Biological Perspective

1
Biological Perspective

• Behavior has a physical explanation

2
Biological Approach Reductionist Assumptions

• Behavior can be boiled down to
• Genetics
• Nervous System
• Endocrine system (hormones)
• Some other organic problem. (Cancer or other
  disorder)

3
NERVOUS SYTEM!!!! One of the keys to the
biological approach in Psychology.
4
Brain Research

• Brain scans (MRI especially) show brain activity
• Lesions are brain injuries.
• Lesions often show behavior changes

5
Brain Anatomy

• Frontal lobe (pink)
• Original thought
• Decision making
• Planning
• Problem solving
• Ability to talk is located here too! (on the left
  side)

6
Phineas Gage
Gage began to have startling changes in
personality in mood. He became extravagant and
anti-social. Also a foulmouthed liar with bad
manners. He could no longer hold a job or plan
his future.  "Gage was no longer Gage", said his
friends of him. He died in 1861, thirteen years
after the accident, penniless and epileptic, and
no autopsy was performed on his brain.
7
Others

• Egaz Moniz Won the Nobel Prize for lobotomy
  procedure eww. (needles through the corner of
  the eyes to scramble the prefrontal cortex)

8
Voice in the field

• Paul Broca found the ability to talk was located
  in the left frontal lobe. He was one of the first
  to show LOCALIZATION OF FUNCTION! (The brain is
  divided into parts that have specific tasks like
  language or vision.)

Brocas area
9
Brain Anatomy

• Temporal lobe (blue)
• Memory, emotion, hearing, language
• The left temporal lobe is the area that helps you
  understand speech.

10
Brain stuff you can impress your friends with

• Wernickes area in the left temporal lobe helps
  you understand speech (understanding the talk!).

Wernickes area
11
Brain Anatomy

• Parietal lobe (yellow)
• Senses and movement

12
Parietal lobe up close
13
Paralysis is a condition of parietal lobe damage
14
Brain Anatomy

• Occipital lobe (green)
• vision

15
Occipital lobe processes what the eye sees. Note
cat story
16
Art piece called Struck by Blindness. Why is
this a great name for this piece?
17
Are you right brained or left brained?

• Left side of the brain is good at language, math,
  analysis, and logic. Operates the right side of
  the body
• Right side of the brain is good at nonverbal
  stuff like identifying faces, recognizing facial
  expressions, music, and spacial skills. Operates
  the left side of the body.

18
Lets review
Left frontal lobe?
Talkin the talk! The ability to speak
Left temperal lobe?
Understandin the talk! The ability comprehend
the speak
Left side of the brain?
Math, logic, language, analysis
Right side of the brain?
Music, spacial skills, ID of face and expressions
19
Other Bio biggies

• Wilder Penfield took electronic probes and
  mapped the cortex of the brain (the big thing we
  usually think of as the brain.) He did this so
  that he could treat epilepsy by destroying the
  parts of the brain that were causing the
  seizures He didnt want to destroy good tissue,
  so he would stimulate a section to see what it
  was used for.
• Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga split brain
  people (again with the localization of function!)

20
Lobes of the brain-review

• Occipital lobe in the back of the brain and it
  is the vision center
• Frontal lobe The front of the brain. This is
  what makes you you. This is where you interpret
  and control emotions, make decisions and carry
  out plans. In the back of the frontal lobe, you
  work the voluntary muscles.
• Parietal lobe behind the frontal lobe.
  Somatosensory (senses are here)
• Temporal lobe ear and below. Hearing processes.
  Music/tone,

21
Vision? Original Thought? Talking?
Hearing/Understanding? Feeling with your fingers?
Vision occipital lobe
Original thought frontal lobe
Talking frontal lobe
Touch of fingers parietal lobe
Hearing temporal lobe
22
Lookin at the brain

• PET scans and MRI scans can look at the brain
  while the brain is working! (MRI has more
  resolution, however.)
• CAT scans are x-rays of the brain.
• EEGs measure brain wavelengths or the brains
  electrical activity.

23
What kind of scan?
PET Scan
24
fMRI scan of a person and a face
Asked to think about the face (hippocampus
memory thing lights up!)
Looking at a face
Asked to compare a new face to the face shown
previously.
25
Flexing the hand either rhythmically or
rhythmically to a metronome and going back and
forthWhat kind of scan?
26
What kind of image is this?
EEG
27
Red is high activity, blue is low activity.
1 and 2 are children without ADD, 3 and 4 have
been diagnosed with ADD
It looks like 4 isnt looking at the object!
28
Neurons, the cells of the nervous system

• They send chemical signals to
• Other neurons
• Muscles
• Organs
• glands

29
Neurons

• The action of a neuron is electrical, yet the
  neuron sends a chemical signal called a
  neurotransmitter.

neurotransmitter
30
NeurotransmittersChemicals that neurons use to
talk to each other!
31
Neurotransmitter Acetylcholine

• Works on the voluntary muscles
• Also abundant in the brain.
• Nicotine reacts with the receptors that respond
  to acetylcholine.
• Alzheimers patients lose neurons that release
  Acetylcholine.

32
Dopamine

• Thought (generally) to control pleasure and
  motivation
• Controls movement, so Parkinsons patients have
  benefited from dopamine-type medicines
• Too much dopamine has been linked to psychosis
  limit the dopamine, limit the psychosis.
• Might regulate hormones through the pituitary
  gland.

33
Serotonin

• Linked to sleep, depression, and anxiety.
• Prozac is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. (Not
  intuitive, but it is thought that a lack of
  serotonin is a cause of depression. If you keep
  it in the synapse longer, it is more active.)
• Used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Used to treat depression.

34
Nervous System
Divided into
Central Nervous System
Peripheral Nervous System
Brain
Spinal Chord
35
Nervous System