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Biopsychology - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Would be an interesting area for future research
      - Rogers (2004) found chickens who had undergone the procedure had enhanced ability to perform two tasks simultaneously
      - The only sample used historically have been those who have undergone the procedure due to medical necessity
    - - Sperry won a Nobel Prize for his work due to the contribution he made in advancing the understanding of the brain
      - Seminal study in neuroscience and has paved the way for further research
    - - This means the validity of the experiments is high
      - The tasks were carried out in highly controlled lab conditions, using specialised equipment and were highly standardised
    - - 11 patients who had undergone a very specialised surgery
      - Argued that we can't generalise the findings to the general population, so the application is limited
      - The ppts' severe epilepsy had caused sig. changes to the brain
      - Now estimated that only 80% of people have language lateralised in the LH
      - Handedness and gender affect its location
    - - Has sparked a body of pop-psychology which over-emphasises the functions between the left and right
      - No scientific credibility
- - - - Dement and Kleitman (1957)
        
        Monitored sleep patterns of 9 ppts in a sleep lab
        
        Brainwave activity recorded on EEG, and highly controlled
        
        REM activity during sleep was highly correlated with dreaming, brain activity varied according to how vivid the dreams were and ppts woken during stage 5 gave detailed dream reports
        
        These findings have been replicated by many other psychologists and therefore are reliable
    - - 12-15% - very deep sleep, rhythmic breathing, limited muscle activity, delta waves
      - 4-6% - deep sleep begins, brain begins to generate slow delta waves
      - 45-55% - breathing and heart rate slows, slight decrease in temperature
      - 4-5% - light sleep, muscle activity slows, occasional muscle twitching
      - 20-25% - REM, brainwaves speed up, dreaming occurs, muscles relax, heart rate increases, breathing is rapid and shallow
    - - Research suggests that the human mind loses focuses after 90 mins and can't regain focus until rest
      - AO3
        
        The violinists frequently napped to recover from a 90 min practise session
        
        The same pattern was discovered among other musicians, athletes, chess players and writers
        
        Ericsson et al (2006) studied a group of elite violinists and found that practise sessions were limited to 90 mins at a time with practise distributed during the day in 90 min segments
      - Kleitman (1969) believed that this cycle continues throughout the day when we are awake, so every 90 mins we go through periods of alertness through to fatigue
  - - - The pacemakers must be constantly reset so our bodies are in sync with the outside world
      - Light provides the primary input to the system
      - Receives info about light
      - Light sensitive cells in mammals act as brightness detectors and send messages to the SCN
      - The SCN is a bundle of nerve cells located in the hypothalamus in each hemisphere
      - The SCN passes the info to the pineal gland which increases or decreases the amount of melatonin
    - - Mutant Hamsters
        
        Bred hamsters with 20 hour sleep/wake cycles
        
        When tissues of the SCN of the hamster foetuses was transplanted to normal hamsters, they defaulted to the same 20 hour cycle
      - Alternative Pacemakers
        
        Recent research demonstrated that alternative endogenous pacemakers exist in other cells and organs in the body, and they run independently from the SCN
        
        There may be other important endogenous pacemakers affecting out sleep wake cycle and that more research is needed to understand how this all fits together
      - Mutant Chipmunks
        
        They were returned to their natural habitat and observed for 80 days
        
        The sleep/wake cycle disappeared and a sig. proportion had been killed by the end
        
        Psychologists destroyed the SCN connections in the brains of 30 chipmunks
  - - - AO3
        
        Stern and McClintock
        
        9 women collected pheromones samples by wearing a cotton pad under their armpit for over 8 hours
        
        The pads were treated with alcohol and frozen
        
        29 women with a history of irregular periods
        
        They were rubbed on the upper lip of the other 20 ppts
        
        Demonstrated that one woman's menstrual cycle can synchronise with other women's as a result of pheromones
        
        68% of women fell into a menstrual cycle in line with their odour donor
        
        An adaptive response which has evolved as it would've been beneficial for our female ancestors to fall pregnant together
        
