Psych 2B - KT & ILOs - PsychoBio and Perception

Brain Development

• Neural induction, proliferation, migration, differentiation, synaptogenesis, and cell death/stabilisation are key processes.
• Synaptic rearrangement, genetic determination, and glial cell development are also important aspects.
• Cortical grey matter and cortical white matter evolve throughout childhood and adolescence.
• Synaptic connections and myelination increase, impacting functional connectivity.
• The imbalance model explains brain development as a balance between different processes.
• Environmental factors influence brain development.
• Changes with ageing include retrogenesis and compensatory brain activity.
• The HAROLD (Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults) and PASA (Posterior-Anterior Shift in Aging) models describe age-related brain changes.

Self-Control

• Self-control is linked to positive life outcomes, but its absence leads to personal and societal costs.
• Top-down vs bottom-up processing plays a critical role in self-control.
• Key brain areas include the pre-frontal cortex and cerebral cortex, specifically the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
• The ventral tegmental area, brainstem, basal ganglia, ventral striatum, and nucleus accumbens are involved.
• The limbic system (amygdala & hypothalamus) also contributes to self-regulation.
• The balance model of self-control involves reward, executive control, and cognitive strategy.
• Modifying brain activity via lesions, rTMS (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation), and TDCS (Transcranial direct current stimulation) can impact self-control.
• Key concepts include impulsivity, inhibition (Go/No Go tasks), and risk-taking.
• Development of self-control and reward-seeking behaviour can be measured using the Marshmallow test.
• Adolescence is a critical period for circuitry, brain region interaction, and functional connectivity development.
• Dietary self-control is also relevant.

The Social Brain

• Social brain areas include the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and mid-superior temporal sulcus.
• Perception networks involve the ventrolateral amygdala, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, and temporal cortex.
• Affiliation networks include the medial amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and ventromedial striatum.
• Aversion networks include the rostrodorsal amygdala, caudal anterior cingulate cortex, and pain-sensitive targets in areas like the anterior insula.
• Atrophy can affect these social brain areas.
• Empathy relies on shared neural activation, likeability, cognitive appraisal, and self-other distinction.
• Vicarious embarrassment activates the middle temporal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus.
• Altruism involves strategic choices and intrinsic/extrinsic reward.
• Reward circuits are linked to altruism and abstract social thought.
• The default mode network is involved in social processes.
• Peer influence, risk-taking, and social exclusion impact the social brain.
• Interpersonal competence relies on the posterior and anterior vmPFC.

Stress Response

• The autonomic nervous system, including the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, is central to the stress response.
• The amygdala, hypothalamus, and adrenal glands play key roles.
• The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis is a critical stress response pathway.
• The transactional model of stress emphasizes cognitive appraisal.
• Primary Appraisal of Identity Threats (PAIT) relates to controllability & threat-related activation.
• Physiological impacts of acute and chronic stress differ.
• Chronic stress can lead to neuronal remodelling and allostatic load.
• Glucocorticoids, the anterior cingulate cortex and social exclusion are all involved in the stress response.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is associated with decreased hippocampal volume and altered corticotropin-releasing hormone and adrenocorticotropic hormone levels.

Sleep and Circadian Timing

• Biological processes regulate sleep and wakefulness, including the stages of sleep.
• Polysomnography is used to measure sleep stages.
• The two-process model regulates sleep.
• Zeitgebers, like the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) and melatonin, regulate circadian rhythms.
• Circadian preference and social jet lag affect sleep patterns.
• Understanding the 'Perfect Storm' model including sleep pressure, bioregulatory pressure, psychosocial pressure and societal pressure during adolescence, is important.
• Sleep restriction impacts cognitive function.
• Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) is used to measure alertness.
• Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is a key stage of sleep.

Health Behaviors

• Models of behavior change include the Health Belief Model, Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behaviour, and Transtheoretical Model.
• The Health Belief Model incorporates perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers.
• The Theory of Reasoned Action includes social norms and subjective norms.
• The Theory of Planned Behaviour uses perceived behavioural control and self-efficacy.
• The intention-Behaviour Gap is a key concept.
• The Transtheoretical Model stages are pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and relapse.
• Understanding the neurobiological basis for motivation is essential.
• Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment (SOCRATES) and the Eagerness Scale are used for measurement.
• The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is involved in motivation.

