial recognition that synthesise information

four lobes in the brain

1. Frontal
2. Parietal
3. Occipital
4. Temporal

what part of the brain is under the cerebral cortex

-primitive area -vital functioning and instinctive behaviour

what is the spinal cord

a bundle or nerves that run from your brain along your backbone

function of the spinal cord

-send nerve signals from the brain to the body and body to the brain -reflex actions like startle response

how is the brain connected to the spinal cord

brain stem

What is the peripheral nervous system?

nerves outside the brain and spinal cord

what is the somatic nervous system

voluntary movements of skeletal muscles that are conscious

what do the nerves of the somatic nervous system do

-carry messages to the eyes, ears and skeletal muscles -transmits information between the CNS and the senses under conscious control

what is the automatic nervous system

-involuntary movements -transmits information from the CNA to the internal organs and non-skeletal muscles

examples of organs and functions involved in the automatic nervous system

intestines, digestion, bladder, public size and cardiac functions

What is the function of the sympathetic nervous system?

-activated in situations requiring energy and arousal, preparing the body for fight or flight responses in stressful situations

examples of functions stimulated by the sympathetic nervous system

1. increased heart rate
2. increased respiratory rate
3. increased blood flow to muscles away from digestive system
4. pupil dilation instead of peripheral vision
5. inhibits saliva flow and bladder control
6. converts glycogen to glucose

when is the parasympathetic nervous system activated

after the threat of danger is passed

What is the function of the parasympathetic nervous system?

allows the body to return to homeostasis after the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, allowing an individual to conserve energy

how does information travel through neurones

in the form of electrical impulses called action potentials

what happens when two neurones are communicating

information changes from an electrical forms into a chemical form called a neurotransmitters between synapses

how does a cell collect information

through dendrites (branch like structures)

what happens after a dendrite collects information

-information is sent to a body cell -weighs up the information received -makes a binary decision to fire its own action potential or not

what is the long extend part of a Neuron cell called

the axon

where does the action potential travel

along the axon to the axon terminal

what does a motor neurone do

sends commands from the CNS to move muscles

what does a sensory neurone do

collects information from sensory organs and sends it to the CNS

where is the cell body of a sensory neurone located

along its axon

what does a relay neurone do

conveys information from one neurone to another

what is different about the structure of a relay neurone

has a short axon

explain the process of synaptic transmission

-action potential reaches the axon terminal in presynaptic neurone -triggers vesicles that contain neurotransmitters to move towards the cell membrane at the axon terminal and burst -releases neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft -neurotransmitters bind to receptors on the post synaptic neurone -triggers a signal in the post synaptic neurone

what happens when a signal is triggered in the post synaptic neurone

-neurotransmitters unbind from the receptors on the post synaptic neurone -float back to the post synaptic neurone which recycles at the reuptake port back into vesicles -any remaining are broken down by enzymes

what effect do neurotransmitters have on post synaptic neurone

excitatory or inhibitory

What do excitatory neurotransmitters do?

make the post-synaptic cell more positively charged and more likely to fire a new electrical impulse

example of an excitatory neurotransmitter

-acetylcholine, involved in memory and movement -more impulses make the mind feel more busy and active

What do inhibitory neurotransmitters do?

make the post-synaptic cell more negatively charged and less likely to fire a new electrical impulse

example of an inhibitory neurotransmitter

-serotonin -makes the mind feel less busy and calmer

What is summation?

-the charge that is resulted as the net effect on the post synaptic neurone -if excitatory neurotransmitters outweigh inhibitory neurotransmitters the neurone will fire its own electrical charge

three types of neurones

Sensory, motor and relay

where are sensory neurones found and how do they work

-peripheral nervous system -respond to stimmulation in sensory receptors in their dendrites -take in information from senses and send signals towards the CNS

where are motor neurones found and how do they work

-peripheral nervous system -carry messages from the CNS to the muscles and glands -produce movement or a response

where are relay neurones found and how do they work

-only CNS -form connections between sensory and motor neurones

how do sensory, motor and relay neurones work together

1. receptors in skin sense the stimulus
2. sensory neurones send electrical impulses towards CNS from the dendrites, along the axon to the axon terminal
3. in the CNS relay neurones carry signal to a motor neurone 4.motor neurone transmits signal away from the CNS to the muscle allowing for action

what is the endocrine system

-network of glands across the body that secrete hormones -hormones travel through the blood to regulate vital functions

where are adrenal glands found, which hormone do they secrete and what process are they involved in

