Chapter 5 The Research Methods of Biopsychology

Immunocytochemistry

A procedure for locating particular neuroproteins in the brain by labeling their antibodies with dye or a radioactive element and then exposing slices of brain tissue to the labeled antibodies.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

A procedure in which high-resolution images are constructed from the measurement of waves that hydrogen atoms emit when they are activated by radio frequency waves in a magnetic field.

Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)

A protein that exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to blue light.

Electrocardiogram (ECG, or EKG)

A recording that is taken by placing electrodes on the chest to measure the electrical signals that are associated with each heartbeat.

Token Test

A screening test for language deficits using different colored tokens.

Stereotaxic Atlas

A series of individual maps, one per page, each representing the structure of a single, two-dimensional frontal brain slice.

2-Deoxyglucose (2-DG)

A similar substance to glucose that is taken up by active neurons in the brain and accumulates in them because, unlike glucose, it cannot be metabolized. This is injected into patients carotid artery in a common version of a PET scan.

Behavioral Paradigm

A single set of procedures developed for the investigation of a particular behavioral phenomenon.

In Situ Hybridization

A technique for locating neuropeptides and other proteins in the brain. This technique takes advantage of the fact that all peptides and proteins are transcribed from sequences of nucleotide bases on strands of mRNA.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

A technique that can turn off an area of the cortex by creating a magnetic field under a coil positioned next to the skull.

Electroencephalography (EEG)

A technique that creates a measure of the gross electrical activity of the brain, recorded through large electrodes by a device called an electroencephalograph (EEG machine).

Electrooculography

A technique used for recording eye movements and the resulting record is called an electrooculogram (EOG). This technique is based on that fact that a steady potential difference exists between the front (positive) and back (negative) of the eyeball.

Magnetoencehalography (MEG)

A technique used to monitor brain activity from the scalp of humans, this measures changes in magnetic fields on the surface of the scalp that are produced by changes in the underlying patterns of neural activity.

Open-Field Test

A test during which the subject is placed in a large, barren chamber and its activity is recorded.

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

A test given to assess whether or not a person has had frontal lobe damage.

Dichotic Listening Test

A test of language lateralization in which two different sequences of three spoken digits are presented simultaneously, one to each ear, and the subject is asked to report the digits heard.

Diffusion Tensor Imaging

A method of identifying those pathways along which water molecules rapidly diffuse.

Aspiration

A method of making a lesion in an area of cortical tissue that accessible to the eyes and instruments of the surgeon.

Cerebral Dialysis

A method of measuring the extracellular concentration of specific neurochemicals in behaving animals.

Signal Averaging

A method used to reduce the noise of the background EEG.

Ligands

A molecule that binds to another molecule; neurotransmitters are _____ of their receptors

Brainbow

A neuroanatomical technique that involves inserting various mutations of the green fluorescence protein gene into neural tissue so that different neurons fluoresce in different colors.

Self-Stimulation Paradigm

A paradigm in which the mouse presses a lever to administer reinforcing electrical stimulation to their own brains.

Operant Conditioning Paradigm

A paradigm in which the rate of a particular voluntary response is increased by reinforcement and decreased by punishment.

Pavlovian Conditioning Paradigm

A paradigm in which the researcher pairs an initially neutral stimulus (conditional stimulus) with a stimulus (unconditional stimulus) that elicits a reflexive response (unconditional response); after several pairings, the neutral stimulus elicits a response (conditional response).

Morris Water Maze

A pool of milky water that has a goal platform invisible just beneath the surface of the water and is used to study the ability of rats to learn spatial location.

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)

EEG waves that generally accompany certain psychological events.

Ejaculates

Ejection of sperm.

Contrasting X-Ray Techniques

Involves injecting into one compartment of the body a substance that absorbs X-rays either less or more than the surrounding tissue. The injected substance then heightens the contrast between the compartment abad the surrounding tissue during x-ray photography.

Sodium Amytal Test

Involves injecting the anesthetic sodium amytal into either the left or right carotid artery in the neck. This temporarily anesthetizes the ipsilateral hemisphere while leaving the contralateral hemisphere largely unaffected. Then several tests of function are administered.

Gene Knockout Techniques

Procedures for creating organisms that lack a particular gene under investigation.

Functional MRI (fMRI)

Produces images representing the increase in oxygen flow in the blood to active areas of the brain.

Alpha waves

Regular, 8- to 12-per-second, high -amplitude EEG waves that typically occur during relaxed wakefulness and just before falling asleep

Constituent Cognitive Processes

Simple cognitive processes that combine to form complex cognitive processes and that are assumed to be mediated by neural activity in particular parts of the brain.