Disorders of Consciousness

• Disorders of consciousness include vegetative state and minimally conscious state.
• Assessing awareness and covert cognition are critical.
• Brain areas like the supplementary motor area, parahippocampal gyrus, posterior parietal lobe, and lateral premotor cortex are studied using neuroimaging.
• Modulation and top-down cognitive control are relevant.
• Nonbehavioural minimally conscious state is a diagnostic challenge.
• Decision-making capacity, neuroimaging findings, and quality of life considerations are important.

Risk-Taking

• The dual-systems model explains risk-taking behaviour.
• Peer influence and emotional influence contribute to risk-taking.
• Developmental neuroscience is relevant to discussions of criminal responsibility and diminished responsibility,
• Roper v. Simmons case is a landmark legal example.

Animal Research

• Ethical considerations in animal research follow the BPS Code of Ethics & Conduct and BPS Guidelines for working with animals.
• The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 emphasizes Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement (the 3Rs).

Perception Introduction

• Perception encompasses vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste, and temperature.
• Classical perceptual phenomena, top-down and bottom-up processing are essential.
• Psychophysics uses methods like Method of Limits, Method of Adjustment, Staircase Methods, and Method of Constant Stimuli.
• Absolute Threshold, Psychometric Function, Difference Threshold, JND (Just Noticeable Difference), Weber’s Law (Weber Fraction), and Magnitude Estimation are key concepts.
• Theories of perception include the Physiological Approach (Barlow), Ecological Approach (Gibson), Computational Approach (Marr) and Phenomenological approach.

The Visual System

• The optic array and visual encoding are fundamental.
• Principles of Least Commitment, Least Redundancy, and Graceful Degradation are important.
• The retina contains photoreceptors (rods and cones), including L, M, & S cones with spectral sensitivity for phototransduction.
• Visual Electrophysiology is used to study bipolar cells, retinal ganglion cells, and their spike trains.
• Centre/surround structure is a key feature.
• The Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) exhibits retinotopy and contains M, P, & K cells.
• V1/Striate Cortex/Primary Visual Cortex processes information with simple, complex, and end-stopped cells that show orientation tuning.
• The hierarchical structure extends to extra-striate cortex (V2, V3, V4, V5/MT, IT, MST) and inferotemporal cortex (IT).
• Dorsal (action) and Ventral (perception) pathways exist.
• Spatial frequency and binocular disparity are processed.

Objects and Scenes

• Scene and object perception involve understanding natural scenes.
• Gestalt rules, including grouping, good continuation, similarity, and proximity guide perception.
• Perceptual segregation and illusory contours (e.g., Kanicza Triangle) are important.
• Object categorization involves viewpoint invariance.
• The concept of Scene Gist is relevant.
• Perceptual inference and superstitious perception are cognitive processes.
• Cognitive toponymy and brain areas TE and TEO are involved.
• The fusiform face area (FFA) processes faces.

Visual Attention

• Attention can be divided or selective, exogeneous or endogenous.
• Concepts include inattentional blindness, change blindness, continuity error, and the spotlight of attention.
• Modularity is relevant to understanding attentional processes.
• The Binding Problem is addressed by Feature Integration Theory (FIT) with pre-attentive and focused attention stages.
• Search can be parallel (“pop-out”) or serial (conjunction search).
• Illusory conjunctions can occur.
• Gamma band oscillation is associated with attention.
• The occipital face area (OFA), parahippocampal place area (PPA), extra-striate body area (EBA), and visual word form area (VWFA) are specialized brain areas.
• Diagnosticity, the lateral occipital complex (LOC), "Grandmother Neurone" or "Jennifer Aniston Neurone", affordance, binding by synchronisation, photoreceptor distribution, central/peripheral vision, eye movement, salience, autism, and monotropism are relevant to attention.
• Attentional enhancement is a key function.

Motion Perception

• Motion perception relies on delay and compare mechanisms.
• The motion (Reichardt) detector is fundamental.
• Apparent motion and static motion illusions occur.
• The correspondence problem, nearest neighbour matching, and common fate are important.
• The aperture problem and barberpole illusion illustrate challenges in motion perception.
• Optic flow and heading perception are used for navigation.
• Corollary discharge contributes to self-motion perception.
• Area V5/MT and areas MST and FST are crucial for motion processing.
• Motion trajectories and action perception are linked.
• hMT+ and V3 are involved in dynamic form perception.
• The vestibular system contributes to self-motion perception.
• The superior temporal sulcus (STS) processes biological motion and point-light displays.

