Biopsychology midterms reviewer PDF

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BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY MIDTERMS REVIEWERAJES, MARY MAEBS PSY1CBiopsychology as a NeuroscienceNeuroscience the scientific study of the nervous system  deal with the structure and function of neurons, nerves, and nervous tissue.Neurons - cells that receive and transmit electrochemical signalsNervous ...

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BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY MIDTERMS REVIEWER

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AJES, MARY MAE

B. Nonhuman Participant Guidelines

BS PSY1C

 Biopsychology as a Neuroscience Neuroscience  

the scientific study of the nervous system deal with the structure and function of neurons, nerves, and nervous tissue.

Neurons - cells that receive and transmit electrochemical signals Nervous System  an extensive network of specialized cells that carry information to and from all parts of the body.  the ultimate purpose of the nervous system is to produce and control behavior (see Grillner & Dickinson, 2002). Biopsychology  

participant must be provided with informed consent

the scientific study of the biology of behavior. did not develop into a major neuroscientific discipline until the 20th century.

Neuroanatomy - The study of the structure of the nervous system Neurochemistry - The study of the chemical bases of neural activity Neuroendocrinology -The study of interactions between the nervous system and the endocrine system Neuropathology - The study of nervous system disorders Neuropharmacology - The study of the effects of drugs on neural activity Neurophysiology - The study of the functions and activities of the nervous system TYPES OF RESEARCH THAT CHARACTERIZED BIOLOGICAL APPROACH 1. Human vs. Nonhuman Experiment  the subject of biopsychological research (human and nonhuman animals)  mice and rats are the most common subjects used in nonhumans A. Human Participant Guidelines  coercion of people to participate in the study is unacceptable  participants must be informed that they can leave the experiment at any point in time without penalty

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first provision: animal research should have a clear scientific purpose such as increasing our knowledge of behavior or improving the health and welfare of humans or other animals (American Psychological Association, 2008) second provision: basic care and housing of the animals final: experimental procedures should cause as little pain and distress as possible

2. Experiment vs. Non-Experiment A. Experiment method used to study causation to find out what causes what.  designs two or more conditions under which the living subjects will be tested experimenter assigns the subjects to conditions, administers the treatments, and measures the outcome in such a way that there is only one relevant difference between the conditions being compared B. Quasi-experimental Studies  studies group of subjects who have already been exposed to the conditions of interest in the real world - e.g., alcoholics, which in this case, experimenters no longer have to assign the subjects to a condition that involves years of alcoholism, or in other cases, to unethically instigate irreversible damage to the brain  technically not an experiment because participants themselves decided which group they would be in, by drinking alcohol or not, whereas the researchers had no means of ensuring that exposure to alcohol was the only variable that distinguished the two groups C. Case Studies  focus on a single case or subject.  problem: generalizability—degree to which the results can be applied to other cases 

3. Pure and Applied Research A. Pure Research - motivated primarily by the curiosity of the researcher - done solely for the purpose of acquiring knowledge B. Applied Research - intended to bring about some direct benefit to humankind

6 MAJOR DIVISIONS OF BIOPSYCHOLOGY Physiological Psychology 

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division of biopsychology that studies the neural mechanisms behavior through direct manipulation and recording of the brain in controlled experiment—surgical and electrical methods are most common has a tradition of pure research that emphasizes on research that contributes to the development of theories of the neural control of behavior rather than on research of immediate practical benefit

Functional brain imaging - major method of cognitive neuroscience which refer to recording images of the activity of the living human brain while a participant is engaged in a particular cognitive activity

6. Comparative Psychology 

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deals generally with the biology of behavior rather than specifically with the neural mechanisms employ comparative analysis.

2. Psychopharmacology  

focuses on the manipulation of neural activity and behavior with drugs. its substantial portion is applied to develop therapeutic drugs or to reduce drug abuse

3. Neuropsychology  

study of the physiological effects of brain in human patients uses quasi-experimental when using human subjects and uses nonhuman if the damage is to be inflicted by the neuropsychologists themselves

Cerebral cortex - outer layer of the cerebral hemispheres that is most likely to be damaged by accident or surgery; this is one reason why neuropsychology has focused on this important part of the human brain.

