1. Name the three principles of Biological approach to understanding behaviour.

The biological approach to behaviour looks at behaviour as a product of evolution, genetics

inheritance, brain structure or chemical processes in the body. It rests on the following principles:

-Behaviour is the product of physiology (the structure and function of the brain and
endocrine system).

-Behaviour can be genetically inherited (patterns of behaviour can be inherited)

-Animal research may inform our understanding of the human behaviour (we share
large portion of the genotype with our animal ancestors, and genotype determines
behaviour).

2. Write the main parts of the brain with a small description for each.

Frontal lobe: associated with reasoning, planning, thinking, decision-making, voluntary actions,
complex emotions, and so on.

Parietal lobe: associated with movement, orientation, perception and recognition.

Occipital lobe: associated with visual processing.

Temporal lobe: associated with processing auditory information, memory and speech.

Thalamus: has sensory functions. Nerves from almost all sensory organs reach the thalamus as
a final hub before they connect to the cortex.

Hypothalamus: is below the thalamus in the brain, it's involved in functions such as thirst,
hunger and emotions.

Amygdala: involved in memory, emotions and fear.

Hippocampus: important for functions such as learning, memory and transferring short-term
memory to a more permanent store, spatial orientation.

3. Write the function for each main part of the brain

-Cortex: The cortex is a layer of neurones folded on the surface covering the brain on the outside.
This part of the brain is associated with higher-order functions such as abstract thoughts to
voluntary actions.

-Cerebellum: has two hemispheres and a folded surface. Associated with coordination of
movement and balance.

-Limbic system: is an evolutionary older subcortical structure. It is referred to as the ‘emotional

brain’.

-Brain stem: is underneath the limbic system and its main function is to regulate the basic
vital processes such as breathing or heartbeat. It is connected to the spinal cord.

4. Write one research study/case study for localisation of the brain and one against localisation of
brain.

FOR:
The first research that inspired psychologist to investigate the idea of strict localisation of function
were performed with patients with brain damage. Some of these studies showed that a person
with brain damage to a specific area may demonstrate a very specific malfunction in behaviour.

One of the earliest discoveries in this area was of the speech centre by Paul Broca in the case
study of ‘Tan’.

Tan developed gangrene and was admitted to surgery. Lebogrne was able to only pronounce the
syllable ‘Tan’, typically twice. His conditions remain the same until his death. His inability to speak
was the only malfunction: his intelligence was intact, he understood everything, and when asked
something he tried to communicate back.

Broca carefully described Tan’s condition, which is known as, Broca’s aphasia (the loss of
articulated speech. When Tan died, an autopsy of his brain was carried out and revealed a lesion
in the frontal area of the left hemisphere, in particular a region in the posterior inferior frontal
gyrus. This region is now known as Broca’s area.

AGAINST:
Experiments with induced brain damage in rats showed that memory is widely distributed rather
than localised anywhere in the cortex. Karl Lashley (1929) used carefully controlled induced brain
damage in the cortex of rats that were trained to run through a maze.

Procedure
In a typical study, he trained a rat to go through a maze without mistakes in search of food, then
removed a part of its cortex and observed what effect this would have on its memory of the maze.
He removed 10–50% of the cortex on different trials.

Results
Results of these experiments did not support Lashley’s original hypotheses and led him to
formulate the following ideas:

-The principle of mass action: Memory of the maze depended on the percentage of
cortex destroyed, but not on the location of the lesion.

-Equipotentiality: The idea that one part of the cortex can take over the functions of
another part of the cortex when necessary.

Conclusion
Based on these observations Lashley concluded that memory is not localised; it is widely
distributed across the cortex as a whole. Even if one part of the cortex is lost, other parts may
take over the functions of the missing part

5. Highlights of localisation.

The accumulated body of evidence suggests that localisation of function in the human brain
is relative. This idea of relative localisation includes the following aspects.

– Some functions are indeed strictly localised. Examples include Broca’s aphasia and
Wernicke’s aphasia.

– Some functions such as memory are widely distributed. Refer to Karl Lashley’s research
for an example.

– Some functions are weakly localised rather than strictly— several brain areas are
responsible for the same function, but one of these areas is dominant. This is illustrated by
split brain research, for example.

– Some components of a function may be localised while other components of the same
function may be distributed. For example, speech production seems to be more localised
than speech comprehension.

– Localisation is not static: brain areas can specialise due to neuroplasticity.

6. What is neuroplasticity?

Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change throughout the course of life. The change
occurs through the making and breaking off of the synaptic connections between neurones;
causing factors could be environmental or genetic.

