•  PSYC 106 – Introduction to Biological Psychology
•  Professor Gorman
What is biopsychology?
Why study biopsychology?
When you hear the word
“biological,” what comes to
mind?
MANTRAS
•
Biology is NOT determinism
•
Brains produce behavior AND behavior
changes brains
•
Multiple approaches COMPLETE, don’t
COMPETE
Anatomy –
Physiology – Development – Evolution – Ecology – BOOK: Physiological, Ontogenetic, Evolutionary, Functional
Why do birds sing?
Why does your dog growl?
Why is someone dependent on
alcohol?
Anatomy – The Neural Basis of Birdsong
Fernando Nottebohm
PLoS Biology 2005
Physiology – hormones from
gonads alter
firing rates of
song structures
Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy 2010, 39:82–95
Gregory F. Ball Jacques Balthazart
Development – Sensitive/critical
periods
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Patricia K. Kuhl 100:9645–9646, 1999
Evolution – Phylogenetic tree
of songbirds
David F. Clayton, Christopher N. Balakrishnan, Sarah E. London;
Current Biology; 2009; 19:R865–R873
Ecology– Thistle blooms
may increase
testosterone
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/finch-thistle-testosterone/
Levels of Analysis: Reductionism vs emergent properties
How does bird learn song?
Through social interactions
Through hearing/brain
Through particular song nuclei
Looking at structure of these nuclei
Cellular mechanisms
Ionic mechanisms
An attempt to diagram an integration
Current Opinion in NeurobiologyAvailable online 25 October 2012
Neurogenetics of birdsong
Constance Scharff, Iris Adam
•  Monisha Sullivan
•  Nadine Burke
•  Anda & Felitti (ACE)
•  Michael Meaney
•  Bruce McEwen
•  Is it surprising that childhood traumas are
associated with higher rates of addiction?
•  Heart disease?
•  Cancer?
Abstracts on pubmed
ACE sleep disease
3rd hit
Not responsible for content
Words of caution about studies …
•
•
•
•
Replication and understanding are key
Many tantalizing headlines
Knowledge grows incrementally
More ways to be wrong than to be right
“Mechanisms” – HOW adverse
experiences alter brain/body/mind?
•  Animal studies – fear/anxiety/hormones/
immune function/gene expression •  Human studies try to confirm
•  PSYC 106 – Introduction to Biological Psychology
•  Professor Gorman
Website
http://gormanlab.ucsd.edu/
courses/psyc106.html
Course Description:
This course surveys the field of Physiological/Biological
Psychology, an area of study concerned with physiological
and evolutionary explanations of perception, cognition, and
behavior. Because these functions depend on the nervous
system, a major focus of the course will be on the structure
and function of the brain with an emphasis on brainbehavior relations. Topics will include: evolutionary
perspectives on brain and behavior, anatomy and
development of the brain, neural signaling
(neurotransmitters, drugs, hormones), and neural
mechanisms of sensory processing, motor control
(movement, action), motivated behavior (feeding,
drinking), emotion, and learning and memory.
Required Texts:
Biological Psychology (11th Ed.) James W. Kalat,
available at the bookstore
Supplemental readings may be posted on the course
website
Optional Resources:
Study Guide for Kalat's Biological Psychology
Course Structure:
Fundamentals
Inputs -- Sensory Components
Outputs -- Motor/Movements
In-between -- Motivation/Cognition etc
Odds and Ends
Study Questions
•  Along what dimensions can the nervous
system be usefully divided into smaller
units, either functionally (i.e., in terms
of how things work) or structurally (i.e.,
in terms of how it is built)?
•  Why and how does Nadine Burke use
assessments of adverse childhood
experiences (ACEs) in her San Francisco
medical clinic?
•  Today 1.1, 4.1-4.3; New Yorker Article
•  Next Class 1.2; 2.1-2.2
Fig. 2-1, p. 28
Fly, worm, bacterium?
Gray and white matter
Gray = cell bodies
White = axons/tracts
Cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF)
Cushions brain
Drainage system
Some flow of chemicals
Disorders of cerebral ventricles
http://physioforcare.com/blog/?page_id=180
Blood supply
Upside: protects brain
Downside: makes
difficult to get treatment
drugs to brain
BRAIN à FOREBRAIN à CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES àCORTEX
Motor cortex
Working memory
Attention
Broca’s area
Auditory processing
Face recognition
Wernicke’s area
Sensory map
Mental rotation
Object ID by touch
Hemi-neglect
Visual processing
Finer ways to demarcate cortical regions
Not required to memorize these labels
Brodmann’s areas based on structure of cortical layers
1-4 mm
#4 inputs
#3 outputs
Choi, BIOL PSYCHIATRY 2009;65:227–234
BRAIN à FORE- MID- and HIND-BRAIN àSUB-CORTICAL AREAS Whole Brain Atlas
http://www.med.harvard.edu/aanlib/home.html
Not required, but very interesting
Self-test question
•  The image shown below is from which type
of section?
•  A. Sagittal
•  B. Horizontal
•  C. Coronal
•  D. Parallel
•  E. I don’t know
Self-test question
•
•
•
•
•
•
The big black arrow is pointing
A. dorsally
B. ventrally
C. medially
D. laterally
E. caudally
BRAIN à FOREBRAIN à CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES à
BASAL GANGLIA
Poorly named – next lecture
Involved in motor control
Parkinson’s disease
Brain stimulators
Tail-like nucleus (caudate)
BRAIN à FOREBRAIN à CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES à
LIMBIC NUCLEI
Mammillary body
memory/alcoholism
Amygdala
emotion/fear
Hippocampus
spatial learning
Septum
aggression
BRAIN à FOREBRAIN à THALAMUS and HYPOTHALAMUS
Thalamus
relay sensory information to cortex
Hypothalamus
feeding
sex
controls pituitary
fighting
body temperature etc
Self-test question
Which number is placed near the corpus callosum?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
1
2
3
4
5
2
3
4
5
1
Self-test question
Which number is placed near the cortex?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
1
2
3
4
5
2
3
4
5
1
Self-test question
Which number is placed near the basal ganglia?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
1
2
3
4
5
2
3
4
5
1
melatonin
Sensory processing
Spatial orientation
Sleep
Arousal
Vital functions
Sensory processing
Arousal
Bell-Magendie Law
Just what a real spinal cord
looks like
Just 2 neurotransmitter chemicals
two lectures from now
Control multiple organs
Coordinate “Take Action”
dilate pupil
increase heart rate
inhibit digestion
release glucose
Ganglia along thoracic and lumbar spinal cord
Arises above and below symp
Has opposite effects
Just one neurotransmitter
No new information, just shows the PNS and SNS next to each other
Summary
•
•
•
•
Structured -- Not homogeneous mush
Named descriptively
Function is localized but also distributed
Can identify structure/function (brain/
behavior) relationships