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most applied of the biopsychosocial subdisciplines

Neuropsychological tests -facilitate diagnosis and help attending physician prescribe effective treatment; can also be an important basis for patient care and counseling (Kolb & Wishaw, 1990)

4. Psychophysiology 

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studies the relation between physiological activity and psychological processes in human subjects its recording procedures are typically noninvasive in that physiological activity is recorded from the surface of the body of human subjects

Scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) - usual measure of brain activity; other measures includemuscle tension, eye movement, and several indicators of autonomic nervous system activity (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, pupil dilation, and electrical conductance of the skin)

5. Cognitive Neuroscience 

youngest division of biopsychology

BIOLOGY OF BEHAVIOR  

Physiological or psychological? NATURE VS. NURTURE HUMAN EVOLUTION

ANATOMY OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

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Central Nervous System Central nervous system (CNS) - part of the nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal cord. • Spinal cord - a long bundle of neurons that carries messages to and from the body to the brain that is responsible for very fast, lifesaving reflexes. Three Types of Neurons • Sensory neuron - a neuron that carries information from the senses to the central nervous system. • Also called afferent neuron. • Motor neuron - a neuron that carries messages from the central nervous system to the muscles of the body. • Also called efferent neuron. • Interneuron - a neuron found in the center of the spinal cord that receives information from the sensory neurons and sends commands to the muscles through the motor neurons. • Interneurons also make up the bulk of the neurons in the brain. Peripheral Nervous System

responsible for reacting to stressful events and bodily arousal. Parasympathetic division - part of the ANS that restores the body to normal functioning after arousal and is responsible for the day-to-day functioning of the organs and glands.

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Peripheral nervous system (PNS) - all nerves and neurons that are not contained in the brain and spinal cord but that run through the body itself; divided into the: • Somatic nervous system • Autonomic nervous system

Somatic Nervous System • •

Soma = body. Somatic nervous system - division of the PNS consisting of nerves that carry information from the senses to the CNS and from the CNS to the voluntary muscles of the body. • Sensory pathway - nerves coming from the sensory organs to the CNS consisting of sensory neurons. • Motor pathway - nerves coming from the CNS to the voluntary muscles, consisting of motor neurons.

Autonomic Nervous System •

Autonomic nervous system (ANS) - division of the PNS consisting of nerves that control all of the involuntary muscles, organs, and glands sensory pathway nerves coming from the sensory organs to the CNS consisting of sensory neurons.

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Sympathetic division (fight-or-flight system) - part of the ANS that is

Meninges - The outer meninx (which, believe it or not, is the singular of meninges) is a tough membrane called the dura mater (tough mother). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fills the subarachnoid space, the central canal of the spinal cord, and the cerebral ventricles of the brain. The central canal is a small central channel that runs the length of the spinal cord; the cerebral ventricles are the four large internal chambers of the brain: the two lateral ventricles, the third ventricle, and the fourth ventricle. The cerebrospinal fluid supports and cushions the brain. Blood-brain barrier 

Barrier consisting of cerebral blood vessels which inhibit the passage of harmful substances from entering the brain.

Neurons - the basic cell that makes up the nervous system and which receives and sends messages within that system. •

Parts of a Neuron • Dendrites - branch-like structures that receive messages from other neurons. • Soma - the cell body of the neuron, responsible for maintaining the life of the cell. • Axon - long tube-like structure that carries the neural message to other cells.

FIVE MAJOR DIVISIONS OF THE BRAIN

Forebrain - most prominent part of the mammalian brain which consists of two cerebral hemispheres (one on left and one on right) • •

MAJOR STRUCTURES OF THE BRAIN

Diencephalon Telencephalon - the largest division of the human brain, mediates the brain’s most complex functions. It inItiates voluntary movement, interprets sensory input, and mediates complex cognitive processes such as learning, speaking, and problem solving.

1. Thalamus 

Hindbrain - posterior part of the brain that consists of medulla, pons, and cerebellum. Myelencephalon - is composed largely of tracts carrying signals between the rest of the brain and the body. Metencephalon – houses many ascending and descending tracts and part of the reticular formation.

