PYSC 1 MIDTERM 2

Mind-Body Unit

• Describe dualism and monism in your own words 

  • Dualism: mind is separate from the brain even if physical body depends on it (think freaky friday and reincarnation)

  • Monism: The mind is the brain (swapping brains would change the person rather than any other organ)

• Describe the placebo effect, and give experimental evidence

  • Pre existing psychological beliefs and ideas lead to physical changes

  • Patients were given a “pain cream” on one side and “control cream” on another side. Recorded spinal cord activity for pain cream however both were control

• Give examples of biological, cognitive, and social functions of emotions

  • Biological; survival, fear to take action 

  • Cognitive; Anger and fear can focus our attention 

  • Social; Fear alerts our pack; seeing people running

•  Explain the role of the autonomic nervous system. What are the two branches of the autonomic nervous system? What are their roles?

  • The role of the ANS is responsible for internal, involuntary processes

    • Flight or fight

  • The two branches of the ANS is the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest)

• Describe James-Lange theory of emotion. What are some issues with this theory?

  • Emotions are a direct result of physiological response

    • However, emotions don't cause a change in heart rate it is the consequence 

• Describe the Schachter-Singer Two Factor theory of emotion

  • Emotions are a consequence of a scary stimulus that we interpret 

• Describe the short-term consequences and long-term consequences of the stress response

  • Short term stress; take action and do things

  • Long term stress; health complications and disorders

• What is the relationship between stress and performance?

  • The relationship between stress and performance follows a U shape curve 

• Define the biopsychosocial view of managing stress

  • A combination of genetics and social environment impact stress levels

Neurons & Nervous System Unit

• What are neurons? Cells that make up the nervous system

• What are the three types of neurons? What is the role of each?

  • Motor Neurons: sends info from brain to body (to move)

  • Sensory Neurons: sends info from body to brain (to feel)

  • Interneurons: sends info from neuron to another

• Describe the role of the following parts of the neuron: cell body (soma), dendrites, axon, myelin sheath, axon terminal

  • Soma:contains visual cell structure

  • Dendrites: receive signals from neurons

  • Axon: cells transmits signals down the length of the axon

  • myelin sheath: insulator speeds up signals to transmit faster

  • Axon terminal: end of neuron, sends signals to other neurons

• Define the action potential

  • All or none electrical charge that travels along the axon

• How does the intensity of the stimulus affect the action potential?

  • The intensity of the stimulus does not affect the size of the action potential instead they become more frequent 

• Describe the steps of neural communication, from an action potential arriving at an axon terminal to neurotransmitter action stopping

  • Action potential travels to axon terminal of presynaptic neuron to the postsynaptic neuron and releases neurotransmitters (communication between two called a synapse)

• Distinguish between agonists and antagonists for drugs. 

  • Agonist increase neurotransmitters

  • Antagonist decrease neurotransmitters

    • Preventing reuptake increases NT (agonist) and reuptake decreases NT (antagonist)

  • Note: You do NOT need to know what specific drugs do and whether they are agonists/antagonists. But if I give you the effect of a drug (e.g., “prevents reuptake”) you will need to categorize it as an agonist or antagonist

• What is the central nervous system? The peripheral nervous system?

  • CNS: brain and spinal cord

  • Peripheral nervous system: sensory neurons and motor neurons; somatic skeletal and ANS

• In Neuroscience Part 1 and Part 2 slides, describe the basic role of all brain regions marked with a solid orange box on the slides.

  • These are the following regions: Brainstem, Thalamus, Spinal cord, Cerebellum, portions of the limbic system (Hippocampus, Amygdala), portions of the cortex (Frontal lobe, Parietal lobe, Occipital lobe, Temporal lobe) 

  • Brainstem: The basic life support (breathing, blood, heart rate) + evolutionarily in the middle

  • Thalamus: relay station for sensory info from eyes + skin → thalamus → brain

  • Cerebellum: “little brain” in back of head controls fine motor + muscle memory

  • Spinal Cord: transmits info to and from the brain organizes reflexes and rhythmic skeletal movements

  • Limbic System: Border that separates the evolutionarily old part of the brain from new

    • Amygdala: emotions (fear)

    • Hippocampus: memory and navigation (patient H)

  • Cortex: complex abilities 

    • Occipital Lobe: visual processing

    • Parietal Lobe: attention, sense of touch, spatial awareness

    • Frontal Lobe: planning, personality, judgement

    • Temporal Lobe: hearing and memory

• Explain how the brain shows evolutionary organization

  • The brainstem and thalamus which we depend on for basic functions are in the middle of the brain and most protected

  • Brainstem similar structure to animals 

  • Eventually gained newer complex abilities through cortex 

• Describe the role of the fusiform gyrus

  • Found in the base of the temporal lobe and is for facial recognition

• Describe the potential causes and symptoms of prosopagnosia

  • Genetics or damage to FFG → prosopagnosia; inability to recognize faces, social anxiety

• Describe the cause and symptoms of Capgras syndrome

  • Irrational belief that loved ones are replaced by an imposter; due to the unconscious recognition of love no longer being there however they can still recognize faces

• Which hemisphere of the brain is specialized for language production?

