Biological approach revision guide
The brain and behaviour
For each of the following questions, be able to do the
following:
1. Think about which terms and/or theories would be
necessary to define or explain.
2. Provide 2 - 3 studies that could be used to answer
the question.
3. How would you demonstrate critical thinking
relevant to the question?
4. How would different command terms lead to
different responses? (SAQ: Outline, describe,
explain); ERQ (Discuss, evaluate, contrast, to what
extent)
Question 1. Discuss one or more techniques used to study the brain in relation to
behaviour.
Key vocabulary / description of
theory MRI is invasive technique to study the brain, which
uses magnetic fied and radiowaves frequencies to
produce a detailed image of the brain. Brain
anormalies are observed through the comparison of
the size and distributions of bright and dark areas on
the scan. They enable the researcher to pinpoints
specific brain structures regarding injuries or increased
grey matter to identify the link between brain and
behaviour. However, often outside factors such as
temperature, noise can affect the scan hence they are
not always reliable. One main area they scan during
MRI is the hippocampus, which is specific area in the
brain used for turning short tem memory into long
, term memory. It can show posterior, anterior
hippocampus.
Research Maguire
Aim to see the influence of hippocampus on memory
Participtans: 16 London taxi drives right handed and
50 right handed – had to take the knowledge test
before hand and had to be drives for at least 1.5 years
Procedure: The scans were analysed by blind expert
usinf voxel based morphometry to measure grey
matter volume in brain structures. Pixel xcounting was
also used to calculate the hippocampus volume, / area
anterior and posterior and body of hippocampus
Findings: Spatial navigation is localized to the left of
posterior hippocampus region, as this is where volume
of grey matter was greatest in taxt drivers.
Critical thinking
Different command terms SAQs: Outline, describe and explain;
ERQs: Evaluate, Contrast
Question 2. Discuss localization of behaviour.
Key vocabulary / description of
theory Localisation is an argument that certain behaviours can
be traced back to a specific part of the brain. It assumes
that there is a biological basis to behaviour and that
thoughts, actions and other behaviours are linked to a
biological funvtion. It can be measured using tehniques
to study the brain. Localisation divided the brain into 4
parts – frontal lobe (thinking, decision making,
reasoning, planning), pariental (movement, orientation,
perception), occipital lobe (visual processing), temporal
lobe ( processing auditory information, speech), where
evey section of the brain is related to a specific function.
One specific area that is also well studied is the
hippocampus, where the area is specific for the transfer
of memory from long term to short term memory. MRI
is invasive technique to study the brain, which uses
magnetic fied and radiowaves frequencies to produce a
detailed image of the brain. Brain anormalies are
observed through the comparison of the size and
distributions of bright and dark areas on the scan. They
enable the researcher to pinpoints specific brain
structures regarding injuries or increased grey matter to
identify the link between brain and behaviour.
, Research
HM 1966 case study
Aim to understand the role of hippocampus and
surrounding structures in memory formation
Participant : HM
Procedure: Hm suffered from epileptic attacks. He got a
surgery to stop the attacks, and they took out part of his
hippocampus. They used MRI scan to scan his brain.
Usage of method of triangulation (interviews,
observations).
Findings: Hippocampus plays a role in memory. After
the surgery, he could not form new memory. His only
memory was his childhood events, which he remember
well, and events before the surgery (anterograde
amnesia).
Critical thinking
Different command terms SAQs: Outline, describe and explain; ERQs: Evaluate
research
Question 3. Discuss research on neuroplasticity.
Key vocabulary / description of Neuroplasticity suggests that the human brain is affect
theory by environment stimulus. The brain has the ability to
reorganize itself and form new connects between
neurons (neuron cell) when smth new is learned from
environment stimulus. Neurons function to send
clectrochemical messages to the brain, enabaling mental
processes. Billions of neurons connect to form a neural
network called dendritic branching. However, neural
pruning is the loss of a specific synaptic connect which
was not often used. Synapse is the connectiong between
2 dendries of neurons, which help electrochemical
messages to travel around in the brain. Interactions with
certain stimulus can strengthen the neural connections,
and unsudes synapses are pruned (weakend), which
increase the effectiveness of the used neural circuits.
Synapses appear as gray matter in brain, hence
measuring vhange of matter can show the synaptic
pruning process.