-above kidneys -adrenaline -involved in fight or flight response

where is the pituitary gland found, which hormone do they secrete and what process are they involved in

-brain -oxytocin thyroid stimulation, TSH and ACTH -master gland, stimulating all other glands -TSH in thyroid, ACTH in adrenal glands

where is the thyroid gland found, which hormone do they secrete and what process are they involved in

-throat -thyroxine -regulation of metabolism e.g conversion of food into energy for muscles

where is the parathyroid gland found, which hormone do they secrete and what process are they involved in

-throat -parathyroid hormone -increases the concentration of calcium in the blood from kidneys and the bone

where is the pancreas found, which hormone do they secrete and what process are they involved in

-mid body -insulin -promotes the absorption of glucose from the blood into fat, liver and skeletal muscle cells lowering blood glucose concentration

where are the ovaries found, which hormone do they secrete and what process are they involved in

-beside uterus -oestrogen and progesterone -development and regulation of female reproductive system and secondary sex characteristics

where are the testes found, which hormone do they secrete and what process are they involved in

-beside penis -testosterone

• development and regulation of male reproductive system (testes and prostate) and secondary sex characteristics

where is the penal gland found, which hormone do they secrete and what process are they involved in

-brain -melatonin -regulates sleep-awake cycle

what is the fight or flight response

one way the automatic nervous system helps our body react to threat

how does the fight or flight response work

1. threat detection through senses by the hypothalamus
2. sympathetic and endocrine system is activated
3. pituitary gland releases adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH)
4. ACTH travels through blood to adrenal glands stimulating adrenaline release
5. adrenaline effects heart and breathing rate, public dilation, blood flow 6.when threat is passed parasynthetic nervous system is activated

limitation of the role of adrenaline in the fight or flight response

-cannon did not explain why our responses are not limited to fighting or fleeing when faced with danger through the initial freeze response -gray suggests that the first response to danger is to avoid confrontation, through 'freezing' -during freeze animals are hyper vigilant while they appraise the situation and decide best course of action to threat -is not a full explanation

further limitation of the role of adrenaline in the fight or flight response

-gender bias through beta bias -cannon did research in 1915 on males animals with no studies on females until to 2000. -Taylor suggests that females have a tend and befriend response that involves protecting their offspring and form alliences with other women. flight may be counterintuitive as it puts offspring at risk -androcentristic reasearch for 100 years as reasearchers assumed it could be generalised -highlights beta bias in this area psychology with lack of generalisability

discussion point around the role of adrenaline in the fight or flight response

-may no longer help survival in modern world -useful survival mechanism for ancestors who aced genuinely life threatening situations, may not be applicable to daily modern life which requires less intense biological responses -stressors of modern day life activating this can have negative consequences on health e.g continual activation of sympathetic nervous system continually increasing blood pressure increases risk to damage to blood vessels and heart diseases -now a maladaptive response in modern day life

What does localisation suggest

That the different functions of the brain are founds in specific areas and that different locations are responsible for different behaviours, processes or activities

Where is the motor cortex and what does it do

-Frontal lobe -regulates movement and damaged might results in loss of control of movements

Where is the Somatosensory cortex located and what is its function

-parietal lobe -processes sensory Information as touch. The more stoma sensory area devoted to a certain body part the more sensitive it will be

What is the visual cortex and where is it located

-occipital love -receives and processes visual information, damage might cause blindness

What is the auditory complex and where is it located

-temporal lobe -analyses speech, damage may cause hearing loss

What are the two language centre components in the brain

Broca's area and Wernicke's area

Where is Broca's area found and what is it responsible for

-frontal lobe -speech production, damage may result in an ability to produce words and sentences

Where is Wernicke's area found and what is it responsible for

-temporal lobe -speech comprehension, damage may result in an inability to speak coherent sentences or make sense

Which area of the brain in responsible for language

Left - broca's and Wernicke's

What does damage to Broca's area cause?

