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77 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Define biological psychology |
the study of physiological, evolutionary and developmental mechanisms of behaviour and experience |
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What did Aristotle define about behaviour and thoughts ? |
He defined emotions to the heart and thoughts to the liver |
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What example of behaviour did Barnard and Brown show in 1981? |
The common shrew's selective diet (needs to eat 3x its own weight/ day) - when given a choice there is a bias towards most energetically rewarding items - natural selection - less discriminating ancestors foraged inefficiently and so are less likely to reproduce |
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Describe the behaviours of the Shrew that allow it to maximise its foraging efficiency ? |
By picking the most energetically favourable foods - Early foraging experienc taught it which types of prey are easy to locate (learnt during development) - Tactile and visual senses are more responsive to large, active prey |
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What are the 4 main biological explanations for behaviour? |
Functional Evolutionary Ontogenetic Physiological |
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What is the functional explanation for behaviour? |
What is behaviour for and why it exists in its current form? Maximising efficiency In order to attract females and warn other males during reproductive season |
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What is the evolutionary explanation for behaviour? |
Where has behaviour come from? Natural selection. reconstructs the evolutionary behaviour Resemblance in song between related species - implicates a common ancestor |
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What is the Ontogenetic explanation for behaviour? |
How does the behaviour develop? learnt through development. describes the development of a behaviour Develops as a result of a bird listening to an adult |
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What is the Physiological explanation for behaviour? |
How is behaviour achieved? Senses and activity of the brain. Relates a behaviour to the activity of brain and other organs Develops in one specific area in the male bird and grows under the influence of testosterone |
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Who first talked about Dualism? |
Rene Descartes - french philosopher and mathematician |
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What is dualism? |
The theory that the mind and the brain are two different substances M ental thinking substance and separate physical substance |
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What was Descartes answer to how the mental mind could influence the physical brain? |
Via the third eye (pineal body/gland) is unpaired unlike every other part of the brain |
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what is our understanding of the pineal gland today? |
An acute unpaired endocrine gland that produces melatonin and effects the modulation of sleep pattern |
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What was Gilbert Ryle's Critique of Dualsim? |
The concept of mind The university tour example - a tour of the university and then asking, "where is the university" Mistakenly assumed that the university is some separated entity existing apart from all its constituents Fundamental misunderstanding of the term university ? |
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What is Monism? |
opposite to dualism - denies the existence of a duality in a particular sphere, such as mind and matter Materialism Mentalism The identity position |
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What does materialism state? |
everything that exists is material, the ultimate reality is the physical |
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What does mentalism state? |
That the physical world could not exists unless there was a state of mind aware of it difficult to test as need a mind to test things but this interferes with the physical world |
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What does the identity position state? |
There is only one kind of substance that includes both material and mental aspects every mental experience is the brain, or "the mind is what the brain does" |
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Hippocrates said about feelings? |
That it comes from nothing else but the brain and the brain is the biggest power to man |
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What evidence is there for when people's consciousness was not as smart as their unconsciousness? |
peoples reports of strategies used to make economic decisions differed from the rules that they actually used Unconscious process can be smart - decision making during a game Conscious explanations formed after were incorrect and not smart |
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Reasons for why consciousness was developed? |
Advantageous, but advantages only limited representations of the activity in our heads, not in real time The late aspect of consciousness - not in real time, are aware of things later |
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How can consciousness be properly defined? |
Operational definition - the person's subjective experience of the world and mind "The chief executive of the brain " |
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How did Benjamin Libet (1982) study consciousness? |
subject moves wrist and then reports when they made the decision to move the wrist recorded brain activity (readiness potential) |
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What did Benjamin Libet find in his study of consciousness? |
Brain activity started 350 ms before the decision to move Conscious with is the outcome of unconscious activity Ready -> intention -> move once intended then cannot return |
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What are researcher's assumptions about consciousness? |
Conscious reportability implies conscious processing - if you can describe something you saw/ heard then you must have been conscious of it |
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How did Stan Dahaene (France) study consciousness? |
Using fMRI with unmasked and unmasked priming of words Unmasked - word is identified Masked - Word is not identified Processing of unseen masked words with areas associated with conscious reading etc |
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What brain activity gives rise to conscious experiences? |
Frontal lobe - consciousness Highly distributed fronto-parieto temporal activation (>270ms) |
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Why is there a 50 ms threshold for conscious access? |
Associated with the time needed to established sustained activity in the recurrent cortical loops |
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What brain activity gives rise to subliminal (below the threshold of consciousness) experiences? |
takes place early on in the occipito-temporal pathway (<250 ms) |
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what is the CNS? |
The brain and the spinal cord |
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What is the PNS? |
All the NS apart from the brain and the spinal cord autonomic and somatic nervous systems |
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What is the BBB? |
The semipermeable barrier between the brain and the blood in the network of blood vessels surrounding the brain |
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What is the function of the BBB? |