Research Draginski 2004
Aim to see the relationship between learning a new skill
and the structure of the brain
The brain and behaviour
For each of the following questions, be able to do the
following:
1. Think about which terms and/or theories would be
necessary to define or explain.
2. Provide 2 - 3 studies that could be used to answer
the question.
3. How would you demonstrate critical thinking
relevant to the question?
4. How would different command terms lead to
different responses? (SAQ: Outline, describe,
explain); ERQ (Discuss, evaluate, contrast, to what
extent)
Question 1. Discuss one or more techniques used to study the brain in relation to
behaviour.
Key vocabulary / description of
theory MRI is invasive technique to study the brain, which
uses magnetic fied and radiowaves frequencies to
produce a detailed image of the brain. Brain
anormalies are observed through the comparison of
the size and distributions of bright and dark areas on
the scan. They enable the researcher to pinpoints
specific brain structures regarding injuries or increased
grey matter to identify the link between brain and
behaviour. However, often outside factors such as
temperature, noise can affect the scan hence they are
not always reliable. One main area they scan during
MRI is the hippocampus, which is specific area in the
brain used for turning short tem memory into long
, term memory. It can show posterior, anterior
hippocampus.
Research Maguire
Aim to see the influence of hippocampus on memory
Participtans: 16 London taxi drives right handed and
50 right handed – had to take the knowledge test
before hand and had to be drives for at least 1.5 years
Procedure: The scans were analysed by blind expert
usinf voxel based morphometry to measure grey
matter volume in brain structures. Pixel xcounting was
also used to calculate the hippocampus volume, / area
anterior and posterior and body of hippocampus
Findings: Spatial navigation is localized to the left of
posterior hippocampus region, as this is where volume
of grey matter was greatest in taxt drivers.
Critical thinking
Different command terms SAQs: Outline, describe and explain;
ERQs: Evaluate, Contrast
Question 2. Discuss localization of behaviour.
Key vocabulary / description of
theory Localisation is an argument that certain behaviours can
be traced back to a specific part of the brain. It assumes
that there is a biological basis to behaviour and that
thoughts, actions and other behaviours are linked to a
biological funvtion. It can be measured using tehniques
to study the brain. Localisation divided the brain into 4
parts – frontal lobe (thinking, decision making,
reasoning, planning), pariental (movement, orientation,
perception), occipital lobe (visual processing), temporal
lobe ( processing auditory information, speech), where
evey section of the brain is related to a specific function.
One specific area that is also well studied is the
hippocampus, where the area is specific for the transfer
of memory from long term to short term memory. MRI
is invasive technique to study the brain, which uses
magnetic fied and radiowaves frequencies to produce a
detailed image of the brain. Brain anormalies are
observed through the comparison of the size and
distributions of bright and dark areas on the scan. They
enable the researcher to pinpoints specific brain
structures regarding injuries or increased grey matter to
identify the link between brain and behaviour.
, Research
HM 1966 case study
Aim to understand the role of hippocampus and
surrounding structures in memory formation
Participant : HM
Procedure: Hm suffered from epileptic attacks. He got a
surgery to stop the attacks, and they took out part of his
hippocampus. They used MRI scan to scan his brain.
Usage of method of triangulation (interviews,
observations).
Findings: Hippocampus plays a role in memory. After
the surgery, he could not form new memory. His only
memory was his childhood events, which he remember
well, and events before the surgery (anterograde
amnesia).
Critical thinking
Different command terms SAQs: Outline, describe and explain; ERQs: Evaluate
research
Question 3. Discuss research on neuroplasticity.
Key vocabulary / description of Neuroplasticity suggests that the human brain is affect
theory by environment stimulus. The brain has the ability to
reorganize itself and form new connects between
neurons (neuron cell) when smth new is learned from
environment stimulus. Neurons function to send
clectrochemical messages to the brain, enabaling mental
processes. Billions of neurons connect to form a neural
network called dendritic branching. However, neural
pruning is the loss of a specific synaptic connect which
was not often used. Synapse is the connectiong between
2 dendries of neurons, which help electrochemical
messages to travel around in the brain. Interactions with
certain stimulus can strengthen the neural connections,
and unsudes synapses are pruned (weakend), which
increase the effectiveness of the used neural circuits.
Synapses appear as gray matter in brain, hence
measuring vhange of matter can show the synaptic
pruning process.
Research Draginski 2004
Aim to see the relationship between learning a new skill
and the structure of the brain
