Introduction to Biopsychology August 30th 2006

1
Introduction to BiopsychologyAugust 30th 2006

• Biopsychology as Neuroscience
• What is neuroscience?
• Who practices neuroscience?
• Roots of Biopsychology and its sub-disciplines
• William James
• Physiological Psychology, psychopharmacology,
  neuropsychology, psychophysiology, cognitive
  neuroscience, comparative psychology
• Goals of Biopsychology, understanding
• human disease
• normal human behavior
• animal behavior
• When things go wrong clues to how the brain
  works?

2
Biopsychology as Neuroscience

• Neuroscience is the study of the brain.

• The adult human brain weighs about 1400 g
  (approximately 3 lbs).
• elephant brain 6,000 g chimpanzee brain 420
  g rhesus monkey brain 95 g beagle dog brain
  72 g cat brain 30 g rat brain 2 g
• The adult human brain contains approximately 100
  billion neurons.
• Each of these specialized cells makes from 1000
  to 10,000 connections with other neurons of the
  brain.

Source http//faculty.washington.edu/chudler/intr
ob.html
3
Biopsychology as Neuroscience

• Who practices neuroscience?

• Neuroanatomist studies the structure (anatomy)
  of the nervous system.
• Neurobiologist studies the biology of the
  nervous system.
• Neurochemist studies the chemistry (for example,
  neurotransmitters) of the nervous system.
• Neurological Surgeon a physician who performs
  surgery on the nervous system.
• Neurologist a physician who diagnoses and treats
  disorders of the nervous system.
• Neuropathologist studies diseases of the nervous
  system.
• Neuropharmacologist studies the action of drugs
  on the nervous system and/or behavior.
• Neuropsychologist studies brain-behavior
  relationships (especially cognitive functions) in
  humans.
• Neurophysiologist studies the physiology of the
  nervous system.Physiological Psychologist (also
  known as a Psychobiologist or Biological
  Psychologist) studies the neural basis of
  behavior.
• Psychiatrist a physician who diagnoses and
  treats mental disorders.
• Psychophysicist studies the relationships
  between environmental stimuli (for example,
  light, sound, or heat) and the resulting
  sensations and perceptions that they produce.

4
Biopsychology as Neuroscience

• Roots of Neuroscience

Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus (c. 3000 BC)
Brain
Evidence of Trephining can be found in skulls
7000 years old
bumps and folds
membrane
Descartes reflex arc (1596 1650)
fluid
Source http//faculty.washington.edu/chudler/intr
ob.html
5
Biopsychology as Neuroscience
6
The Roots of Biopsychology
William James Mind is a function of brain and
all human cognition and behavior is the result of
physiological processes.
The Principles of PsychologyWilliam James
(1890) CHAPTER II The Functions of the Brain If
I begin chopping the foot of a tree, its branches
are unmoved by my act, and its leaves murmur as
peacefully as ever in the wind. If, on the
contrary, I do violence to the foot of a
fellow-man, the rest of his body instantly
responds to the aggression by movements of alarm
or defense. The reason of this difference is that
the man has a nervous system whilst the tree has
none and the function of the nervous system is
to bring each part into harmonious co-operation
with every other. The afferent nerves, when
excited by some physical irritant, be this as
gross in its mode of operation as a chopping axe
or as subtle as the waves of light, conveys the
excitement to the nervous centres. The commotion
set up in the centres does not stop there, but
discharges itself, if at all strong, through the
efferent nerves into muscles and glands, exciting
movements of the limbs and viscera, or acts of
secretion, which vary with the animal, and with
the irritant applied. These acts of response have
usually the common character of being of service.
They ward off the noxious stimulus and support
the beneficial one whilst if, in itself
indifferent, the stimulus be a sign of some
distant circumstance of practical importance, the
animal's acts are addressed to this circumstance
so as to avoid its perils or secure its benefits,
as the case may be. To take a common example, if
I hear the conductor calling ' All aboard!' as I
enter the depot, my heart first stops, then
palpitates, and my legs respond to the air-waves
falling on my tympanum by quickening their
movements. If I stumble as I run, the sensation
of falling provokes a movement of the hands
towards the direction of the fall, the effect of
which is to shield the body from too sudden a
shock. If a cinder enter my eye, its lids close
forcibly and a copious flow of tears tends to
wash it out.
Source http//psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Princi
ples/prin2.htm
7
The Roots of Biopsychology Sub-disciplines

• Physiological psychology neural mechanisms of
  behavior.
• Psychopharmacology chemical mechanisms of
  behavior and the effects of drugs on behavior.
• Neuropsychology psychological effects of brain
  damage on behavior.
• Psychophysiology interaction between
  physiological processes and psychological
  processes in humans.
• Cognitive neuroscience neural mechanisms of
  cognition.
• Comparative psychology biology of behavior
  among species.
• Behavioral genetics genetic basis of behavior.