  • Left brain

• Split brain patients have damage to which area?

  • The corpus callosum (connector between right and left hemispheres)

Sensation & Perception

• Define sensation, define perception, and explain the difference between them

  • Sensation: info through sensory organs

  • Perception: organizing and interpreting information

  • Difference between: 

• Describe experimental evidence related to blindsight. Blindsight is likely due to damage in what region?

  • Experiments around blindsight found that a blind patient could still navigate a cluttered hallway and blind patients chose the image of an intact house over the image of a house on fire.

  •  Damage in the V1 causes blindsight

• Define transduction more generally, and describe gustatory transduction

  • The conversion of a physical stimulus into a neural signal

    • The fungiform papilla on tongue that contain 6 taste buds that each contain 150 gustatory cells 

• What pathway does taste information take to the brain?

  • Tastants/food molecules dissolved from saliva cause ion channels to open up, leading to action potentials in taste receptors

  • Nerve fibers are carried out to thalamus then primary taste cortex

• For vision, sound, taste, touch, and smell: define the physical stimulus

  • Vision: light waves

  • Sound: sound waves

  • Taste: food molecules

  • Touch: pressure

  • Smell: odor molecules

• Describe how the pupil helps us adjust to many levels of light

  • It expands and shrinks to adjust to different sensitivities

• Describe the different contributions of rods and cones. Where is each type found in the retina?

  • Rods: more sensitive to light; better for night vision; no color; and lower acuity/sharpness

  • Cones: less sensitive to light; better for well lit; color vision; higher acuity

    • Cones are found in the central fovea 

    • Rods are found in the periphery

• Describe experimental evidence that experience guides perception (e.g., the ambiguous face experiment we discussed in class)

  • Perception leaves multiple interpretations; priming for different images mouse vs a face

• Describe color constancy and why it is useful

  • Stable color appearance

    • We control the interpretation under certain colored lighting despite receiving a diff wavelength of light

• In class, I call illusions “principled mistakes.” What does this mean?

  • Illusions happen in context because our brain is working to interpret it in a way that makes sense

• Explain why some people see the dress as black and blue, while others see it as white and gold. What assumptions about the lighting is each group making?

  • Some people see the dress as blue and black because they view it under yellow lighting while others view the dress as white and gold because they view it under blue lighting.

• What is the most common cause of colorblindness?

  • Genetics or injury →missing one of your color receptors

Psychopathology & Treatment

• What do I mean when I say that defining “atypicality” is hard?

  • It is hard to find and know where to draw the line of atypicality and neurotypical

• What is the DSM-5? What information does it provide? What information does it not provide? 

  • A medical document that makes a criteria for disorders, however doesnt include explanations 

• What are some benefits of standard diagnostic criteria like the DSM-5?

  • Creates language around disorders

• What does polythetic mean in the context of clinical diagnoses?

  • Different combinations of signs interlap between disorders

• What does it mean that diagnoses are often categorical? What are the drawbacks to this?

  • that there are different severities and categorical doesn't include people close to that line 

• Explain the potential for bias in the DSM-5

  • Racial and gender bias may misdiagnose based on own judge ments

• Describe the Diathesis-Stress model

  • the diathesis explains that genetics and environment go hand in hand with susceptibility of disorders

• Describe the symptoms of schizophrenia

  • Hallucinations 

• Describe evidence for a genetic component to schizophrenia. How do we know that schizophrenia is not 100% genetic?

  • You could be 

• What are some environmental factors that increase the likelihood of developing schizophrenia?

  • In utero SCZ, environmental traumaor stressors, such as maternal infections or malnutrition during pregnancy, have been linked to a higher risk of developing schizophrenia later in life. Additionally, exposure to psychosocial stressors, urban upbringing, and substance abuse can further contribute to the development of the disorder.

• Describe evidence from twin studies about developing depression

• Describe the following types of psychotherapy: psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy, humanistic therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy. 

  • Psychoanalytic: Freud; talk to patients and judge based on dreams, 

  • Humanistic: Egalitarian approach where therapist did not judge and worked on patients self improvement

  • COG Behavior: Focused on reframing and identifying harmful thinking patterns.

• What are some important ideas from the psychoanalytic approach? What are some limitations?

  • it helped create talk therapy 

  • limits; was not a representative group and has bias

• Describe the benefits and limitations of antidepressants

  • Takes time to work 

  • Is based on individual if it works

• We talk about physiological correlates of schizophrenia (e.g., ventricle size). What can this tell us? What does this NOT tell us?

  • It tells us that it correlates to scz but not causal. 

• What is treatment additivity?

  • Doing two treatments at once eg pills and talk therapy