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2 effects of environment on physiological processes (8/22) (melatonin…
2 effects of environment on physiological processes (8/22)
INTRODUCTION
the BLA states that all cognitions, emotions and behaviours have a physiological basis
environmental enrichment changes the cerebral cortex + our brain changes our experiences + behaviour
relationship between environment and physiological processes are said to be bi-directional
2 effects;
enrichment on brain plasticity
melatonin on sleep
CONCLUSION
melatonin on sleep
neuroplasticity = brain's ability to reorganise neural pathways (physiology) according to the environmental demands
enrichment on brain plasticity
melatonin = hormone secreted from the pineal gland during darkness (environment) to put our body's in 'sleep mode' (physiology)
2 discussed effect of the environment on physiological processes:
can therefore support the bi-directional relationship exists between environment + physiological processes
neuroplasticity
neuroplasticity = brain's ability to reorganise neural pathways according to the environmental demands
physiological process = structural differences in brain
Maguire et al. (2000)
environment = two year taxi-driver training course (learn roads + routes of London)
demonstrated that the more a person performs a particular activity, the more neuronal connections are formed in part of brain responsible
their particular study concerned taxi drivers
MRI scans of taxi-drivers + control subjects
correlation between time as taxi-driver + vol. of hippocampi
demonstrated that the taxi-driver's environment increased the volume of their hippocampus region
indicates 1 effect of the environment on physiological process
melatonin
melatonin = hormone involved in the sleep cycle
physiological process = sleep
secreted from the pineal gland (base of brain)
environment = amount of day light / darkness
pineal gland = ability to sense changes in light
responds to light by secreting melatonin when dark
melatonin turns the body off by inhibiting the secretion of other hormones that relate to states of wakefulness
SAD = type of depression relate to beginning + end of winter
suggested Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) = related to melatonin levels
short days = reduced exposure to daylight = high levels of melatonin
Avery et al. (2001)
randomly assigned 95 pp's to 3 conditions
dawn simulation at 4:30 am
bright-light therapy
placebo of dim red light at dawn
results: those with placebo red light = experienced feelings insomnia
bright light therapy + dawn simulation helped realign pp's sleep patterns by inhibiting melatonin secretion at appropriate time
placebo group = lack of light at their normal waking hour meant they got up before their body was ready to wake