Biopsychology

• What is the nervous system?


  the network of nerve cells and fibres which transmits nerve impulses between parts of the body.
• What two parts are the nervous system made up of?

  • the central nervous system
  • peripheral nervous system
• What is the central nervous system made up off?

  • brain
  • spinal cord
• What is the role of the brain?

  it is separated into two hemispheres the cerebral cortex and provides consciousness awareness and involved in psychological processes
• what is the spinal cord?


  An extension of the brain and sends/transfers messages to the body
• What two nervous systems make up the peripheral nervous system?

  • somatic nervous system
  • autonomic nervous system
• What is the somatic nervous system?

  Controls the movement of muscles and receives information from the sensory receptors
• what is the role of the autonomic nervous system?

  plays an important role in homeostasis
• what two nervous system make up the autonomic nervous system?

  • sympathetic nervous system
  • parasympathetic nervous system
• what is the role of the sympathetic nervous system?


  It is involved in the responses for flight or fight e.g. increases heart rate and blood pressure
• what is the role of the parasympathetic nervous system?

  It helps to return the body back to its normal resting state
• What is the endocrine system?

  it's a network of glands across the body that secrete chemical messages called hormones
• what is the hypothalamus?

  Is connected to the pituitary gland and is responsible for stimulating or controlling, is the release of hormones from the pituitary gland
• what is the pituitary gland?


  It is referred to as the master gland as it controls the secretion of hormones from all the glands
• What hormones does the pituitary gland release?

  • ACTH
  • LH
  • FSH
  • oxytocin
• What are the key roles of these the pituitary gland?

  • Master gland that regulates many of the bodily functions Produces hormones that control the release of hormones from other glands
• what is the effects the hormones have on behaviour?

  When ACTH is released in response to stress, it stimulates the adrenaline gland to release cortisol when oxytocin is released, it, stimulates contractions of the womb in childbirth and is important for mother infant bonding

  when LH and FSH are released, it stimulates the ovaries to produce ostrogen and progesterone. In males, it stimulates the testes to produce testosterone.
• What hormone does the ovaries release?

  oestrogen and progesterone
• What is the key role of the ovaries?


  Production of eggs and female, sex, hormones
• What is the exact does the ovaries hormones have on behaviour?

  associated with increased sensitivity to social cues - progesterone

  female, reproductive functions -oestrogen
• what is the hormone released by the testes?


  testosterone
• what is the key role of the testes?

  produce sperm and male sex hormones
• what sex do you testosterone have on our behaviour?

  Important for sex drive, sperm production, and muscle strength

  the development of male characters (secondary characteristics)
• what happens in fight or flight?

  1. a person enters a stressful/ dangerous situation. this is perceived by the somatic nervous system so let's the sympathetic nervous system know this.
  2. The hypothalamus triggers activity in the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system (switching the body from the parasympathetic to sympathetic
  3. fear causes the release in adrenaline and noradrenaline from the adrenal medulla is released into the bloodstream- this causes many psychological changes

  Once the threat has passed, the body returns to the parasympathetic state of rest and digest
• What are neurons?


  nerve cells that send messages all over the body to allow you to breathe and walk and more. They send both chemical and electrical signals
• What happens with synaptic transmissions?

  When a resting state there is no impulses firing as inside of the neuron is more negative than the outside. Stimulus increases the positive charge in the neuron and generates an action potential. This causes an impulse to travel down axon
• What are the three different types of neurons?

  • motor
  • sensory
  • relay
• what are motor neurons?

  They are located in the central nervous system and project there axons outside of the central nervous system to directly or indirectly control muscles when the axon of the neuron fires, the muscles with which form synapses contracts. When the neuron is inhibited do muscles relax
• what are sensory neurons?

  they carry messages from sensory receptors, e.g. receptors for vision, taste, touch and more via the peripheral nervous system and central nervous

  They consider information from sensory receptors into the neural impulses
• that are relay neurons?


  When the impulses reach the brain, they are translated into sensations, e.g. visual input, heat, pain, meaning, so that the organism can decide how to respond appropriately

  They are found within the brain and the spinal cord only
• what do we mean by localisation?

  The idea parts of the brain perform different functions
• What is holism?

  the brain works together as a whole
• what are hemispheres in the brain?

  The idea of the brain is divided into two symmetric halves. some psychological and physical functions are dominated by particular halves. The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body.
• what is supporting evidence for localisation?

  Peterson 1988 used brain scans to demonstrate how wernicke area was active, drawing, listening tasks, and Broca during reading tasks. Suggesting that areas have different functions.
• what is supporting evidence for localisation?

  Tulving 1994 revealed somatic, and episodic memory reside in different parts of the prefrontal cortex. now we have highly sophisticated and objective methods to measure activity in the brain, providing scientific evidence of localisation in the brain
• what is evidence of localisation not being fully true?

  Lashley 1950 suggests that higher cognitive functions involving lining are not localised but distributed in a more holistic way. They removed areas of the cortex between 10% to 50% in rats that were learning amaze. He found no areas seemed to be more important in the ability to learn the maze. this process of learning requires every part of the cortex not particular areas. Suggesting learning is too complicated to be localised and requires the whole brain.
• what do we mean by lateralisation?


  The idea that two halfs of the brain functions are different and hemispheres have function specialisation
• what is the corpus callosum?

  a think bundle of nerves which connects the two hemispheres of the brain. it allows the brain to be able to communicate with each other.
• who did split brain research?


  Sperry and Gazaniga
• what types of individuals did they study?


  individuals that had under gone surgery where the corpus callosum and other tissues connecting the two hemispheres was cut in order to help people control seizures