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biopsychology - Coggle Diagram

- - - - longer they had been in the job, more pronounced the structural difference.
      - however It could be that they already had larger hippocampi before becoming taxi drivers. Therefore, as a cause and effect relationship between experience and changes in the brain cannot be definitively established, further research into plasticity is necessary.
  - - - brain is able to rewire and reorganise itself by creating new synaptic connections close to the damaged area.
      - secondary neural pathways that would not typically be used to carry out functions are activated to enable functioning to continue- this is supported by;
        
        axonal sprouting- growth of nerve endings which connect with undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathways
        
        reformation of blood vessels
        
        recruitement of homologous areas on the opposite side of the brain to perform specific tasks.- for example if Broca's area was damaged on left side, the right sided equivalent would carry out its functions
  - - - this ability can deteriorate with age. Elbert et al. concluded that the capacity for neural reorganisation is much greater in children than in adults, This may explain why adults find change more demanding than do young people. Therefore, we must consider individual differences when assessing the likelihood of functional recovery in the brain after trauma.
    - - the brains ability to rewire itself can sometimes have maladaptive behavioural consequences. prolonged drug use has been shown to result in poorer cognitive functioning as well as an increased risk of dementia later in life. also 60-80% of amputees have been known to develop phantom limb syndrome- the continues experience of sensations in the missing limb as if it were still there.
        
        these sensations are often unpleasant, painful
    - - a persons educational attainment may influence how well a the brain functionally adapts after injury. Schneider et al discovered the more time people with brain injury spent in education, the greater chances of a disability free recovery.
      - 2/5ths of participants studied the achieved dfr had 16 years' education compared to about 10% of participants who had less than 12 years education
- - - - ✅ does not rely on use of radiation, risk free, non invasive and straightforward to use. produces images that have high spatial resolution, provides a clear picture of how brain activity is localised.
      - ❌ expensive comapred to other techniques and can only capture clear image if individual stays perfectly still. poor temporal resolution, 5 second time lag. can only measure blood flow, cannot home I on the activity of the individual neurons
  - - - ✅ eeg has proved invaluable for the diagnosis of conditions such as epilepsy, contributed much to our understanding of the staged involved in sleep. extremely high temporal resolution. accurately detect brain activity at a resolution of a millisecond
      - ❌- not useful for pinpointing the exact source of neural activity, does not allow researchers to distinguish between activities originating in different but adjacent locations.
  - - - ✅excellent temporal resolution, led to their widespread use in the measurement of cognitive functions and deficits
      - ❌lack of standardisation in ERP methodology between different research studies which make it difficult to confirm findings
  - - - ✅ vital in providing foundation for early understanding of key processes- broca and wernick both relied on post mortem studies in establishing links between language, brain and behaviour.
      - ❌ causation is an issue within these investigations- observed damage may not be linked to the deficits under review but to some other unrelated trauma or decay.
      - ❌ethical issues- informed consent- for example case of HM who lost his ability to form memories and was not able to provide consent- nethertheless post mortem research has been conducted on him.
- - - - inhibitory- results in neuron becoming negatively charged and less likely to fire (serotonin)
      - excitatory- increases postsynaptic neurons positive charge and makes it more likely to fire (adrenaline)
- - - - damage to this area may result in a loss of control over fine movements
    - - damage to the left can produce blindness in the right visual field of both eyes
    - - damage may produce partial hearing loss, more extensive the damage more extensive the loss.
    - - broca identified a small area in left frontal lobe responsible for speech production- damage to Broca's area causes Broca's aphasia which is characterised by speech that is slow, laborious and lacking in fluency.
      - wernickes area- responsible for language comprehension- resulted in wernicke's aphasia when damaged- speech fluent but meaningless.
      - Peterson et al- brain scan to demonstrate how Wernicke's area was active during a listening task and Broca's area was active during reading task, suggesting they have different functions.
  - - - Peterson et al- brain scan to demonstrate how Wernicke's area was active during a listening task and Broca's area was active during reading task, suggesting they have different functions.
    - - phineas gage
        
        metre length pole through his skull, removing a part of his brain. survived but the damage of his brain left a mark on his personality- by all accounts he had turned from someone calm and reserved to someone aggressive- supports lateralisation of function as suggests parts of brain have different functions
        
        ❌however difficult to draw conclusions as it is just one individual, also very outdated.
    - - when the brain has become damaged through illness or accident, and a particular function has been compromised or lost, the rest of the brain is able to remap itself, which suggests that localisation is not fixed to specific areas. The brain is working as a whole unit rather than specific areas for specific functions. which supports holistic view rather than localised.
- - - - governs vital functions in the body such as breathing, heart rate, digestion, sexual arousal and stress responses- only has motor pathways
        
        sympathetic nervous system- mostly comes into play when the body feels threatened- fight or flight
        
        during a threatening situation it will increase heart rate, activate sweat glands, increase blood flow and dilate pupils
        
        parasympathetic- relaxes the individual once emergency has passed
        
        system will reduce heart rate, stop the body from sweating, decrease blood flow adds constrict pupils, allowing to reach state of rest.
    - - controls muscle movement and receives information from sensory receptors. has sensory and motor pathways
- - - - describing- when a picture or object was shown to an individuals right visual field, they could describe what was seen, however when presented to left, they could not describe. this is due to the lack of language centres in right hemisphere.
      - recognition by touch- although they could not attach verbal labels to objects in left field, they were able to select a matching object from behind a screen. left hand also able to select an object that was most closely associated with an object in left- for example an ashtray selected in response to a cigarette. they could not verbally identify but could understand the object.
      - composite words- if two words simultaneously presented, key on left, ring on right, the individual would select key with left hand and say the word ring.
      - matching faces- right hemisphere also dominant in terms of recognising faces. when asked to match a afce from a series of other faces, the picture processed by there right hemisphere was consistently selected, but left hemisphere was consistently ignored. when a composite picture made up of two halves, the left hemisphere dominated in terms of verbal description whereas the right dominated in terms os selecting matching picture.
    - - ✅demonstrated lateralised brain functions
        
        produced an impressive and sizeable body of research findings, the main conclusion of which appears to be that the left hemisphere is more geared towards analytic and verbal tasks, whereas the right is more adept to spatial and music tasks
        
        left hemisphere is the analyser whilst right is syntheiser
      - ✅strengths of methodology
        
        highly specialised and standardised procedures. typically participants would be asked to stare at a. given point and the image would be flashed up fro one tenth of a second, the patient would not have time to move their eye across the image so spread to both sides of visual field therefore both sides of brain- Perry ensured that only one hemisphere was receiving information at a time, this he developed a very useful and well controlled procedure.
      - ❌issues with generalisation
        
        there were only 11 who took part in all variations of the procedure, all of whom had a history of epileptic seizures.
        
        this may have a caused unique changes in the brain that may have influenced the findings. also the control group made up of 11 people who had no history of epilepsy which may have been inappropriate.