Biopsych

Fight or Flight: Evaluation

- Gender Bias (Taylor)

- Additional freeze (Gray)

Fight or Flight: Gender bias research

Taylor (2000)

Females display tend and befriend

Higher levels of oxytocin and more advantageous than abandoning offspring

Research only conducted on males - beta bias

Fight or Flight: + Freeze Research

Gray (1988)

Most animals display freeze before fight or flight

Allows focusing of attention

Lobes

Frontal

Parietal

Occipital

Temporal

Cortexes

Motor

Somatosensory

Visual

Auditory

Broca’s Area: Key Words

Frontal lobe

Production

Lack fluency

Difficulty with prepositions

‘Tan’

Wernicke’s Area: Key Words

Temporal lobe

Comprehension

Fluent

Meaningless

Neologisms

Localisation of Function: Evaluation

- Equipotentiality (Lashley)

+ Support from research & case studies

I/D: Nomothetic

Localisation of Function: Equipotentiality Research

Lashley

Removed areas of cortex in rats learning maze

No area more important

Suggest higher cognitive processes aren’t localised

Localisation of Function: Research Support

Tan (Broca’s Area)

Phineas Gage (Amygdala/Frontal Lobe)

Tulving - PET Scans

Split Brain Research

Sperry & Gazzaniga

11 split brain patients due to epilepsy compared to those without split brain

Fixate on central point

Stimulus projected on a side for 1/10 sec

Asked to draw/name

Lateralisation: Evaluation

+ Support - Sperry

- Lateralisation changes with age

I/D: Biological Determinism - Certainty is useful

Split Brain Research: Methodology Evaluation

+ Well designed and standardised

- Small sample and confounding variable of medication

- Replication is rare

Lateralisation: Across Ages Research

Szaflarski et al (2006)

Language became more lateralised as age increased

After 25, lateralisation decreased with each decade

Plasticity: Key Concepts

Neural pathways

Experience

Frequency

Cognitive pruning

Plasticity Examples

Learning juggling

Playing video games

Meditation

Negative effects

Plasticity: Juggling Research

Boyke et al (2008)

Evidence of plasticity in 60 year old taught juggling

Found increases in grey matter in visual cortex

Reverse when practise stopped

Plasticity: Video games research

Kuhn et al (2014)

Practised Super Mario for at least 30 mins a day for 2 months

Found increased grey matter in several areas

More syanptic connection related to spatial navigation, planning, working memory and motor performance

Plasticity: Meditation

Davidson et al

8 Tibetan monks and 10 volunteers who’d never meditated

Asked to meditate for short periods

Increased gamma waves (coordinate neurons) in monks even before meditation

May also produce permanent changes

Plasticity: Negative Effects

Marijuana linked with excess dopamine release

Ketamine linked with permanent memory issues

Old age associated with dementia

Plasticity: Evaluation

+ Animal Study support (Kempermann)
H Animals not humans

+ Taxi Driver study (Maguire)

- Plasticity reduces with age but still possible

I/D: nomothetic

Plasticity: Animal Study

Kempermann (1997)

12 rats in basic and 12 in complex cages

Increased neural activity in hippocampus (spatial awareness and memory function)

Plasticity: Human Study

Maguire (2000) - Taxi Driver Study

16 right handed male taxi driver vs control non taxi driver

MRI showed significantly larger posterior hippocampus (spatial awareness and navigation)

Functional Recovery: Key Concepts

After truama

Rewiring

Mechanisms for recovery

Mechanisms for Recovery

Axon Sprouting

Recruitment of Homologous Areas

Denervation Supersensitivity

Stem Cells

Functional Recovery: Evaluation

+ Stem cells - Animal research support

- Age differences in functional recovery

I/D Biological determinism

Functional Recovery: Research

Tajri et al (2013)

Rats with brain injury given two groups

One received transplants of stem cells, other received placebo

3 months later, stem cell showed clear development of neuron like cells and solid stream of cells migrating

Ways of Studying the Brain

fMRI

EEG

ERPs

Post Mortem

fMRI: Key Concepts

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Structure & Function

Blood flow

Oxygen

Deoxygenated haemoglobin

Different magnetic quality

fMRI: Evaluation

+ Spatial resolution is high (1-2mm)

- Temporal resolution is low (1-4 secs)

- Expensive

EEG: Key Concepts

Electroencephalogram

Function

Electrical impulses

Electrodes

Intensity, size and frequency

EEG & ERPs: Evaluation

+ High temporal resolution (1-10 millisecs)

+ Effective diagnostic tool

- Low spatial resolutions (only detects cerebrum activity)

ERPs: Key Concepts

Event-Related Potentials

Function

Voltage change

Stimulus

Specific

Averaged over presentations

Filtered out EEG

Post Mortem Examination: Key Concepts

Structure

Study alive behaviour

Study after death

Correlation

Post Mortem Examination: Evaluation

+ Excellent spatial resolution

+ Generates hypothesis for further study

- No temporal validity

- Only correlational

- Ethics

Circadian Rhythms: