Unit 3: Biological Psychology
Essential Task 3-6:
Detail historic and contemporary research strategies and technologies that support research (case studies like Phineas Gage, split-brain research, sleep research (EEGs), structural imaging (CAT Scans and MRIs), and functional imaging (PET scans and fMRIs).
AP Psychology
We are here
Nervous System
Central Nervous System
Brain
Brain Imaging
Peripheral Nervous System
Building Blocks
Genetics
Evolutionary
Endocrine System
Neurotransmitters
Somatic
Autonomic
Sympathetic
Parasympathetic
Biological Psychology
Spinal Cord
Neurons
Sensory
Motor
Essential Task 3-6:
Damage to Phineas Gage’s brain
Broca's area of the brain that controls _______
Gage
The plasticity of our brain.
After Terry lost a finger in an industrial accident, the area of his sensory cortex devoted to receiving input from that finger gradually became very responsive to sensory input from his adjacent fingers. This best illustrates
a. phrenology.
b. aphasia.
c. hemispherectomy.
d. plasticity.
e. tomography.
Lesion
A brain lesion experimentally destroys brain tissue to study animal behaviors after such destruction.
Techniques to Study the Brain
Hubel (1990)
Brain Surgery and playing the banjo
Can you make a purple circle with a cross in the middle?
Fun with your Hemispheres
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Our Divided Brain
Our brain is divided into two hemispheres.
The left hemisphere processes reading, writing, speaking, mathematics, and comprehension skills. In the 1960s, it was termed as the dominant brain.
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Exploring the brain
Hemispheric Specialization
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Hemispheric Specialization
People with intact brains also show left-right hemispheric differences in mental abilities.
A number of brain scan studies show normal individuals engage their right brain when completing a perceptual task and their left brain when carrying out a linguistic task.
Splitting the Brain
A procedure in which the two hemispheres of the brain are isolated by cutting the connecting fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum) between them.
Corpus Callosum
Split Brain Patients (Video AP Conf, “Severed CC” or even better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfYbgdo8e-8)
With the corpus callosum severed, objects (apple) presented in the right visual field can be named. Objects (pencil) in the left visual field cannot.
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Divided Consciousness
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Microelectrode Techniques
EEG (Electroencephalogram)
Sleep Research
Sleep Research
EEG imaging�
Brain Imaging
Structural Imaging
Functional Imaging
CAT Scan
MRI
PET Scan
fMRI
CAT Scans
More CAT Scans
Not a CAT Scan
MRI – Magnetic Resonance Imaging
CAT scan vs. MRI
CAT scan
MRI
Give you the structure of the brain
PET Scans
PET Scan of Alzheimer's Disease Brain
PET Scan of�Normal Brain
fMRIs
What's the Difference Between MRI and FMRI?
FMRI scans use the same basic principles of atomic physics as MRI scans, but MRI scans image anatomical structure whereas FMRI image metabolic function (blood flow and oxygen levels). Thus, the images generated by MRI scans are like three dimensional pictures of anatomic structure. The images generated by FMRI scans are images of metabolic activity within these anatomic structures. Which is which?
Anticipation of doing math causes pain in some people.
posterior insula -- a fold of tissue located deep inside the brain just above the ear that is associated with registering direct threats to the body as well as the experience of pain.
UChicago researchers have found that the higher a person’s anxiety about math, the more anticipating math activated areas of the brain related to experiencing pain.
Reading You Mind (Brain)??????????