Broca's aphasia which is characterised by speech that is slow and lacking in fluency

what did carl wernicke find that led him to claim the wernicke's area

patients who had damage in an area close to the auditory cortex in the left temporal lobe had specific language impairments including the inability to comprehend language and non sensical speech patterns

frontal lobe functions

-creatibvity -planning -impulse control -higher order functions

motor cortex function

body movement opposite side of the body

stomasensory function

pain and touch

parietal lobe functions

sensation, touch, pain, processing

cerebellum function

balance and coordination

brain stem function

basic life support functions e.g breathing and heart rate

a strength of the theory of = localisation of the brain as an explanation

-reaserch evidence that suggests specific areas of the brain are responsible for certain functions -petersen et al used brains scans to demonstrate how wernickes area was active during a listening task and brooks area was active design a reading task -correlates to function as in listening tasks participants are required to understand whats being said, whereas in reading they are required to produce words

another strength of the theory of localisation of the brain as an explanation

-neurosurgical evidence can help us to understand which parts of the brain may be implicated in certain conditions -e,g cingulate gyrus controls motivation and behavioural responses incl pos and negative responses to stimuli. thought to be more active in ocd sufferers as some behaviours to dow with ocd are localised In this area -dougherty reported on 44 ocd parents who had undergone a cingulotomy, which involves curing or burning the cingulate gyrus and 1/3 showed an improvement and 14% showed partial improvement -strongly supportive of symptoms and behaviours of mental disorders are localised

a further strength of the theory of localisation of the brain as an explanation

-clive weaving -damage to his hippocampus through viral infection which caused damage to his semantic and episodic memory but no damage to his procedural memory -suggests that the hippocampus may be involved in semantic or episodic memory, whereas another part of the Brain is involved in procedural memory. if the function was more holistic we would except to see more severe effects across all areas of memory -it is a case study meaning it cannot be generalised reliably to the entire population so provides supporting evidence

weakness of the theory of localisation of the brain as an explanation

-some research that challenges the theory of localisation. lately suggests higher cognitive processes such as learning or decision making are distributed holistically -taught rats to solve a maze, utilising their frontal cortex. he removed 10-50% of areas of cortex in rats and observed if they could still solve the maze -no particular area was shown to be more important in terms of their ability to solve the maze -suggests the process of learning, specifically spatial navigation is not localised but requires every part of the cortex, supports a more holistic multifunctional theory

what is plasticity

the ability of the brain to be flexible and adapt to new situations

how does plasticity relate to localisation

-challenges it -suggests that if a certain area is damaged, other areas can take over their function

what does evidence show in terms of plasticity

-when brain becomes damaged through illness or accident and a particular function has been compromised or lost the rest of the brain appears to recognise itself to recover the function e.g stroke functions and movement

what is language subject to

hemispheric lateralisation as its controlled by the left hemisphere (where brocas and wernickes areas are found)

what does the brain being contralateral for movement, sensation and vision mean

the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body and the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body

what are the two hemispheres of the brain connected by

the corpus callossum

what does the corpus callossum do

allows for both sides of the brain to communicate with each other so information processed by one side of the hemisphere is passed to the other side of the hemisphere

what does split Brain research involve

sperry's investigations and experiments into lateralisation

which individuals did sperry's investigations focalise around

-sperry's investigated people who had undergone a commissurotomy where the corpus callosum and other tissues connecting the two hemispheres where cut down the middle

what did split brain reasearch of people who had undergone a commissurotomy allow for

-to see the extent to which the two hemispheres were specialised for certain function -whether they can perform tasks independently

what was the aim of sperry's experiments

to test hemispheric lateralisation using visual and tactile tasks using a T scope

what was sperry's experimental hypothesis

split brain patients will not be able to verbally describe an image or word that is presented to their left visual field while controls will have no difficulty because this information is processed by the right hemisphere which doesnt contain the language centre

what was sperrys method

-patient asked to focus on the fixation point -image or word was projected very quickly to one or both visual fields -processed by wither left or right visual field -verbal processing was tested by partipants picking or matching up objects out of their sight -participants were then asked to describe/draw the object image or word that had been presented to them

what was different between the results for the control group of sperrys experiment

brain was able to share information between both hemispheres through the corpus callosum giving a complete picture of the visual world

what were the results of sperrys experiment (verbal)

-when a picture or word was projected to the right visual field the patient could easily describe what they saw -when a picture or word was projected to the left visual field the patient could not report what they saw

how does sperrys experiment support hemispheric lateralisation (verbal)

shows that language is processed in the left hemisphere as the patients could only describe what they had seen when it projected to the right visual field

what were the results of sperrys experiment (visual matching)

although patents could not describe what had been shown to their left visual field, they could use their left hand to point to a matching object or picture

how does sperrys experiment support hemispheric lateralisation (visual matching)

the right hemisphere has processed this information and controls the left hand but cannot verbalise what had been shown

what were the results of sperrys experiment (when two words ir pictures were projected)

if two pictures were projected on either side of the visual field they would say that they saw the object on the right visual field but draw the object presented to them through their left visual field

• were not aware that they had drawn a different object to the one that they had seen