Colour Perception

• Colour is related to wavelength, spectral reflectance and Benham’s Disc.
• Colour diagnosticity and memory colours are cognitive influences.
• Trichromacy (Young-Helmholtz Theory) and colour matching using spectral sensitivity are fundamental.
• The concept of Metamer is important.
• The opponent-process theory explains colour vision.
• Forbidden colours are related to opponent processing.
• Blob/interblob and ocular dominance are features of colour processing in the brain.
• Colour contrast, double opponent neurones, and simultaneous colour contrast are relevant.
• Unique hue is a key concept.
• Object colour and spectral power distribution relate to colour perception.
• Colour constancy is achieved through chromatic adaptation.
• Lightness constancy and assumptions like "Colour as Material" influence perception, e.g., "The Dress" illusion.

Somaesthesis

• Proprioception and Kinesthesia are crucial for body awareness.
• Tactile perception involves the somatosensory system.
• Merkel receptors, Meissner corpuscles, Pacinian corpuscles, and Ruffini endings are key receptors.
• Sustained/transient and fast adapting/slow adapting properties define receptor function.
• C-Tactile (CT) mechanoreceptors and free nerve endings contribute to touch.
• Glabrous/non-glabrous and myelinated/non-myelinated distinctions are relevant.
• Tactile receptive fields and two-point discrimination threshold are measures of tactile acuity.
• The sensory homunculus and somatosensory cortex (S1, S2) represent the body.
• Plasticity in the somatosensory cortex is important.
• Spinal Pathway and Medial Lemniscal Pathway are involved in touch sensation.
• Spinal-Thalamic Pathway, Ventro-Parietal Nucleus (VPN) and Thermoreception all contribute to touch.
• Haptics involves active touch and exploratory procedures.
• Phases of pain, A-Delta/C- Fibres, affective/discriminative dimensions, nociceptors are all important aspects of pain.
• Gate theory and endorphins modulate pain perception.
• Phantom limb sensations can occur.

Auditory Perception

• Auditory perception encompasses pitch, loudness, and timbre.
• Sound pressure level (SPL) is measured in decibels (dB).
• Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz).
• The outer, middle, and inner ear are involved in hearing.
• The pinna/concha and auditory meatus/canal collect sound.
• The tympanic membrane (eardrum) vibrates.
• Impedance matching is performed by the ossicles (stapes, malleus, incus/stirrups, hammer, anvil) in the middle ear.
• The cochlea contains the basilar membrane and the organ of Corti.
• Inner/outer hair cells transduce sound.
• The auditory nerve transmits signals to the brain.
• Phase locking and frequency decomposition occur in the cochlea.
• Tonotopy is maintained throughout the auditory pathway.
• The place model/rate model explains pitch perception.
• Auditory pathway includes the cochlear nucleus, superior olivary complex, inferior colliculus, medial geniculate body, and auditory cortex (A1).
• Characteristic frequency and frequency tuning are features of auditory neurons.
• Semicircular Canal is responsible for balance.

Gustation

• Basic tastes are sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami.
• Magnitude estimation is used to measure taste intensity.
• Taste buds are located on papillae.
• Labelled lines transmit taste information.
• Taste receptor cells detect tastants.
• The nucleus of the solitary tract (NST), insula, frontal operculum, and orbito-frontal cortex (OFC) are brain areas involved in taste processing.

Olfaction

• Olfaction involves detection and identification of odours.
• Pheromones are chemical signals.
• Anosmia is the loss of smell.
• An olfactometer and Sniffin’ Sticks are used to measure olfactory function.
• Olfactory receptor neurones (ORNs) in the olfactory epithelium detect odorants.
• Glomeruli in the olfactory bulb receive input from ORNs.
• The olfactory nerve transmits signals to the brain.
• The pyriform cortex (PC), amygdala, and hippocampus are brain areas involved in olfactory processing.
• Olfactory encoding and perceptual organisation are important.

Flavour Perception

• Flavour perception combines taste and smell.
• Bimodal neurones integrate taste and smell information.
• The retronasal route delivers smells from the mouth to the olfactory system.
• Mouth feel contributes to flavour.
• Supertasters and non-tasters vary in taste sensitivity.
• Synaesthesia can influence flavour perception.
• Gastrophysics studies the physical and chemical properties of food.