Psychology Midterm Exam - Biopsychology: Biology, Localization, Animal Ethics, Hormones, All studies (WIP)

What is Localization?

the idea that specific parts of the brain do specific things

What is the cortex?

a layer of neurons with a folded surface covering the brain

What is the cortex associated with?

higher-order functions

What is the general role of the amygdala?

memory, emotion, fear

What is the general role of the hippocampus?

learning, memory, transferring short-term memory to long-term, spatial orientation

What does AMPRCE stand for?

Aims, methods, procedure, conclusion, evaluation, use for describing studies

What is the general role of the basal ganglia?

coordinating movement, motor control, learning new motor skills, cognitive function, behavior by reward

What is the role of the prefrontal cortex

decision making, reasoning, personality expression, maintaining social appropriateness (complex cognitive behaviors)

What is the role of the Insular Cortex?

higher cognition, involvement in self awareness, regulation of emotions

What is the role of the Brain Stem?

fight or flight response, anxiety and stress hormones, dopamine control

What is the role of the Nuclear Accumbens

motivation reward, stress related behavior, associated with obsessive disorders

What is Synaptic growth compared to synaptic pruning?

Synaptic growth is the growth of synapses that are being used often while synaptic pruning is when those synapses shrivel up when they are no longer being used.

What is neuroplasticity?

describes the changes in neural pathways ad synapses due to changes in behavior, environment, thinking, and emotions, as well as changes resulting from bodily injury

What are neurons?

nerve cells in the brain that emit chemical signals to one another

What are neurotransmitters?

used to connect signals from one neuron to the next

What are synapses?

gaps between neurons which act like a site for chemical and electrical signals to pass through

What is synaptic plasticity?

individual neurons can form new connections and break old ones. This depends upon their activity. "Neurons that fire together, wire together. Neurons that fire out of sync, fail to link"

What is dendritic growth?

grow dendrites to provide surface area for synapses with other cells

What main components are included in general synaptic plasticity

Synaptic pruning, synaptic growth, dendritic growth

What is cortical remapping

where one brain area assumes the function of another brain area, often due to injury. There is a limit to how many of the functions this part of the brain can take over.

What is an axon terminal?

The site where synaptic signals happen

Explain the process of neurotransmission

an action potential releases vesicles of neurotransmitters across the synaptic gap where they bind to their prospective receptors on the end of the other neuron's dendritic spine. After sending a signal, the neurotransmitters release from the receptors into the synaptic gap where they are either broken down by enzymes or taken back up into the neuron during reuptake.

What is the myelin sheath?

A fatty insulation covering of the axon

What were the aims of Maguire (2000)?

to demonstrate how cognitive processes may lead to neuroplasticity in the hippocampus specifically by seeing whether the brains of London taxi drivers would be different than normal people

What were the methods used in Maguire (200)?

Had a wide range of ages and was completely correlational and single-blinded. The density of grey matter (specifically in the hippocampus) in the MRI was measured using VBM and pixel counting.

What was the procedure of Maguire (2000)?

Used 16 right-handed male London taxi drivers and compared their MRI scans with a control group's MRI scan.

What were the results of Maguire (2000)?

pixel counting revealed the posterior hippocampi was larger in taxi drivers than the control group while the anterior hippocampi was smaller. There were no other differences in any other part of the brain.

What is the conclusion of Maguire (2000)?

the posterior hippocampus is involved in previously learned spatial information, the anterior hippocampus is involved in encoding new spatial information

What is an evaluation for Maguire (2000)?

Was a quasi-experiment because there was no cause and effect relationship and the independent variable was naturally occurring.

Researchers were unaware of wether they were looking at a taxi driver's brain or a control group's.

People with larger hippocampi don't choose this job purposefully due to years of driving and size correlating positively in the study.

sampling bias of males, regardless that most london taxi drivers are males.

Ethically sound.

What is the aim for Draganski (2004)?

Looks at dendritic branching and pruning.

Whether learning a new skill like juggling would affect the brains of participants

What is the method for Draganski (2004)?