A mechanism of protection from the contents of the blood vessels Regulation of the chemical balances in the brain Excludes most viruses, bacteria and toxins |
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Why doesn't the common mechanisms work for the BBB? |
because in other organs it requires regeneration - such as the skin. Brain differs from this |
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How is the BBB formed? |
By tightly packed cells in the capillary walls of the brain |
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Which nutrients pass passively through the BBB? |
Small uncharged molecules - oxygen Molecules that dissolve in fats of the membrane - vitamins A and D and various drugs |
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Which nutrients pass through the BBB via active transport? |
Glucose and amino acids |
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What is the neurone doctrine? |
The discovery that the nervous system is made up of discrete individual cells (neurones) Via a newly developed staining technique to show that there is small gap between the tips of one neuron's fibres and the next |
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Who discovered that the NS was made up of individual cells? |
Bsantiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934) |
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what are the two main types of cells in the brain? |
Nerve cells (neurone) Glial cells - supporting cells |
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How many neurones are in the cerebellum? |
70 billion |
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How many neurones are in the Cerebral cortex? |
12-15 billion
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How many neurones are in the Spinal cord |
1 billion |
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Are there more glial or neurone cells? and which are bigger? |
More glial cells Neurones are bigger |
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What are the most common glial cells? |
Oligodendrocytes (76%) Astrocytes (17%) Microglia (6%) |
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What is the function of Glial cells? |
supportive cells in the NS
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What vital roles do astrocytes have? |
Provide structure around neurones and hold them in place Supply neurone with oxygen and nutrients modulate neurotransmission - clear NT from the synaptic cleft to prevent toxic build up |
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What vital roles do oligodendrocytes have? |
Insulate nerves with myelin sheath in the CNS (Schwann cells in the PNS) |
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What vital roles do radial glial cells have? |
during development provide scaffolding for neurones to migrate to their final destinations |
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What vital roles do microglia have? |
Removal of dead neuronal tissue and immune defence of CNS |
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As behaviour complexity increases what happens to the ratio of astrocytes to neurones? |
Increases linearly - more astrocytes per neurone |
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What is Retts syndrome? |
When development reverses itself Little girls Loss of speech, motor control, seizures, orthopaedic, digestive problems, anxiety |
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What causes Retts syndrome? |
Mutations in the MECP2 protein present in in neurones and astrocytes |
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How can Retts syndrome be reversed and what does this show? |
Re-expression of MECP2 in neurones or astrocytes in mouse models dramatically reverse Retts symptoms shows the importance of glial cells |
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Define neurone?
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cells in the NS that specialise performing information tasks |
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what are the 3 types of neuron? |
Sensory (afferent) Motor (efferent) Interneurones |
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What is the main structure of a neurone? |
cell nucleus - genetic material - DNA Machinery - mito, ribosomes, ER Dendrites- branching fibres Axon - thin fibre Membrane - holds cell together |
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What are the functions of dendrites? |
Branching fibres that get narrower at the end Receive information from other neurones via synaptic receptors The larger the surface area the more information it can receive |
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What are the functions of the axon? |
A thin fibre of constant diameter that extends away from the soma and transmits information to other neurones main conduction apparatus for carrying signals |
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What can pass through the membrane of the neurones? |
small uncharged molecules Na, K, Ca Cl through protein channels |
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Is there more Na or K inside the neurone? |
More K inside More Na/ Cl outside |
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Is Na dragged into or out of the neurone due to its concentration gradient? |
Na into the cell
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What does the Na/ K pump do? |
Pumps 3 Na out and 2 K in Maintains a high conc of Na out of the cell |
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what is the resting potential inside the neurone |
- 70 mv |
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what effect does the electrical gradient have on the movement of ions across the neurone? |
positively ions are dragged into the negatively charged (Na and K) |
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what effect does the concentration gradient have on the movement of ions across the neurone? |
Na and Cl in K out |
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What is the importance of the -70 mv resting potential? |
makes the neurone able to respond quickly |
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How is a neurone stimulated? |
Change in current via an electrode or naturally via synapses |
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What is hyperpolarisation? |
down, increased polarisation of the neurone
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what is depolarisation? |
up, reduction in polarisation (towards 0) |
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What happens when a neurone is stimulated above the threshold (-55mV) |
Then an Action potential is produced - sudden huge depolarisation of the membrane |
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What doe all or none mean? |
AP - amplitude of the AP is independent of the amount of current which produced it constant for a given action |
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How does the AP propagate? |
First AP produced at the axon hillock moves down the axon towards the cell body using saltatory conduction |
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What is saltatory conduction? |
The way in which a AP propagates along an action potential Hops along an recurs at the Nodes of Ranvier allows to travel faster and prevents any leakage through the axon |
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What is MS? |
Neurological condition - 100,000 people in the UK Fatigue, vision problems, difficulty walking diagnosed between 20-40 more common in women |
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What does MS cause? |
demyelination of Axons in the brain and spinal cord |
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How does MS present itself in brain scans? |
No white matter damage - lesions or plaques |
