Psychology: scientific study of behavior

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Introduction
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Psychology scientific study of behavior

• Neuroscience the scientific study of the nervous
  system

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Biopsychology

• a branch of neuroscience that engages in the
  scientific study of the biology of behavior-
  composed of many subfields- this class will be an
  introduction to these subfields

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Subfields

• Physiological psychology the study of the neuron
• Psychopharmacology the study of
  neurotransmitters and drugs
• Neuroanatomy the study of the structures that
  make up the brain
• Cognitive neuroscience study the neural basis of
  cognition- higher intellectual processes such as
  thoughts, memory, and attention

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A BRIEF HISTORY
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Philosophical Questions

• Nature vs. Nurture
• Biological processes determine who we are and how
  we behave
• Environmental processes determine who we are and
  how we behave

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Modern View

• It is an interaction of both
• Another philosophical question is often referred
  to as the Monism vs. Dualism question

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2) Monism versus Dualism

• 1) physical matter, which behaves according to
  the laws of nature and is thus, a suitable object
  of scientific investigation
• 2) the human mind, or soul, which lacks physical
  substance, controls human behavior, and obeys no
  natural laws

• Rene Descartes (1596-1650) Argued that the
  universe was composed of two elements in a
  position which became known as
• Cartesian Dualism

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Monism

• Monism the belief that the universe consists of
  only one kind of existence-a few forms of monism
  exist

• Identity position the view that mental processes
  are the same thing as certain kinds of brain
  processes, but described in different terms.

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This course

• The description of the event (i.e. feeling of
  fright) is the same thing as brain activity in
  the Amygdala.

• The underlying theory of our discussion will be
  monism, particularly the identity position, that
  is, mental processes and behavior can be
  attributed to patterns of behavior in your brain

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• Questions related specifically to Neuroscience

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Localization versus Non-localization
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Localization Phrenology
Francis Gall

• Francis Gall Phrenology specific functions are
  localized to discrete areas of the brain- the
  brain is not a unitary organ but composed of 35
  centers, or domains
• Mental functions, even complex ones (love,
  destructiveness), can be localized to these
  centers- they develop and increase with size and
  thus, those that would were most developed would
  protrude through the scalp

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Localization
Paul Broca

• Karl Wernicke , a patient who suffered from
  receptive aphasia. A lesion was found in the left
  temporal lobe, an area which became known as
  Wernickes Area and believed to be the center
  responsible for receptive language
• Pennfield Neurosurgeon who first used brain
  stimulation on an awake human. stimulation of
  particular areas of the brain led to various
  functions (visual, speech, memory)

• Paul Broca, patient who suddenly developed
  expressive aphasia. Upon autopsy, a lesion was
  found in the left frontal lobe, an area which
  became known as Brocas area and believed to be
  the center responsible for expressive language

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Nonlocalization

• Flourens used the lesion technique to see how
  the brain functioned experimented on a variety
  of laboratory animals, removing more and more of
  their brains

• what he found was that all functions grew
  progressively weaker rather than selected
  functions becoming specifically impaired

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Karl Lashley Mass Action

• attempted to locate the engram, or memory trace
  in maze learning for rats.
• He concluded that location of the lesion was not
  important, but size (20 of the rats brain had
  to be lesioned),

• Thus, he reasoned, mental functions were not
  localized to specific groups of neurons but
  distributed throughout the brain, a theory that
  became known as Mass Action

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What is the current view?

• Integration of the two
• the elementary operations of the mind are
  localized (i.e. expressive language, receptive
  language)
• the complex faculties (i.e. language) are the
  result of parallel and serial connection of the
  brain regions (systems)

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• In terms of an initial understanding of brain
  functioning, it is easier to think in terms of
  localization, but understand the limits

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What is the best Conceptual Modelof the Brain?

• The Brain as an Information Processor

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• Computer Information/Data (Input Mechanism) -gt
  CPU (Processing) -gt Output Mechanism
• Brain Information/Data from environment (senses)
  -gt Brain (CPU) -gt Behavior (output mechanism)

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BIOLOGICAL THEORIES IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTANDING
THE BRAIN

• Evolution Charles Darwin (1859) On the Origin
  of Species
•  
• Amassed a large body of evidence supporting the
  notion that species evolve from preexisting
  species

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• Evolution occurs through natural selection, where
  those traits that are associated with higher
  rates of survival, hence, reproduction, are the
  most likely to be passed on to future generations
•  

• Implied a major role of genetics in the process
  of evolution
•  

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• Evolution and the brain
• The idea of evolving from primitive to complex
  applies in this area
• the brains of many different species are more
  similar than they are different
•  

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Genetics

• Gene DNA- protein synthesis- it builds us
  physically
• Genotype traits one can pass on to its
  offspring through its genetic material
• Phenotype an organisms observable traits
•   Chromosomes threadlike structures in the
  nucleus of each cell on which the genes are
  located These occur in matched pairs and each
  species has a characteristic number of pairs in
  each of its body cells-humans have 23 pairs

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The Human Genome Project

•  
• Estimates were we had 100,000 genes
• It was found we have somewhere between
  19,000-22,000
• The majority of our DNA was called Junk at
  least (2) roles which has revolutionized our
  thinking

• 1) Contains the history of our evolution
  Comparing our genome to different species
• Mouse 90 the sam
• Chimp 98.75
• Intelligence, Language, Plasticity as a
  focus of our differences
• Humans 99.90

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2) Mechanism by which genes are turned
on/activated, off/deactivated- appears
activity in the brain might drive this process!
i.e. stress may activate a gene that codes for
cell death, leading to loss of serotonin cells,
which leads to the correlation between less
serotonin as a theory of etiology of depression  
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Polygenic Inheritance multiple genes are
involved- the challenges of gene therapy!