Biological Psychology: Exam 1 Test Questions (Chapters 1 & 2)

Chapter 1
1) Biological psychologists are interested in the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system and the behavior and cognition.
2) Empirical knowledge is knowledge obtained through our senses.
3) When scientists discuss the relative contributions of inheritance versus experience to our development, they are engaging in a discussion of
nature versus nurture. (When scientists are in a discussion involving gene and environment, they are engaged in a conversation of nature
versus nurture.)
4) Reduction: taking complex systems apart to better understand them.
5) Rene Descartes is important in originating the steps to conduct scientific research:
I. Careful observation from Aristotle
II. Hypothesis formulation & Research questions
III. Theories (just an explanation)
6) Natural selection
7) Microscope suggested that humans are made of the same cells as rats.
8) Charles Darwin published a book in 1859 called The Origin of Species.
Organized the animal kingdom and put humans in the midst of that.
The sum total of all of genes is called genotype and codes for a person. How a person look is his/her phenotype. In other words,
genotype codes for phenotype.
Factors that define Evolution:
I. No two living things are the same. (Variation (V) is always greater than 0.)
II. Overproduction.
III. Big population leads to competition (for limited resources)
IV. Some individuals outcompete others, measured by differential reproductive success some individuals produce more offspring.
V. Some genes become more common than other genes.
Evolution: a change in gene frequencies over generational time. Some genes become common, and others become less common.
9) Sources or factors of genetic variation:
I. Mutation
II. Sexual Reproduction
III. Crossing-over
10) Evolutionary Adaptation: anything that confers a reproductive advantage on an individual. Adaptation is when an organism adjusts to its
environment or surroundings.
11) Simple vs. Complex; Primitive vs. Advanced (Evolutionary adaptations)
Homology vs. Analogy (Homologous structures have the same evolutionary or embryonic beginnings) (Analogous structures do the same
thing but are not the same structures)
12) People are selectively destroying parts of animals brains to find out what that part of the brain does.
Researchers study cat and rat brain because their brain is similar to the human brain.
13) Paul Broca has patients who show a loss of speech called it Brocas area damage there causes speech problems
14) Carl Wernicke his patients lose ability to comprehend language cant understand language called Wernickes area.
15) Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke are two of the very first neurologists.
16) Evidence that the brain is very important in behavior:
I. Selective destruction of brain parts of animals produces behavioral changes
II. Autopsies of cadavers who had had behavioral problems always reveal brain damage.
17) Psychology: the science of the nervous system, behavior, and cognition.
18) Humans: Kingdom=Animalia; Class= Mammalia; Phylum=Chordata; Order=Primates
19) Next subdivision of animalia: Phyla; subset of this is Phylum;
Humans belong to the Phylum called Chordata or (plural) Chordates; Order=Primates
The spine or the back of something, called the dorsal, explains this.
All Chordates have this a hollow dorsal nerve chord that runs along the back
20) Taxonomy: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
21) Adaptation of the brain of mammals called the cortex all mammals have it an advanced feature of the brain of mammals.
22) Rat, cat, and monkey share common ancestors with humans.
23) Taxonomy of a Cat: Kingdom: Animalia; Phylum: Chordata; Class: Mammalia; Order: Carnivora; Family: Felidae; Genus: Felis;
Species: Felis catus
24) Rats are in the same Class as humans: Mammalia
25) In order of frequency of use in research, the common mammals used by far are rodents and mice.
In order of being mostly used to least used: rodents, cats, monkeys, chimpanzees
26) There are ways of controlling how animals are used in research: university is controlled by an IRB (Institutional Review Board).
27) When the committee has to deal only with animals and looks at animal-based research, it is called an Institutional Animal Care and Use
Committee (IACUC).
Person conducting research cannot be on the committee, but other researchers can be
Researchers that are not doing the research; student representatives; ethicist; and veterinarian propose guidelines that minimize the
suffering of the subjects.
28) 3 Rs:
I. Reduction: reduce the number of animals used in research
II. Refinement: refine the way the animal is being used so that it does not hurt too much
III. Replacement: replace animals with plastic/artificial models.
Chapter 2
29) Glucose is the fundamental fuel for the bodys neurons.
Active transport needs energy via ATP.
30) Whenever you break a chemical bond, energy is produced. ATP ADP
31) Sodium Potassium pump: pumps Na
+
(3 of them) out of the neuron & K
+
(2 of them) into the neuron.
32) The reason why the Sodium Potassium pump is important is because it maintains the electrical polarity of the cell membrane. It makes the
outside of the cell more positive than the inside of the cell.
33) When a neuron is not doing anything, it is said to be at rest the outside of the cell is positive with respect to the inside we call that a
Resting Membrane Potential or Resting Membrane Voltage. (Potential = Voltage)
34) When a neuron is at rest, there is 10 times more sodium outside the resting neuron than the inside; it is relatively negative (but not negative)
not as positive.