        Mate Choice
        
        Female ppts were shown faces and were able to masculine them and feminise them at a touch of a button
        
        When women were most fertile, they preferred masculine features and other points of the cycle, more feminine features
        
        Penton Voak suggests that human mate preferences vary according to the menstrual cycle
        
        Unconsciously, we choose 'good genes' for our children at most fertile period but kind and caring fathers who stick around long term
        
        Reinberg
        
        Noted her menstrual cycle shortened to 25.7 days
        
        Examined a woman who spent 3 months in a cave
        
        The lack of light affected her menstrual cycle, to some extent governed by exogenous zeitgebers
      - AO1
        
        If pregnancy doesn't occur, the lining of the womb falls away and the woman experiences her period
        
        The average cycle is 28 days (ranging from 24-35)
        
        After ovulation, progesterone helps the womb lining to grow thicker, preparing it for a fertilised egg to embed there
        
        During each cycle, rising levels of oestrogen cause the ovary to develop an egg and then release it (ovulation is around day 14)
    - - A depressive disorder which affects people during the winter months when there are greater hours of darkness
      - It is thought that melatonin is responsible as the long darkness mean increased amounts of melatonin are produced, thought to disrupt serotonin levels
  - - - Light provides the primary input to the system, setting the body clock to the correct time
      - In mammals, light sensitive cells in the eye act as brightness detectors and send messages to the SCN to help regulate our circadian rhythms
      - Pacemaker must be constantly reset so that our bodies are constantly in sync with the outside world
    - - The circadian rhythm also dips and rises at diff. points of the day, so our strongest desire to sleep occurs between 2-4am and 1-3pm
      - Homeostasis also helps maintain the circadian rhythm
      - The presence of daylight has a major influence
      - when energy levels are low, our body gives us signals to rest
      - During daylight hours, we feel alert and when night falls, we feel drowsy
      - This homeostatic drive increases throughout the day
      - Our circadian clock is free running, maintaining a 24/25 hour cycle even without external cues
      - Any alterations to our body clock are difficult to handle as they disrupt our bodily rhythms such as jet lag and shift work
    - - Shift Work
        
        Can be used to inform managers of shift-workers so the neg. impact is minimised
        
        Experienced periods of seriously reduced productivity around 6am
        
        Managers can minimise the neg. impact of the rhythms and protect their employees and business
        
        Implications for psychology and economy
      - Drug Treatments
        
        Have a huge impact on how well drug treatments can be absorbed and distributed around the body
        
        Enabled advice to be given to patients to maximise drug effectiveness
      - Folkard (1985)
        
        Psychologists gradually sped up the clock so that 24hours reduced to 22hrs
        
        Ppts found it difficult to adjust when they messed with the cycle
        
        Studied ppts who lived in a dark cave for 3 weeks, rising at 7.45 and going to bed at 11.45
      - Your Phone
        
        Night shift mode on iPhones as research shows circadian rhythms are disrupted by artificial light
      - Wever (1976)
        
        Convinced ppts to spend 4 weeks in a WW2 bunked deprived of natural light
        
        All but one ppts had a rhythm of 24/25 hours
      - Application
        
        The casinos in Vegas use knowledge of circadian rhythms to their advantage
        
        No clocks
        
        Free drinks and food
        
        No natural light
        
        Pumping in oxygen
        
        No windows
        
        Psychedelic carpets to keep you awake
        
        All for the purpose of disrupting rhythms and make you spend more money
      - Siffre's Case Study
        
        Went underground in 1962 and resurfaced 8 weeks later in mid September, believing it was mid-August
        
        His body clock always settled into a rhythm just over 24hrs and he always fell asleep and woke regularly
        
        Several extended periods underground to study the effects of lack of external cues on his biological rhythms
  - - - Has the ability to reset the body's endogenous pacemaker so it's incredibly influential
      - AO3
        
        Psychologists woke 15 ppts at various times and shone light pads onto the backs of their knees
        
