Analysis of Psychology Questions - Assignment Example

Psychology Questions Psychology Questions Q1. The cerebral cortex of the human brain is divided into four parts, also known as lobes. These include the frontal lobe, which is located in the front part of the brain. This lobe is connected to motor skills, an increased and higher level of recognition such as the sixth sense, reasoning capabilities of a person. The frontal lobe is at the front of the motor cortex. The other lobe is the parietal lobe; this section’s location is in the middle section of the human brain. This part is tasked with processing of tactile information like pressure, pain and touch on the skin and other internal organs of the body. The third lobe is the temporal lobe; this is located in the bottom part of the human brain. It is in this lobe that the primary auditory cortex is located which is important in processing sounds. The part is majorly associated with storage and keeping memories. The damage would result to poor hearing and the person will have poor language skills. Lastly, there is the occipital lobe. This sections location is at the back of the brain. It is associated with vision and colors. Any damage to this part of the brain would result to blurred vision and poor color identification as well as inability to correctly identify words. Q2. Agonists and antagonist drugs are used to control the level of dopamine and the effect of dopamine on dopamine receptors. The Agonists are those drugs which, like dopamine, bind to receptors of dopamine and directly stimulate the receptors. The dopamine agonists can stimulate receptors of dopamine even in people without dopamine neurons. On the other hand, the dopamine antagonists are drugs which bind to dopamine receptors, but they do not stimulate them. In fact, they prevent and sometimes reverse dopamine effects by barring dopamine from attaching to the receptors. The agonist drugs are used, for example to treat people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Sometimes, administering an antagonist may lead to an overall increase in the neurotransmitter release. Many times, the continued use of antagonists may make the dopamine effect not irrevocable. The receptors get used over time to these dopamine antagonists until they no longer can detect them. With this happening, it becomes continually hard for the antagonists to control the effect of dopamine, which leads to increased release of neurotransmitters in the body despite the use of dopamine antagonists to control this. A good example is in the case of schizophrenia patients where continued use of a certain neurotransmitters release inhibitor drug becomes ineffective over time due to the overexposure of the neurotransmitters to them. Q3. Drugs can in a number of ways affect neurotransmission without necessarily interacting with receptors. The drugs can do this by either blocking or reversing the action of the dopamine transporter. They can also do so through stimulating the activity of the dopaminergic neurons. Finally, the drugs can also affect by blocking the dopamine transporter. All these methods do not come into contact with the receptors; rather they act on other molecular targets. Drugs such as cocaine and amphetamine as well as other stimulant drugs affect the neurotransmission through the first mention method which leads to increase in levels of dopamine within the synapse. Methylphenidate, also called Ritalin, blocks dopamine transporter. Other drugs such as morphine reduce the action of GABAergic interneurons whereby the activity of dopaminergic neurons is indirectly activated. These drugs affect the dopaminergic activities indirectly. Cocaine is an agonistic drug while morphine is an agonistic drug too. Ritalin is an antagonist drug. Moreover, some drugs such as alcohol, an antagonist, do not affect the receptors themselves. However, it leads to increased dopamine level in the brain through acting as a stimulus. Increased consumption of alcohol may lead to a hypo dopaminergic state where he drinker has to take alcohol in order to sustain normal levels of neurotransmitters. (Lovinger, 1987) Q4. Inotropic receptors, as the word suggests are concerned with the reception of ionic changes in the body or cells. They can allow the passage of some ions in and out of the cells the metabotropic receptors, on the other hand is those receptors which are involved with metabolism in the body. These two receptors have similarities as well as differences. The similarities include that: both of these proteins are ligand gated transmembranes. This means that they allow substances to flow through the membranes in the nervous system. The two are also found in the nervous system of the human body. They also have differences. These differences include: that the ionotropic receptors do change in shape when ligand bound. Thus, the shape results in the creation of a channel through which ions flow; on the other hand, the metabotropic receptors has no channels. Metabotropic receptors may lead to the opening of channel elsewhere in the membrane through the action of G protein which activates another secondary messenger while in the ionotropic receptors there is no activation of a secondary messenger. Lastly, the ionotropic receptors are very fast since there is no activation of a secondary messenger while the metabotropic receptors act so slowly since they must activate secondary receptors. There are some examples of ionotropic receptors such as ionotropic glutamate receptors and metabotropic receptors such as tyrosine kinases and metabotropic glutamate receptors. Q5. Temporal summation and spatial summation are both activities which are required to come up with an action potential in the brain. Temporal summation is an effect which is produced by a certain neuron in order to be able to achieve an action potential. Spatial summation is a method where an action potential is achieved from a particular neuron, only that the neuron here receives input from various cells and not just one cell. The summation term used is a measure of how much the time constant takes and the frequency of occurrence of action potentials. The similarities between the two summations are that in both, there is an action potential being realized. The major difference is that, in spatial summation, the neuron receives impulses from multiple cells while in temporal summation; the neuron receives impulses from one cell. As pointed out earlier, these two summations are related to the creation of action potentials. The temporal summation is related to action potentials in that it takes impulses from one cell and he spatial summation in that it takes impulses from multiple cells to achieve action potentials and ensure continuity in nervous transmission. Q6. Basically, the action potential is created by the separation of the negative electrical charges and the positive electrical charges in a body. During the action potential, there are three levels, the stimulus, the thresh hold and polarization as well as the depolarization phases. The inside of the cell membrane is negatively charged and the outside is positively charged. In that state, the membrane is at a rest. A change in this resting potential has an effect on the membrane’s permeability which creates an action potential. There are more potassium ions inside the membrane and more sodium ions outside. In the polarization phase the charges are different and there is movement of transmission in and out of the cell. Once this happens, there is the depolarization stage where sodium and potassium ions inside the membrane and outside the cell membrane come to a balance again awaiting another impulse. There is a difference between the absolute refractory period and relative refractory period. The absolute refractory period is the period between the start to the end of an action potential until another action potential can be facilitated. The relative refractory period on the other hand is where, even though the cell has not really recovered, it can generate a mild action potential resulting from a very strong action stimulus. Reference Lovinger, D. M. (1987). Communication Networks in the Brain. National Institue on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 5. Read More