24 people ages between 20 and 24 (21 males, 3 females) compared their MRI scans in a repeated measures design where they taught themselves to juggle. VBM was used to measure the density of grey matter in the MRI scans.

What was the procedure of Draganski (2004)?

Two conditions were created: jugglers and non-jugglers. Both groups got an MRI scan before the experiment. The juggling group learned a three-ball cascade and notified the researchers when they mastered it. They got a MRI scan after this task. They were told not to juggle for three months, then a third scan was taken. The control group remained the same.

What were the results of Draganski (2004)?

The first scan had no differences in the two groups. The second scan made the juggler group have a higher density of grey matter than the control groups. The third scan made the density of grey matter in the juggling group decrease. There was no change in the control group.

What is the conclusion of Draganski (2004)?

juggling relies on visual memory rather than procedural memory

What is the evaluation of Draganski (2004)?

has a cause-and-effect relationship, there was a control group, sample size small, issues with internal validity due to being a field experiment.

What are some values of Animal research?

humans and animals have similar brain structures, there have been life saving treatments made from animal research, generational information (using the full lifespan), used in unethical human situations, highly controlled, inexpensive

What are some limitations of Animal research?

Animals and humans are not identical, to generalize results to humans, more human like animals need to be used (animal testing pyramid), ecological validity issues, ethically alarming

What are ethical considerations about animal research?

cost-benefit analysis, studies should have clear and scientific purposes, the three R's, ethics committee approval, familiarization with the species before conducting the experiment, humane care, euthanization, and experimented animals cannot be released in the wild.

What are the three R's?

Replacement reduction refinement

What are some important points when considering cost-benefit analysis?

Animals do not give verbal consent, Bateson's cube, however there is no real justification for defining ethically sound experimentation

What is Bateson's cube?

determining if a study is ethically sound by comparing quality of research, certainty of health benefit, and animal suffering. If the outcome is "hollow" then it should be done, if it is "solid" then it shouldn't be done

What are some criticisms for the three R's and Bateson's cube?

Bateson's cub is highly subjective,

the three R's

-are ambiguous

-their promotion failed to make a difference in animal studies

- not notable in scientific journals

What is replacement in the three R's?

finding other ways to find solutions for a scientific question being asked, "lower" animals come first

What is Reduction in the three R's?

reducing number of animals used in experiments, minimizing them

What is Refinement in the three R's?

eliminating psychological compounding variables (stress, maintaining humane care)

What are the ethical implications of Replacement?

using less sentient animals, or computerized models may impact the generalizations of the findings. Humans may need to be used to fully generalize the findings.

What are the ethical implications of Reduction?

Reducing sample sizes gives bigger meaning to the outliers, less animals used will increase cooperation in animal studies and more quality findings

What are the ethical implications of Refinement?

pain can alter an animal's behavior changing results. Promoting animal welfare results in more valuable results

what ethical considerations in humans are not seen in animals?

informed consent, anonymity, deception, withdrawal, debriefing

What is reuptake?

the cleaning up of neurotransmitters from the synaptic gap through transport proteins.

What is "action potential"?

a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon

What is the lock and key concept?

the concept that every neurotransmitter has a receptor that it binds perfectly to

What is reuptake?

re-absorbing of neurotransmitters into vesicles through transport proteins

What is an SSRI?

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor, an antagonist and anti-depressant that blocks the reuptake of seratonin

What is the threshold of excitation?

The amount of neurotransmitters binded to receptors needed to fire another action potential

What is the synaptic gap?

the 20-40 nm gap between two neurons

What are excitatory neurotransmitters?

neurotransmitters that initiate an signal to fire

What are inhibitory neurotransmitters?

neurotransmitters that prevent a signal to fire

What are modulatory neurotransmitters?

the most powerful neurotransmitters designed to control how often signals fire.

What are agonist drugs?

chemicals that bind to and stimulate specific receptors mimicking the action of a neurotransmitter at a synapse

What are antagonist drugs?

a chemical drug that blocks the receptor and doesn't activate it using the lock and key concept

What is dopamine?

a feel-good that is responsible for motivation, emotion, and movement. Is inhibitory, excitatory, and modulatory.