7. Write one research study to explain how functions of brain takes over.

A study on neuroplasticity on the level of cortical remapping was done by Merzinch et al.
Researchers studied the cortical representation of the hand in eight adult owl monkeys.

Procedure:
-Sensory inputs from all the hand digits (fingers) were mapped in the cortex. To do this, electrodes
were attached to the part of the cortex known to be responsible for sensations from the hand,
then different fingers were stimulated. It was noted which of the electrodes respond to the
stimulation.

-One or several digits on the monkey’s hand were amputated.

-A remapping was done 62 days after the amputation to see how the cortex adapted to the injury.

Results:
The first mapping showed that there were five distinct areas in the cortex, each responsible for
one digit. Adjacent fingers were represented by adjacent areas in the cortex. Post amputation, the
now unused area of the sensory cortex was occupied by adjacent intact fingers. For example, if
digit 3 had been amputated, the cortical areas for digits 2 and 4 spread and “consumed” the
cortical area previously responsible for digit 3.

Conclusion:
The sensory cortex of adult owl monkeys adapts to injury by

cortical remapping.

8.Write two research studies to prove that learning can bring a change in brain structure.

Draganski et al conducted a study to find out whether human brain can really change structure in
response to environmental demands. The researchers used a random sampling design and a self-
selected sample- they randomly allocated a sample of volunteers into one of the two groups:
jugglers and non-jugglers. They made sure that both the groups had no prior knowledge of
juggling before the the start of the experiment. The first brain scan was performed at this point,
participants in the juggling group subsequently spent three months learning a classic juggling
routine with three balls. The second brain scan was performed after another three months was
spent, were the jugglers were asked not to practice juggling. Finally, the third scan was performed
after this non-practice period. The non-jugglers were not given any activity, but their brains were
scanned when three times on the same schedule as the jugglers. Comparison of the brain scans
in the two groups prior to the start of the experiment showed no difference in brain structure. At
the second scan, however there was significantly more grey matter in the jugglers group, most
notably in the mid-temporal area in both the hemispheres. These areas were known to implicated
in coordination of movement. At the time of the third scan these difference decreased, but the
amount of grey matter in these areas in jugglers was still greater than at the time of the first scan.

Maguire et al, investigated the brains of London taxi drivers, group chosen for their extensive
navigation experience. The researchers hypothesised that the structure of the hippocampus
would be different because prior animal studies had shown the hippocampus to be involved in
spatial abilities. Taxi drivers in London undergo an intensive training programme on how to
navigate in the city, and have to pass a set of stringent examinations to be licensed. Participants
in this study were 16 right-handed male licensed taxi drivers. Their average pre-licensing training
time was 2 years and the average experience as a taxi driver was 14.3 years (with a range from
1.5 to 42 years of experience). All taxi drivers had healthy medical profiles. Brain scans of control
subjects were taken from the database of brain scans at the same unit where brain scans were
performed with taxi drivers. The scans were obtained by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It
was important to make the comparison groups as equivalent as possible in terms of potential
confounding variables, so some exclusion criteria were applied to the control subjects. Subjects
below 32 and above 62 years old were excluded, as well as subjects who were female, left-
handed or had any health issues. This resulted in the selection of (brain scans of) 50 healthy right-
handed male subjects who did not drive a taxi. Results indicated an increased brain matter
volume in the brains of taxi drivers as compared to control subjects in the posterior hippocampus.
At the same time, control subjects had greater volumes of grey matter in the anterior
hippocampus. This meant there was no difference between the groups in terms of the general
volume of the hippocampus, but there was significant redistribution of grey matter from the
anterior to posterior hippocampus in the brains of taxi drivers. Brain matter “shifted” from the
front to the back.

9.Write two applications of neuroplasticity.

Sense substitution: The idea that one sense may be used to make up for the other lost sense.
Suggested by Paul Bach-y-Rita. He invented a chair that allowed congenitally blind people to
‘see’.

Human Echolocation: Some blind people can acquire the ability to see around them with
echoes. They produce clicking sounds with their mouth and analyse as echoes as the sounds off
the objects in front of them.

10. Write two advantages and disadvantages of using animals in research studies.

Advantages:
- Humans and animals are identical in many ways, both in terms of brain and genetically.

- Animal subjects are relatively inexpensive and easily accessible, easy to handle and manage.

Disadvantage:
-Even if humans and animals are the similar in some aspects biologically, they can still differ
physiologically.

- When scientists develop new biomedical treatments for mental disorders, they usually test
them with mouse models. However, the results are never directly applied to humans. Even if the
mouse models yield successful results, the drug needs to be tested on larger animals first. It is
likely a pyramid of generalisation where mice are at the bottom and humans are at the top.