        Their usual sleep/wake cycle was thrown out by up to 3 hours
        
        Light need not be detected by the eyes to have an effect
    - - Can help regulate the sleep/wake cycle
      - AO3
        
        Psychologists have shown that if changing time zone, shifting immediately to the mealtimes of the new country helps reset the cycle quicker
- - - - Speech production
      - Frontal lobe
      - Responsible for converting thought into speech
    - - Important role in understanding other people's speech and for producing speech which makes sense
      - Language comprehension
      - Auditory lobe
  - - - Controls voluntary movement in the opposite side of the body
        
        The left side controls the right hand
      - Damage to this area results in a loss of fine motor skills
      - Located in frontal lobes
      - Broca's area is located in the left frontal lobe
    - - In the occipital lobe at the back of the brain
      - Information is inverted
      - Damage to the right occipital lobe could mean vision loss in left eye
    - - Where sensory information from the skin is localised
        
        Heat
        
        Pressure
        
        Touch
      - The amount of somatosensory area devoted to a particular body part is directly proportional
        
        So receptors for our hands and face occupy over half of this area
      - Located in parietal lobes
    - - Analyses speech based information
      - Damage to this area may cause hearing loss
      - In the temporal lobes
      - Wernicke's area is located here
  - - - Neurosurgery is still used today for treatment in severe depressives and extreme cases of OCD
      - The success of these procedures strongly suggests that symptoms and behaviours are associated with serious mental disorders are localised
      - The most extreme treatment as it involves the destruction of healthy brain tissue
        
        Leucotomy - cutting the connections to a particular part of the brain
        
        Lobotomy - removal of the brain tissue
      - Shows direct support for the theory
    - - Case study evidence
      - Clearly demonstrates that certain brain functions are localised
      - The damage he sustained to his frontal lobe entirely changed his personality and mood
    - - Tulving showed that diff. types of LTM were located in different parts of the prefrontal cortex
      - MRI scans produce fantastic spatial resolution and provide direct and conclusive evidence for localisation of function
    - - One implication is that the effects of damage to the brain would be determined by the extent rather than the location
      - This view has received more support over the last 70yrs from the discovery that humans are able to regain some of their cognitive abilities following damage to specific areas of the brain
      - Suggested that basic motor and sensory functions were localised but that higher mental functions weren't
        
        Through experimenting on rats learning to run a maze, found that learning wasn't localised but involved the whole brain, supporting the holistic view of brain function
      - This plasticity shows that localisation can be overcome
- - - - The most important endocrine gland
      - Located in the brain
      - Controls the release of all the other endocrine glands in the body
  - - - Axon - where the electrical signals pass along
      - Myelin Sheath - insulates the axon from external influences that might affect transmission
      - Dendrite - receives the nerve impulses/signal from adjacent neurons
      - Synaptic Terminals - terminal buttons send signals to an adjacent cell
      - Nodes of ranvier
    - - Relay
        
        Transfers messages from sensory neurons to other interconnecting neurons or motor neurons
        
        Short dendrites and short/long axons
      - Sensory
        
        Carries messages from the PNS to the brain and spinal cord
        
        Long dendrites and short axons
      - Motor
        
        Carries messages from the CNS to effectors
        
        Short dendrites and long axons
    - - Detected by the sense organs in the PNS, which convey a message via a sensory neuron
      - The message reaches the CNS where it connects with a relay neuron
      - A stimulus hits the knee
      - This carries the message to an effector, which causes the muscle to contract and cause the knee to move
      - Knee-jerk reflex
  - - - Brain - the centre of all conscious awareness, the outer layer highly developed in humans
      - The spinal cord - an extension of the brain, responsible for reflex actions
    - - Transmits messages via neurons to and from the CNS
      - Has 2 branches
        
        Autonomic Nervous System
        
        Vital functions such as breathing, heart rate, digestion, sexual arousal and stress responses
        
