biopsych 2

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biopsych 2
- Hemispheric lateralisation
  - left hem
    - lang centres: brocas and wernickes
    - analyser
  - right hem
    - synthesiser
    - produces emotional context to what's being said
  - 2 halves of brain are functionally dif - control dif things
- Plasticity
  - brain can change and adapt
  - maguire research: london taxi drivers --found the had a larger rear hippocampus
    - supported by Draganski
- functional recovery
  - form of plasticity
  - occurs after trauma --healthy areas take over the functions that are damaged
  - axonal sprouting - growth of new nerve endings
  - denervation supersensitivity-- axons that do similar compensate
  - recruitment of homologous (similar)areas on opposite side of brain
- Ways of studying the brain
  - FMRI
    - measures brain activity while performinga task. detects ration waves from changing magnetic fields.
  - electroencephalogram -EEG
    - record of the electrical impulses in brains activity. measures characteristic wave patterns
  - event-related potential (ERPs)
    - electrophysiological response of the brain to specific sensory, cognitive or motor event can be isolated through analysis of EEG data
  - post-moterm examinations
    - brain analysed after death - determines certain behaviours during lifetime that can be linked to structural abnormalities in brain
RH controls left side of body and vice versa
many functions not lateralised
- vision, motor, somatosensory in both hems
  - motor is cross wired

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