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31 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are the 2 basic assumptions of brain & behaviour? |
1. all complex behaviours depend on processes in the brain. 2. which processes a brain performs, depends on its brain structues |
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What do systematic differences in sexual behaviours portray? |
1. differences in brain structures (SDN-POA mediates different processes that are expressed by different behaviours. 2. systematic differences between male & female brains (specifically the parts that control sexual behaviours) |
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What makes common assumptions about the systematic differences in male VS female behaviours invalid? |
studies are self report based --> inaccuracies in reporting the vast majority from anglo-americans large inter-cultural differences in sexual behaviours |
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What anatomical structure provides evidence for sex-specific mating behaviours (in rats)? (structural difference) |
the SDN-POA |
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What is the empirical evidence for the SDN-POA influencing male mating behaviours (in rats)? (structural difference) |
1. firing rate of SDN-POA neurons increases when a male engages in sexual behaviour 2. stimulation: elicits male typical sexual behaviour from them 3. SDN-POA volume correlates directly with a male's normal sex drive 4. females with male sized SDN-POAs show male typical behaviour in adulthood after testosterone injections - treating females with androgens --> SDN-POA develops to male size & male-typical behaviours occur |
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How does the singing of songbirds provide anatomical evidence of courtship behaviours being a structural difference? |
- areas much larger in males than females --> areas in control of production of song. HVC: higher vocal centres (responsible for controlling song production) |
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What is the empirical evidence for courtship behaviours of songbirds, being a structural difference? |
treat female hatchlings with sex hormones (androgens/estrogens- aromatisation) - HVC develops to male-typical size (organisational effect) - singing behaviours like males developed - ONLY occurs after androgen therapy (activational effect) |
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What are the similarities in sex differences in animals VS humans? |
in most animals, sexual behaviour is automatic - triggered by specific signals (female sex hormones peak then female-specific behaviours occur) - controlled by 'lower' brain areas (brainstem, midbrain, hypothalamic nuclei) - uniform within each sex - evidence for social learning of sexual behaviours. |
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How in higher primates is sexual behaviour less automatic? |
1. less sex-specific 2. less uniform within each sex 3. under the control of 'higher' brain areas ~ greater free choice |
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What are the 4 areas of human cognitive sex differences? |
1. visuospatial skills 2. motor skills 3. verbal skills 4. hemispheric lateralisation - differences are minimal compared to other dimorphic species - influenced by culture, socialisation & learning - often experience, context & instruction dependent |
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What is it called when the left & right hemispheres do not process the same things; combined processing allows for complete understanding? |
hemispheric specialisation |
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What is the hemispheric specialisation of the LEFT hemisphere? |
1. temporal analysis 2. high frequencies 3. local details 4. discrete language features (consonants, words, grammar) 5. language features 6. fine motor control - analytical, sequential, propositional |
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What is the hemispheric specialisation of the RIGHT hemisphere? |
1. spatial analysis 2. low frequencies 3. global form 4. prosodic 5. prosodic language features (vowels, voice melody) - synthetic, holistic, gestalts |
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What skills are greatly assumed to be more developed in women? |
1. fine motor skills 2. spatial memory |
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What are the 2 empirical pieces of evidence for hemispheric specialisation that are non experimental (invasive procedures)? |
1. Wada test (done in prep for sugery) 2. Split brain surgery |
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What happens during the Wada test? |
1. inject an anaesthetic into left/right carotid artery - sends one hemisphere to "sleep" whilst other is isolated to be tested. 2. assess each hemisphere's language & memory functions with behavioural tests results: in most, language function exclusively in the LH |
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What is split brain surgery & what does it show? |
cutting of the corpus callosum - disconnects the hemispheres 1. cannot name objects in the LVF but can name objects shown in the RVF 2. cannot name objects by touching them with the left hand but can with the right hand |
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What is the role of the optic chiasm? |
to draw together info and send it to the relevant brain structures |
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Summarise the roles of the LH & RH |
LH: 'speaking' hemisphere; language centre - processes info from RVF RH: 'spatial hemisphere' - processes info from LVF |
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What are the purposes of empirical evidence from electrical stimulation & lesion studies? |
stimulation: during brain surgery; interfere with tasks - if language centres are activated then flow of speech = interrupted lesion: behavioural tests to assess remaining functions/areas unaffected |
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What are the 3 empirical pieces of evidence for hemispheric specialisation that are experimental (noninvasive procedures)? (done on 'already' damaged brains) |
1. patient studies (eg. lesion studies) 2. behavioural tests (localise damaged areas when completing tasks) 3. brain imaging methods |
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What are the 2 methods useful for testing healthy participants? |
1. reaction time task using visual hemifield presentation (eg. lexical decison task) - motor cortex activated after the language centre has processed a word - RVF words identified faster than LVF words 2. dichotic listening (eg. shadowing task) - when presenting auditory stimuli in both ears, likely to process what enters the right ear - right ear words (LH) spoken faster than left ear words |
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What is the empirical evidence from behavioural studies showing sex specific results for hemispheric specialisation? |
- women often show less behavioural asymmetry than men - especially at the end of the menstrual cycle (high levels of female sex hormones) --> minimise asymmetry in cognitive tasks. |
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What is the empirical evidence from brain imaging studies showing sex specific results for hemispheric specialisation? |
- women use both hemispheres in tasks where men mainly use one |
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What is the clinical evidence for showing sex specific results for hemispheric specialisation? |
after a stroke, women recover language skills faster than men do hypothesis: women's brains less functionally lateralised - women's RH contains more language functions than males - after a LH stroke, women can use remaining functions in undamaged RH to "bootstrap" speech - womens RH less specialised for visuo-spatial tasks than mens (men perform better in mental rotation tasks) |
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What are the 4 hypothesise of the Galaburda-Geschwind Model? |
1. pre natal testosterone slows development in the LH 2. newborns brains differ due to pre-natal testosterone levels 3. high levels (boys) - 'asymmetrical hemispheres' (LH less mature than RH) 4. low levels (girls) - 'symmetrical hemispheres' (hemispheres equally matured) |
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What are the 3 things the Galaburda-Geschwind Model account for? |
1. larger number of male left handedness 2. superior visuo-spatial skills in men 3. faster language acquisition in girls. |
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What are the 2 things the Galaburda-Geschwind Model not account for directly? |
1. superior visuo-spatial skills in women 2. some special relationships between (eg. visuo-spatial giftedness and reduced lateralisation) - playing chess = highly spatial BUT do not have more lateralised brains |
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What are the 4 main structural sex differences? |
1. overall brain size 2. corpus callosum (larger in women? 3. cortical (posterior temporal cortex - higher density in women?) 4. sub cortical structures (INAH-3 larger in men & SDN-POA larger in men) |
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What does Joel et al's (2015) brain mosaic show? |
1. several brain structures show sex differences 2. differences are not distributed in an internally consistent way (in a brain, some structures may be female/male typical or in between) - less male/female typicality |
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If the hypothesis that men's brains are more strongly functionally lateralised than women's brains, then what could this suggest? |
1. men should show a stronger right ear advantage 2. identifying a word presented to the RH should be more difficult for men compared to presented in the LH (more dominant RH) 3. women should have a better chance than men to regain functions lost after damage to one hemisphere. |
