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Biopsychology
An introduction
What is Biological Psychology?
• This approach tries to explain human behaviour in terms
of our biology.
• What behaviour do you think can be determined by our
biology?
Assumptions
• All behaviour has a biological basis (a physical cause)
• Our biology is a result of the interaction between the genes we
inherited and the environment we grew up in
• Our genes have evolved over thousands of years to make us
adaptive to our changing environment
• We are biological machines made up of chemicals and cells
Central Nervous System
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Our Central Nervous System (CNS) – Brain and spinal cord
Our Peripheral Nervous System
Our Genes
Our hormones
Disease, injury, substance abuse
Topics of interest
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Sensation and perception
Hormones and sex
Drug addiction
Consciousness and attention
Sleep, dreaming and circadian rhythms
Memory and amnesia
Neuroplasticity and learning
Emotions, stress, illness (schizophrenia, anxiety, etc)
Language and cognition
Lateralization of function
Divisions...
• Physiological psychology ~ Studies neural mechanisms of behaviour
through direct manipulation of the brain
• Psychopharmacology ~ Studies the manipulation of neural activity and
behaviour with drugs
• Neuropsychology ~ Studies the psychological effects of brain damage
• Cognitive neuroscience ~ Studies the neural bases of thought,
memory, attention, perception
• Psychophysiology ~ also studies the neural bases of thought, memory,
attention, perception
The Brain can affect Behaviour
• Researchers looked at individuals who have suffered a brain injury
and observing a change in their behaviour
• Without researching brain injury it would have been hard to show any
evidence that the brain was playing a part in behaviour.
Research Methods
• Visualize the brain
o CAT, MRI, PET, fMRI
• Record activity
o EEG, muscle tension, eye movement, skin conductance, cardiovascular activity
• Invasive surgery
o E-stim, lesions
• Brain damage patients
Phineas Gage
• Phineas Gage suffered an accident where a large rod was blasted
through his skull and brain.
• He survived this ordeal but it was reported that his behaviour
changed after the event. He became anti-social and ill-mannered.
• His friends said “Gage was no longer
Gage.”
The Brain
• Different areas control everything that we do such as emotions as
well as our movements
• Four lobes :
1.
2.
3.
4.
frontal,
temporal,
parietal, and
occipital.
• Each has its own function.
Hemispheres
Cortex
• Frontal lobe
o personality
o social-emotional
o plans
• Parietal lobe
o joints and skin
• Temporal lobe
o hearing and speech
• Occipital lobe
o vision
Inside the Brain - Neurons
• The brain is full of neurons – more than 100 billion!
Neurons
• Neurons carry signals electrically along their axon and chemically
across a synapse
• Synapse is a gap between two neurons
• Neurons never touch ~ to communicate they send chemicals across
the synapse and these are picked up by the other neuron
Neuron sending the
chemical signal
Chemicals being released
into the synapse
Neuron picking up the
chemical signal
Structure
Function
Angular Gyrus
Internal monologue, written language processing,
visual and auditory input processing
Hippocampus
Short term memory formation, sequential actions
Thalamus
Controls flow of info to cortex, relay station
Amygdala
Emotional behaviour, motivation
Corpus Callosum
Connects left and right hemispheres
Medulla
Controls respiration, heart rate, blood pressure,
etc. (autonomic functions)
Broca’s area
Comprehension of language
Hypothalamus
Maintains homeostasis (eating, sleeping, temp,
etc.)
Cerebellum
Controls involuntary movement (balance,
coordination)
Structure
Function
Wernicke’s area
Recognition of spoken words
Reticular Activating Warning system for incoming
system
sensory stimuli, controls
consciousness
Primary Motor
Cortex
Controls voluntary muscle
movement
Visual cortex
Forms images in your mind
Primary Sensory
Cortex
Receives info about heat,
touch, pain, cold, body
position
The Core Studies
• Maguire et al. – brain scans on taxi drivers
• Sperry – split brain patients
• Dement and Kleitman – sleep and dreaming