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2. Hypothalamus • • •

1. Medulla Oblongata  

responsible for vital reflexes (e.g., coughing, sneezing) necessary for survival has many opiate receptors that suppress the activity of the medulla oblongata

2. Pons     

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responsible for our motivated behaviors feeding, fighting, fleeing, and sexual behavior the one communicating with the pituitary gland to release certain hormones

3. Basal Ganglia • •

its main function is movement. responsible for habitual learning

4. Basal Forebrain Latin term for bridge (because it connects axons to the spinal cord) helps medulla oblongata in our vital reflexes most vital among the three because once it is damaged will lead to sudden death contain many nerves like cranial nerves vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve

arousal, attention, and wakefulness (related with sleep and attention) 5. Hippocampus • •

3. Cerebellum 

all the sensory information (except for olfaction) goes here first coming from the structure of our body before it goes to the cerebral cortex responsible for further processing them and then returning it back to the thalamus.

large hindbrain structure with many deep folds first to become affected when a person is intoxicated with alcohol because it is responsible for balance and coordination damage with this causes problem with shifting of attention from auditory to visual stimuli and difficulty in timing/reaction time necessary for learning and conditioning in that the conditioned behavior happened because of it

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responsible for memory people easily forgot things when they are depressed or stressed because prolonged stress result to too much cortisol damaging the hippocampus (lumiliit) thereby affecting its functioning or impairment in memory some people are born with small hippocampus which makes those people more susceptible to predisposal to certain disorders

Cerebral Cortex •

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occipital (at the back), frontal (front), parietal (tuktok), and temporal (temples sa dalawang sides) has the same positions with all other species; the only difference is the convolutions (folding) • wherein more convolutions/folding, the more intelligent an organism is.

Occipital Lobe

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vision primary visual cortex responsible for visionary experience—if a personal only has a cortical blindness (the problem is in the cortex which affects the occipital lobe), they have normal eyes but they never experience dreams and any visual perception such that the cortex is the one that gives us visual experiences People who became blind because of certain damage in the eyes still have visual experience because there is no problem with their visual cortex the eyes provide the stimulus but the cortex provides the visual experiences as it interprets visual information occipital lobe is responsible for our dreams

Parietal Lobe •

monitors information of the positions of our body (spatial information) and sends it to primary somatosensory cortex which is responsible for controlling and correct movement.

3. Temporal Lobe • •

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responsible for understanding spoken language (Wernicke area); speech production (bronchus area) in relation to schizophrenia, the bronchus area is over active to people with this condition (auditory hallucinations) which imply that they are not really hearing something from the outside but from themselves responsible for emotions Kluver-Bucy Syndrome - nawawalan ng emotions

VISUAL SYSTEM Light (electromagnetic energy between 380 and 760 nanometers) enters the eye and reaches the retina which is regulated by the irises which give our eyes color. Pupil (hole in the iris) is where light enters. Adjustment of the pupil is a response to changes in illumination which in turn represents a compromise between sensitivity (the ability to detect the presence of dimly lit objects) and acuity (the ability to see the details of objects). Pupil constriction – illumination is high and depth of focus is greater. Pupil Dilation – Illumination is low and acuity is sacrificed. Lens – focuses incoming light on the retina. Ciliary muscles – tenses when we gaze at something near therefore the lens assumes its natural cylindrical shape. When we focus on a distant object, the lens flattens-Accommodation.

Frontal Lobe     

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human executive functioning (thinking, decisionmaking, personality, etc.) could cause major change in behavior and personality if damaged most of its anterior portion is the prefrontal cortex posterior portion is associated mostly with movement middle zone pertains to working memory (ability to remember your recent events without • interrupting what you are doing), cognitive control, and emotional reactions anterior zone of the prefrontal cortex is most important for making decisions, evaluating which of several courses of action is likely to achieve the best outcome (affected when drinking alcohol).

5 Layers of Neurons in the Retina: Receptors, Horizontal Cells, Bipolar Cells, Amacrine Cells, and Retinal Ganglion Cells. Amacrine and Horizontal cells are specialized for lateral communication (communication across major channels of sensory input) One is that the incoming light is distorted by the retinal tissue through which it must pass before reaching the receptors. The other is that for the bundle of retinal ganglion cell axons to leave the eye, there must be a gap in the receptor layer; this gap is called the blind spot. The visual pathway begins with receptors in the retina and ends in the visual cortex of the occipital lobe. Cones - cone-shaped receptors

Midbrain - The primary role of the midbrain is to act as a sort of relay station for our visual and auditory systems. The midbrain is the smallest region of the brain, and is located most centrally within the cranial cavity. •

Mesencephalon

Rods - rod-shaped receptors Duplexity Theory – Cones and Rods mediate different kinds of vision. Photopic Vision (cone–mediated) – good lighting and high acuity...