        Somatic Nervous System
        
        Controls muscle movement and receives information from sensory receptors
  - - - They affect the transfer of an impulse to another nerve or muscle
      - Taken back up into the terminal buttons of neurons through reuptake
      - Chemicals that are released from a synaptic vesicle into the synapse by neurons
      - Or they are broken down by an enzyme
    - - Occurs when a neuron sends info down an axon, away from the cell body
      - An explosion of electrical activity, meaning that a stimulus causes the resting potential to move forward
    - - The tiny gap between the neurons is called a synapse
      - Within the neuron, signals are transmitted electrcailly
      - Neurons are grouped together in neural networks
      - Across the synapse, they are transmitted chemically
    - - Inhibitory - make it less likely the next neuron will fire
      - Normal brain function depends on a regulated balance between both influences
      - Excitatory - make it more likely the next neuron will fire
  - - - The ANS goes from its resting state (parasympathetic) to being physiologically aroused (sympathetic)
- - - - Strengths
        
        Doesn't rely on the use of a radioactive tracer
        
        Risk-free and non-invasive
        
        High spatial resolution
      - Weaknesses
        
        Requires patient to stay still for a clear image which isn't possible for some patients
        
        Has poor temporal resolution, indirect measure, 5 second delay
        
        Expensive as it requires equipment and trained experts
  - - - Strengths
        
        Can be used to detect various brain disorders
        
        High temporal resolution
      - Weaknesses
        
        Poor spatial resolution
        
        Only a general measure, not exact, as the signal from one neuron isn't strong enough to detect
  - - - Strenghts
        
        Vital during the early days of psychology before the technology was developed
        
        Enables us to improve medical knowledge
      - Weaknesses
        
        Cause and effect is a problem because the differences observed can be unrelated to the behaviour
        
        Informed consent - some cultures/religions don't allow this procedure
      - Research Support
        
        An early example of this technique was Broca's work with his patient Tan
        
        Tan displayed speech problems when he was alive
        
        A post-mortem revealed a lesion in the area of the brain now known as Broca's area, an area important for speech production
  - - - Strengths
        
        ERP abnormalities have been shown in conditions such as dementia, strokes, OCD etc.
        
        More specific than raw EEG readings
        
        Excellent temporal resolution
      - Weaknesses
        
        Differing procedures have been adopted (not standardised)
        
        All extraneous interference needs to be eliminated
- - - - Further evidence was acquired in a study of brain scans of medical students 3 months before and after their exams
        
        Changes in the amount of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus and parietal cortex were significant
      - A study on bilingual vs monolingual adults showed that the bilingual group had a larger parietal cortex
      - Maguire et al (2000) studied the brains of London taxi drivers in comparison to a control
        
        Scans revealed they had a sig. larger amount of grey matter in the posterior hippocampus and the longer they had been a cabbie, the bigger it was
        
        This area is involved in spatial and navigational skills
        
        Concluded that the complex knowledge of routes and systems altered the structure of the brain
  - - - Axonal sprouting - the growth of new nerve ending which connect with other undamaged nerve cells to form new neuronal pathways
      - Reformation of blood vessels
      - Recruitment of homologous areas on the opposite side of the brain to perform specific tasks
    - - Maladaptive Plasticity
        
        One example is phantom limb syndrome due to plasticity in the somatosensory cortex
        
        The pain and discomfort experienced can be relieved using mirror therapy which tricks the brain into believing the missing limb is present
        
        There are instances when the plasticity of the brain has negative consequences for individuals
      - Educational Attainment
        
        There is a body of evidence suggests that functional recovery is directly correlated with time spent in education
        
        Schneider et al (2014) found that the more time brain injury patients had spent in education, the more likely they were to fully recover (indication of cognitive reserve)
      - Practical Application (Neurorehabilitation)
        
        Next, the individual may need rehabilitative therapy to aid in their brain's functional recovery
        
        Although neuroscientists suggest that this process can occur quickly after trauma (spontaneous recovery), research shows this slows down significantly over the next few weeks and months
        
        Techniques may include physical therapy and electrical stimulation of the brain
        
        The aim is to counter the deficits which the individual is experiencing in functioning following the trauma