The Brain (A Level Only) (AQA A Level Psychology)

Zapurpain acts like an inhibitory neurotransmitter at the synapse.

Explain how Zapurpain might affect the process of synaptic transmission through  inhibition.

Explain one difference and one similarity between Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) as ways of studying the brain.

Outline and evaluate split-brain research.

Which method of studying the brain would most accurately identify specific brain areas activated during a cognitive task?

Lotta’s grandmother suffered a stroke to the left hemisphere, damaging Broca’s area and the motor cortex.

Using your knowledge of the functions of Broca’s area and the motor cortex, describe the problems that Lotta’s grandmother is likely to experience.

Lotta worries that because of her grandmother’s age she will not be able to make any recovery.

Using your knowledge of plasticity and functional recovery of the brain after trauma, explain why Lotta might be wrong.

Outline and evaluate one or more ways of studying the brain.

Kieran completes a quiz in his magazine and announces that he is ‘left brained’. “That’s just silly”, Sam says. “You cannot just be ‘left brained’, the whole brain works together to carry out functions.”
“It’s not silly!” Kieran replies. “It says here that the left brain is responsible for speech and language.”

Discuss research into localisation of function in the brain and/or hemispheric lateralisation.

Refer to Kieran and Sam’s discussion in your answer.