Repetition Priming Tests

Tests used to assess the deficits in explicit memory, when there are no deficits in implicit memory.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

The IQ test that usually is done first in a neuropsychologcial better of tests, it was published in 1955 and standardized in 1981.

Spatial Resolution

The ability to detect and represent the differences in spatial location.

Temporal Resolution

The ability to specify the timing of neural events.

BOLD Signal

The blood-oxygen-level-dependant signal.

Default Mode Network

The brain structures that are typically active during the brains default mode and not as active during complex cognitive function are termed this.

Conditioned Defensive Burying

The burial of a source of aversive stimulation by rodents.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

The first brain-imaging technique that could provide images of the brain activity (functional brain imaging) rather than images of brain structure (structural brain images).

Stereotaxic Instrument

The instrument used to create an atlas of the brain. it has two parts a head holder, and an electrode holder.

Default Mode

The level activity present when humans sit and let their minds wander.

Digit Span

The most widely used test for short term memory.

Colony-Intruder Paradigm

The observance of aggressiveness and defensiveness during combative encounters between the dominant male rat of a colony and a smaller male intruder.

Bregma

The point on the top of the skull where the two major sutures intersect.

Far-Field Potentials

The portions of an evoked potential recorded in the first few milliseconds after the stimulus that are not stimulated by the meaning of the stimulus for the subject. They are recorded in the scalp but they originated far away, in the sensory nuclei of the brainstem.

Lordosis

The position a female takes when she is receptive to sex; she puts her hindquarters in the air, bends her back in a U, and deflects her tail to the side.

P300 Wave

The positive wave that occurs about 300 milliseconds after a momentary stimulus that has meaning for the subject (e.g., a stimulus to which the subject must respond)

Lordosis Quotient

The proportion of mounts that elicit lordosis.

Autoradiography

The technique of photographically developing brain slices that have been exposed to a radioactively labeled substance such as 2-DG so that regions of high uptake are visible.

Gene Replacement Techniques

The technique that allows one gene to be replaced with another.

Thigmotaxic

The term used to describe fearful rats when they rarely venture away from the walls of the test chamber and rarely engage in such activities like rearing and grooming.

Electromyography

The usual procedure for measuring muscle tension. The resulting record is called an electromyogram (EMG). This is recorded using two electrodes taped to the skin over the muscle of interest.

Sensory Evoked Potential

This is a type of event-related potential. It is the change in the cortical EEG signal elicited by the momentary presentation of a sensory stimulus.

Cognitive Neuroscience

This type of science is predicated on two assumptions. The first is that each cognitive process results from combined activity of constituent cognitive process. The second is that each constituent cognitive process is mediated by neural activity in a particular part of the brain.

Plethysmography

Various techniques that are used to measure changes in the volume of blood in a particular part of the body.

Intromission

When the male inserts his penis into the females vagina.

Skin Conductance Level (SCL)

A measure of the background level of skin conductance that is associated with a particular situation.

Skin Conductance Response (SCR)

A measure of the transient changes in skin conductance that are associated with discrete experiences.

Hypertension

A chronic blood pressure of more than 140/90 mmHg is viewed as a serious health hazard and called this.

Computed Tomography (CT)

A computer assisted X-ray procedure that can be used to visualize the brain and other internal structures of the living body.

Cannula

A fine hollow tube that is implanted in the body for the purpose of introducing or extracting substances

Elevated Plus Maze

A four-armed, plus-sign-shaped maze typically mounted 50 cm above the floor used to test defensiveness and anxiolytic (anxiety reducing) drugs.

Radial Arm Maze

An array of arms -usually 8 or more- radiating from a central starting area. At the end of each arm is a food cup, which may or may not be baited, depending on the purpose of the experiment.

Cerebral Angiography

An x-ray technique that uses the infusion of a radio-opaque dye into a cerebral artery to visualize the cerebral circulatory system during X-ray photography.

Species-Common Behaviors

Behaviors displayed by virtually all members of a species, or at least all of those of the same sex and age.

Reversible Lesions

Methods for temporarily eliminating activity in a particular area of the brain while tests are being conducted.

Transgenic Mice

Mice that contain the genetic material from another species.

Neurotoxins

Neural poisons that can be used to create chemical lesions in the brain.

Paired Image Subtraction Technique

One of the key methods of behavioral research; the use of PET or fMRI to locate constituent cognitive processes in the brain by producing an image of the difference in brain activity associated with two cognitive tasks that differ in terms of a single constituent cognitive process.