What are the consequences of not enough dopamine?

lack of motivation and Parkinson's disease

What are the consequences of too much dopamine?

involuntary movements, hallucinations

What are pheremones?

chemical signals identified through smell that are released and received by other species

What bodily parts do animals have that humans do not that allows them to detect pheremones?

Accessory olfactory bulb and VNO

When did humans once have a VNO?

when they are fetuses

Do people who have a VNO cavity use it?

no, it is disconnected from the brain and is vestigial

What is vestigial?

A structure that is unused in the human body

What is a signaling pheromone?

A signal sent to initiate mating

What are releaser pheromones?

trigger immediate and reversible behaviors

What are primer pheromones?

trigger long term behaviors

Why doesn't pheromone research include animal research?

Due to the fact that animals already are able to identify pheromones because of their special additions.

What are some arguments for pheromones in humans?

other mammals have them, there is evidence of secretion with mothers and babies to engage rooting behavior (Doucet 2009)

what are some arguments against pheromones in humans?

cannot make generalizations from animal research, human mating is impacted by cognitive and sociocultural influences, studies on pheromones cannot be replicated, construct validity issues, small sample sizes, internal validity problems, no functional VNO in humans, too many molecules of scents.

What does CT, CAT stand for

computed tomography, computed axial tomography

How do CAT scans work?

uses x-rays to take 2D measurements in a helical manner

What do CAT scans look for?

they look at structures and detect brain diseases as well as tissues. Smaller structures cannot be looked at however.

What was the aim for Ditzen et al (2009)?

investigating the role of oxytocin in how couples discuss contentious issues

What was the method for Ditzen et al (2009)?

double-blind placebo-controlled design with 47 heterosexual couples. One group had an oxytocin intra-nasal spray while the other had a placebo intra-nasal spray. The levels of cortisol in their saliva was measured throughout

What was the procedure for Ditzen et al (2009)?

After receiving a spray, they were videotaped and engaged in a conflicting topic.

What were the results for Ditzen et al (2009)?

both men and women improved communication and lowered cortisol when there was oxytocin compared to the placebo.

What was the conclusion for Ditzen et al (2009)?

Oxytocin may regulate stress response by suppressing activity of the amygdala, lowering conflict between couples

What does EEG stand for?

electroencephalograph

How does an EEG work?

electrodes placed on the scalp measure electrical activity in neurons

Why do we use EEGs?

to examine exteral brain activity, diagnosis of epilepsy, to investigate sleep disorders

What are some limitations of EEGs?

cannot reach deeper signals in the brain, not spatially accurate

What does PET stand for?

positron emission tomography

How does PET work?

Inject tracers (radioactive isotopes) into blood stream then see which areas are more active depending on where blood goes. Detects gamma rays.

What was the aim of fisher et al (2005)?

to see what specific neural mechanisms are associated with romantic love

What were the methods used in fisher et al (2005)?

using fMRI scans of 10 women and 7 men who were in love for an average of 7.4 months. Using interviews and questionnaires.

What was the procedure of Fisher et al (2005)?

The participants were engaged in a semi-structured interview about the intensity of their love and the completed a Passionate Love Scale. Then the participants looked at a photo of their beloved and a neutral photo for 30 seconds each while being scanned. In between each 30 second interval, they were given a filler task while being scanned, the process was repeated 6 times.

What were the results of Fisher et al (2005)?

increased levels of dopamine when participants looked at their beloved, positive correlation with levels of passion and dopamine level.

What was the conclusion of Fisher et al (2005)?

people are more passionate when looking or engaging with their beloved.

What are hormones?

Chemical messengers that control the growth, differentiation, and metabolism of specific target cells

What are hormones responsible for?

long term processes like growth, metabolism, digestion, and reproduction. Changing the probability that certain behaviors will happen.

Where are hormones released from?

endocrine glands

Where do hormones bind?

target cells for genomic changes

Where is oxytocin produced and released?

produced in hypothalamus and released by pituitary gland

What is the role of oxytocin?

sexual reproduction, child birth, social bonding