35) How many neurons are in the brain of a normal, 20 year-old, human adult? 100 billion neurons. Glia cells are 10 times more than this
amount of neurons [1 trillion] and are 1/10 the size of a neuron.
36) Neurons are the most energy-demanding cell in the human body. Even at rest, neurons use 20 times as much glucose as muscle cells do.
37) Glia cells:
I. Astrocytes (or astroglia) help provide nourishment (glucose) to neurons, and they clean the metabolic waste of neurons. They also seem
to be involved in the coordinating (or the firing) of neurons, naturally allowing neurons to communicate with each other in groups.
II. The smallest of all the glia cells is called microglia. They function similarly to astrocytes. However, they also function as the
extension of the immune system and prevent neurons from being infected by bacteria and viruses.
A bone cell or a muscle cell can divide. Of all cells in your body, the neurons in the brain of an adult vertebra are the most
least likely cells to divide. Therefore, microglia is there to protect the neurons from invasions from bacteria and viruses.
III. Schwann cells secrete myelin sheaths in the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) and everywhere else.
IV. Oligodendrocytes secrete myelin sheaths only in the Central Nervous System (CNS) via brain and spinal cord.
38) Blood-Brain Barrier: a mechanism that excludes most chemicals from the vertebrate brain; more protection for neurons; stops the migration
of bacteria and viruses into the brain. Lipophilic (fat-loving) molecules such as opiates can get through the Blood-Brain Barrier.
39) The cell membrane will allow gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide through while the Blood-Brain Barrier allows lipophilic molecules.
40) Neurons: the primary information producing, information processing, and information transmitting cells of the nervous system.
41) Neurons typically consist of 3 parts: a cell body (soma), dendrites (multiply branched, tapered structures that receive information) leading to
dendritic spines, and an axon. Note:
Some neurons but not all neurons have one, but never more than one long fiber filament called an axon.
42) Information comes into the neuron through its dendrites and leaves through its axon.

43) There are 3 kinds of neurons:
I. Sensory neurons: take information from outside world to nervous system. Eyes, ears, and skin
II. Motor Neurons: take information from the nervous system to the muscles.
III. Interneurons: neurons in brain in-between sensory and motor neurons
44) There are some neurons in the brain that do not have long axons and are called local or intrinsic neurons to one part of the brain.
45) Mitochondria strips off hydrogen from other molecules to make energy available.
46) Sodium channels (voltage-controlled sodium gates): when outside of cell is very positive with respect to the inside, sodium channels are
closed. Only open when the inside of a cell becomes less negative or less polarized. Opens and closes (is refractory)
47) Sodium-Potassium Pump: helps redistribute sodium and potassium ions; maintains the Resting Membrane Potential and restore the
distribution of ions; maintains cells polarity; inside of cell is electronegative with respect to the outside because of 3 sodiums out and 2
potassiums in sodium is 10 times more concentrated in a resting neuron than outside, making the outside very positive than the inside
(polarized outside is positive and inside is negative or less positive)
48) Dendrites cells are the receptor sites, which receive neurotransmitters.
49) Microelectrode (used to measure the negativity inside a cell) can be made from: gold wire; thin glass tube with gold/silver wire in it; or a thin
glass tube with saline solution - used to measure electrical outputs (difference of potentials one neuron measurement)
50) Diffusion pressure: moving from high concentration to lower concentration
51) Introducing positive ions into the neuron cell will cause like charges to repel each other downwards, out of the cell, and accumulates on the
axon membrane
52) More positive on outside than inside, but if a lot positive ions get inside the cell becomes depolarized (slightly less negative than outside)
and sodium channel opens, trickling small amounts of sodium into it.
53) When the sum of all negative and positive values (on both sides of the membrane) reaches a certain value, the cell reaches a firing threshold.
54) When a cell reaches its firing threshold, it produces an Action Potential (only produced on axon and only move forward). Forward meaning
anterograde.
55) Nerve impulse: A wave-like series or sequence of depolarizations, starting near the cell body and moving toward the terminal of the axon.
56) Repulsion and refractory forcing ions inside neuron cell.
57) Nerve: a bundle of axons out in the Peripheral Nervous System, covered with myelin (synthesized out on the PNS by Schwann cells)
58) Saltatory conduction: a nerve impulse propagation (almost 100mph) made possible by myelin for a big action potential.
59) When you myelin-ate a bundle of axons out on the Peripheral Nervous System, it is sometimes called a nerve.
60) Neurons produce voltages such as Resting Membrane Potentials and Action Potentials. In addition to this, they synthesize chemicals such as
neurotransmitters on organelles, specifically the ribosomes.