Biopsychology Y2

What is the CNS made up of

Brain and spine

What is the peripheral nervous system made of

Autonomic and somatic nervous system

Draw a synapse

yes

What is inhibition

Neuron becomes more negatively charged

Less likely to fire

What is excitation

Neuron becomes more positively charged

More likely to fire

What is summation

Excitatory and inhibatory influences summed before charge is passed

eg. if more inhibitory than excitatory, neuron does not fre

What is localisation of function

Idea that different parts of the brain perform different tasks

Where are the two hemispheres of the brain

Cerebrum

Label the brain structure

yes

What is Broca’s area involved in

Language production

What is Wernicke’s area involved in

Language comprehension

Symptoms of Wernicke’s aphasia

Fluent yet senseless language - neologisms

Strengths for localisation of function

• Dogherty et al found neurosurgery effective

• Petersen et al found brain scans proved Wernicke’s area

Limitations for localisation of function

• Lashley found no specific area of brain for rats to learn routes

• Dick et al found modern researchers think language is not limited to Broca’s and Wernicke’s centres

• Phineas Gage is case study

What does brain plasticity mean?

Brain is able to change throughout life

What is synaptic pruning?

Unused synapses are deleted

What did Maguire et al find in their study?

London taxi drivers had greater volume in posterior hippocampus than control group

What is functional recovery?

After brain damage, other areas of the brain can adapt and compensate for this

How does functional recovery work?

Axonal sprouting - new nerve endings grow to connect with other undamaged neurons

Denervation supersensitivity - axons become more aroused to send stronger signals to make up for lost neurons

Recruitment of homologous areas on opposite side of brain

Limitation of plasticity

Negative behavioural consequences - adaptation to drug use increases vulnerability to dementia

Who found adaptation to drug use increases vulnerability to dementia?

Medina et al

Strength of brain plasticity?

Life long ability - Bezzola et al found golf training at 60 increased motor cortex

Example of endogenous pacemaker

Superchiasmatic nucleus

What did Siffre find in the cave study?

Internal clock is around 25hours

Folkard et al findings

Little influence of exogenous zeitgeber on internal body sleep wake cycle

Strength of research into sleep wake cycle

Medical treatments

Can understand effects of desychnronisation

Who found 3x risk of heart disease when desycronisation?

Knutsson

Who found heart attacks are more common in the morning

Bonten et al

Limitations of research into circadian rhythmns

Individual differences (Czeisler et al) sleep wake hours vary from 13-36 hours

Who found evidence for menstruel synchronation?

Mclintock and Stern

Example of ultraradian rhythms

Sleep cycle

Strengths of mentstruel synchronisation study

Strong evolutionary basis

Limitations of mentstruel synchronisation study

Confounding variables - eg. diet and exercise

Real world applications of understanding ultraradian rhythms

ignore

Evidence for SCN

Decoursey found chipmunks with damaged SCNs died

Limitation of SCN research

SCN may obscure other body clocks - peripheral oscillators (Damiola)

May be interactionist system

Limitations of the effects of exogenous zeitebergers

Miles case study - blind boy was unaffected by any external factors

Where is Brocas’s area

Left frontal lobe

Where is Wernicke’s area

Right tempoural lobe

What side controls movement of each side

Contralateral wiring so right hand controls left hand side movement

Explain vision in terms of lateralisation

Left visual field goes to right hand and right visual field goes to left

What is each side in control of (in terms of Sperry)?

Right hand side can comprehend what is seen but cannot verbalise

Left hand side can verbalise

Describe Sperry experiment

11 split brain operated patients

Describe Sperry results

When RVF sees, LHS of brain can verbalise

When LVF sees, RHS cannot verbalise but can comprehend

Strength of lateralisation

Can be seen in connected brains - Fink et al found PET scans showed different sides for different tasks

Limitations of lateralisation

RH synthesiser and LH analyser may be wrong - Nielsen et al found no idea of dominance

Generalisation from Sperry questionable

fMRI

Detects changes in blood oxygenation and flow to produce 3D activation map

What device measures electrical activity and shows all waves

Electrocephalogram

Event related potential

Specific waves identified to events which trigger them

Post mortem brain examination

Comparison of dead brain to neurotypical brain

fMRI strengths

No radiation

High spatial resolution

fMRI limitations

5 sec lag means poor tempoural resolution

EEG strength

Used for sleep stages

High tempoural resolution

EEG limitations

Background information means stimuli and response can’t be detected

ERP strengths

More specific

High tempoural resolution

ERP limitations

Lack of standardisation in ERP methodology

Background noise elimination not always possible

Post mortem strengths

Foundation

Can be used in autopsy

Post mortem limitations

Ethics

Trauma and decay