Biopsychology

• Central nervous system

  • Brain
  • Spinal cord
• Brain

  • Receives and processes information
  • Initiates responses
  • Stores memories
  • Generates thoughts and emotions
• Spinal cord

  • Connects signals to and from the brain
  • Controls reflex activities
• Peripheral nervous system


  • Autonomic
  • Sympathetic
  • Parasympathetic
  • Somatic
• Autonomic nervous system


  Controls involuntary movements
• Somatic nervous system


  Controls voluntary movements
• Sympathetic division


  Fight or flight
• Parasympathetic division


  Rest and digest
• Sensory neurone


  PNS --> CNS

  Long dendrites

  Cell body in axon
• Relay neurone


  • Sensory --> Motor
  • Short dendrites
  • Short axon
• Motor neurone

  • CNS - Effectors
  • Short dendrites
  • Long axons
• Structure of neurones


  • Vary in size
  • Cell body contains nucleus
  • Protruding dendrites
  • Axon away from cell body
  • Myelin sheath for speed of transmission and protection
  • Node of ranvier forces the impulse to jump across the gaps for increase speed
  • Terminal knob is for synapse communication
• Reflex arc


  1. Sends message to spinal cord
  2. Connects sensory neurone to motor neurone to relay messages
  3. Recieves messages and acts upon them
• Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit signals between neurones, muscles and glands.
• Synaptic transmission


  The way in which neighbouring neurones communicate by sending chemical messages across the synapse
• Summation


  • If total is negative the action potential is less likely to fire
  • If total is positive the action potential is more likely to fire
• Endocrine system


  • the collection of glands that produce hormones the regulate metabolism, growth and development
  • hormones are secreted into the bloodstream and affect any cell in the body that has a receptor for that particular hormone
  • controls the release of hormones from all the endocrine glands
• Negative feedback loop


  Hypothalamus detects hormones and responds by shutting down excretion of stimulating hormones
• Fight or flight response


  • Endocrine system and ANS working together
  • Stressor perceived by hypothalamus which activates the pituitary gland - sympathetic branch
  • After the threat has passed parasympathetic branch is activated
• Evaluation of fight or flight

  Gender bias - beta bias
• Localisation

  • Contra lateralised
  • Left controls right side
• Different areas of the brain are responsible for different functions or behaviours. Damage to a particular area of the brain would mean that only a particular function or behaviour would be affected.
• Broca's area


  • Speech production
  • Movement of tongue, lips, air
  • Damage = Broca's aphasia
• Wernicke's area


  • Speech comprehension
  • Understanding language
  • Nonsense words = neologisms
  • Damage = Wernicke's aphasia
• Motor Cortex


  • Frontal lobe
  • Logical orders
  • Movement
  • Voluntary
  • Opposite sides
• Somosensory Cortex


  • Parietal lobe
  • Feeling
  • Detecting sensations
• Visual Cortex


  • Occipital lobe
  • See/vision
• Auditory Cortex


  • Temporal lobe
  • Sound
  • Recognition
• Localisation AO3 - Equipotentiality (reductionism)


  • Not localisation of damage that causes deficits, but instead extent of damage
  • Localisation = too simple
• Localisation AO3 - Support from research and case studies

  • Tan (Broca's area)
  • Phineas Gage (Amygdala/frontal lobe)
  • Clive Wearing (Hippocampus)
  • HM (Hippocampus)
• Localisation AO3 - Nomothetic

  • Generalise
  • Case studies
  • Make it more idiographic
• Hemispheric Lateralisation


  • Each hemisphere of the brain has specific functions
  • Certain functions are controlled by one hemisphere of the brain and not the other
  • Large bodies of evidence supporting those claims
  • LH - speech
  • RH - facial recognition
  • Contralateral organisation
• Corpus callosum


  A bundle of fibres which connect the two hemispheres of the brain and allows us to use both sides together
• Split brain research - Procedure


  • Quasi experiments
  • 11 split brain patients (due to severe epilepsy)
  • Performance on tasks compared with people without split-brain
  • Fixate on a point on the screen (middle)
  • less then 1/10 seconds
• 3 Main findings from Sperry


  1. Patients can verbalise an image shown to their right visual field
  2. Patients cannot verbalise an image shown to their left visual field but they can draw it with their left hand
  3. If patients are shown an image in both visual fields they can see the one in RVF and draw the one in the LVF with their left hand
• Evaluation of Sperry

  • Low population validity
  • Can't generalise
  • Low temporal validity
  • Old study
  • Lab study
  • Standardised procedures
  • could be replicated
  • Very rare
• Lateralisation AO3 - Changed with age

  • Appears to not stay constant
  • Lateralised patterns found in younger individuals tend to switch to bilateral in healthy older adults
  • Language more lateralised in the left <25 years old
  • >25 years lateralisation decrease with every year of life
  • Lateralisation is not necessarily fixed
  • Reduces validity
• Biological determinism


  • Very fixed, no choice, can't change it
  • Increases medical usefulness
  • Strength/Weakness
• Plasticity

  • The brain's ability to change and adapt (modify it's structure) as a result of experience.
  • As we age rarely used to connections are deleted and infrequently used connections are deleted and frequently used connections are strengthened
  • Cognitive pruning
  • Brain continues to create new neural pathways and alter existing new ones
• Plasticity as a result of Life Experience

  • When we learn something new pathways in the brain develop - prune when no longer used
  • The brain constantly adapts to a changing environment as we gain new experiences
  • Neural pathways that are used frequently develop stronger connections whereas those that are rarely or never used eventually die