Course Overview
• Syllabus
• Schedule of Topics
• Topic Pages
– Reading Assignments
– Discussion Questions
– Additional Sources
• Exams – 4 @ 100 points each
• Quizzes - Frequent @10 points
• Research Paper @ 100 points
Say Kids
What Time Is It
Biological Psychology
by Breedlove & Watson
Table of Contents
1. Biological Psychology: Scope and Outlook
2. Functional Neuroanatomy: The Nervous System and
Behavior
3. Neurophysiology: The Generation, Transmission, and
Integration of Neural Signals
4. The Chemical Bases of Behavior: Neurotransmitters and
Neuropharmacology
5. Hormones and the Brain
6. Evolution of Brain and Behavior
7. Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
8. General Principles of Sensory Processing, Touch, and Pain
9. Hearing, Vestibular Perception, Taste, and Smell
10. Vision: From Eye to Brain
11. Motor Control and Plasticity
12. Sex: Evolutionary, Hormonal, and Neural Bases
13. Homeostasis: Active Regulation of Internal States
14. Biological Rhythms, Sleep, and Dreaming
15. Emotions, Aggression, and Stress
16. Psychopathology: Biological Basis of Behavioral Disorders
17. Learning and Memory
18. Attention and Higher Cognition
19. Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry
Myths about the brain
• Common aspect of popular culture
– “People ordinarily use only 10% of their
brain”
• Lucy TRAILER 1 (2014)
• 7 Myths About The Brain You Thought
Were True
What is Biological Psychology?
The branch of psychology that is concerned
with the biological bases of psychological
processes.
Biological psychology refers to the study of
how physical conditions of the human body
affect an individual's subjective experience.
Biological psychology is the field that relates
behavior to bodily processes, especially the
workings of the brain.
Figure 1.2 What’s in a Name?
Sociology
Social
Psychology
SocialCognitive
Neuroscience
Figure 1.1 Your Brain
by the Numbers
Three Main Approaches to Studying
the Neuroscience of Behavior
Somatic intervention—alteration of a structure or
function to see how behavior is altered
An independent variable is the factor that is being
manipulated.
A dependent variable is what is measured in
response to changes in the independent variable.
Three Main Approaches to Studying
the Neuroscience of Behavior
Behavioral intervention—intervention in a behavior
to see how structure or function is altered
Behavior is then the independent variable and body
changes are dependent variables.
Three Main Approaches to Studying
the Neuroscience of Behavior
Correlation measures how much a body measure
varies with a behavioral measure—but correlation
does not imply causation.
Biological psychology considers all three of these
approaches.
Three Main Approaches to Studying
the Neuroscience of Behavior
What is Biological Psychology?
Biological Psychology tries to explain behaviour in terms of:
PHYSIOLOGY: How does a particular behaviour relate to
functioning of the brain and other organs? What are the
cellular, chemical and hormonal influences on behaviour?
DEVELOPMENT: How does a particular behaviour develop,
i.e. by what combination of the influence of genes and the
environment?
EVOLUTION: How does a behaviour relate to the evolutionary
history of the species?
FUNCTION: Why has a particular behaviour evolved? What
genetic/survival advantage might a particular behaviour give
to an individual or a species?
These types of explanations were originally put forward by
Tinbergen in 1951 and are sometimes referred to as
Tinbergen's 4 'whys‘. Tinbergen N: The Study of Instinct.
Oxford University Press, Oxford 1951.
Randolph M. Nesse, Tinbergen's Four Questions Organized, http://nesse.us, 2000.
For additional coverage see:
Basic Theory of Human Sciences PowerPoint by Gerhard Medicus
Mapping Transdisciplinarity in Human Sciences by Gerhard Medicus
What is Biological Psychology?
To understand the biological basis of
behavior we need to consider the following
five view points.
1. Description of behavior
– a. Structural Description
– b. Functional Description
2. Evolution of behavior
3. Development of behavior
4. Mechanisms of behavior
5. Applications of biopsychology to behavior
Table 1.1 Five Research Perspectives
Overview and color figures
Table 1.1 Five Research Perspectives
Reading in the Brain
How are letters on a page focused onto the retina during reading?
How does reading change the way culture is shared?
Why does part of the cortex have circuits for reading?
How does reading experience change brain circuits?
What are the circuits that that combine letters into word meaning?
What are the best methods for learning to read?