NOTE within each sub-discipline there is both
basic versus applied research efforts.
8
The Goals of Biopsychology
How does the brain function (testing theories and
assumptions)? Can we improve normal
functioning? What things can go wrong in the
brain? Can disease be prevented or cured?
normal human behavior
Observing the brain in response to alterations
in the environment and consequent changes in
behavior.
human disease
animal behavior
Associating abnormal behavior with deficits in
brain function .
Observing the brain in response to alterations
in the environment and consequent changes in
behavior. Associating abnormal behavior with
deficits in brain function .
9
The Goals of Biopsychology
Americans over age 18
Source http//www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/numbers.c
fm
10
The Goals of BiopsychologyMurderous Hand a
case of split brain
Ramachandrin, V.S. (1998). Phantoms in the brain,
New York, Morrow and Co.
11
The Goals of BiopsychologyKnowing where to
scratch a case of phantom limb
Ramachandrin, V.S. (1998). Phantoms in the brain,
New York, Morrow and Co.
12
The Goals of BiopsychologyKnowing where to
scratch a case of phantom limb
Ramachandrin, V.S. (1998). Phantoms in the brain,
New York, Morrow and Co.
13
The Goals of BiopsychologyKnowing where to
scratch a case of phantom limb
Ramachandrin, V.S. (1998). Phantoms in the brain,
New York, Morrow and Co.
14
The Goals of BiopsychologyThe Disembodied Lady
a case of somatosensory deafferentation
Sacks, O. (1985). The man who mistook his wife
for a hat, New York, Simon and Schuster.
15
The Goals of BiopsychologyThe Disembodied Lady
a case of somatosensory deafferentation
Sacks, O. (1985). The man who mistook his wife
for a hat, New York, Simon and Schuster.
16
The Goals of BiopsychologyThe Disembodied Lady
a case of somatosensory deafferentation
Sacks, O. (1985). The man who mistook his wife
for a hat, New York, Simon and Schuster.
17
The Goals of BiopsychologyThe Man Who Mistook
His Wife for a Hat a case of visual agnosia
Sacks, O. (1985). The man who mistook his wife
for a hat, New York, Simon and Schuster.
18
The Goals of BiopsychologyThe Man Who Mistook
His Wife for a Hat a case of visual agnosia
Agnosia (a-gnosis, "non-knowledge") is a loss of
ability to recognize objects, persons, sounds,
shapes or smells while the specific sense is not
defective nor is there any significant memory
loss. It is usually associated with brain injury
or neurological illness, particularly after
damage to the temporal lobe. Object Agnosia is
inability to recognize objects.
Sacks, O. (1985). The man who mistook his wife
for a hat, New York, Simon and Schuster.
19
The Goals of BiopsychologyBlind sided a case
of unilateral-neglect

• Patients with unilateral neglect often fail to
  see or respond to objects on the side opposite to
  their brain damage.
• Patients with damage to the right side of their
  brain will often only eat food from the right
  side of their plate, will bump into the left side
  of doorways, and only shave the right side of
  their face.
• Such behavior can not be accounted for by a loss
  in visual acuity or basic perception patients
  who have defects on one side of their visual
  fields will simply shift their body or eyes to
  observe objects in their blind field. In
  contrast, neglect patients fail to orient in
  order to perceive objects in their bad field.

20
The Goals of BiopsychologyBlind sided a case
of unilateral-neglect
A patients is shown a clustering of Os, Qs
and Cs. They are asked to mark the Os so
that they look like Qs. Only those on the
non-neglected side are marked.
A patients is asked to copy an image of a house
or an analog clock. Notice that the left side of
the images are largely ignored.
http//www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/cr1/n
eglect.html www.bioscience.org/2003/v8/e/973/figur
es.htm
21
The Goals of BiopsychologyReading Monkey Minds
Musallam, S., Corneil, D.B., Greger,
B.Scherberger, H.   R. A. Andersen, R.A. (2004).
Cognitive Control Signals for Neural Prosthetics.
Science, 305, 258-262.