Biological Psychology 203 Winter 2013 Lecture 1

Transcription

1 Biological Psychology 203 Winter 2013 Lecture 1

2 Neuroscience Biopsychology: the study of the biological basis of behavior the study of : Neuroanatomy: structure of NS Neurochemistry: chemical bases of neural activity Neuroendocrinology: interactions btw NS & endocrine system Neuropathology: disorders of NS Neuropharmacology: drugs effects on NS neural activity Neurophysiology: function & activity of the NS

3 Divisions Biopsychology Physiological Psychology: neural mechanisms of behavior by direct manipulation of the brain (Experimental) (Dr. Leon) Psychopharmacology: neural activity and behavior with drugs (Experimental & Applied) (Dr. Sumaya) Neuropsychology: psychological effects of brain damage in humans (Applied - assessment) Psychophysiology: relation bwt physiological activity & psychological processes in humans non invasive (Experimental..also Applied) (Dr. Suter) Comparative Psychology: compare behavior btw species, evolutionary level (experimental) Cognitive Psychology: non invasive study of brain, cognition, information processing (Applied, Experimental) (Dr. Abramson)

4 In any well-made machine one is ignorant of most of the parts the better they work the less we are conscious of them it is only fault that draws attention to the existence of a mechanism at all. (Craik, K., 1943) Of course the Brain is the most Important organ in your body NOT

5 I get no respect Cardiocentric view Egyptians Indian Chinese Greeks - necessary for life - emotion HB

6 I get no respect Cardiocentric view The heart is the center of intellectual and perceptual Functions it is centrally located in the body it is beating throughout life it is warm he brain s function is to cool the blood (and to regulate the heart s temperature): it acts like a radiator Aristotle ( BC)

7 Braincentric View Hippocrates ( B.C) Men ought to know that from nothing else than the brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, grief's. In these ways I am of the opinion that the brain exercises the greatest power in man.

8 Braincentric View Galen ( A.D) Galen: Surgeon to the Stars Experiments.

9 "The brain, the masterpiece of creation, is almost unknown to us." Nicolaus Steno, 1669 Will the human brain ever completely understand its own workings? 3 major debates Nature of neural communication Localism vs Holism Mind vs Brain (monism/dualism)

10 3 major debates Mind vs Brain (monism/dualism)

11 Mind-Body Question Dualist: mind separate from body Mechanist: Body is like a machine Mind controls the machine Body tells mind about the environment Rene Descartes ( ) hydraulic model Pipes = nerves Water = fluids in body Hidden Value = Pineal Sensations, memories and other mental functions produced as animal spirits flowing through pores in the brain controlled by the pineal gland

12 Control Valve: Pineal Gland Seat of the Soul First technical model for the NS Controls the flow of thought to consciousness

13 Innervation of the Pineal Dependent on the Light/Dark Cycle

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15 Debate: Mind vs Brain Mind vs Brain??? Monism: Mind is product of brain Dualism: Brain is physical mind is not Mind-Body Question..are you a monist or a dualist? Biopsychologist: the mind is just an illusion, a sense of mind is nothing more than the awareness of what the brain is doing

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17 3 major debates Mind vs Brain (monism/dualism) Still up for debate

18 Next Debate: Nature of Neural Communication: Settled Luigi Galvani ( ) Italian Physician Anatomist Electrical Stimulation of frog legs Contraction of the muscles Animal Electricity "While one of those who were assisting me touched lightly, and by chance, the point of his scalpel to the internal crural nerves of the frog, suddenly all the muscles of its limbs were seen to be so contracted that they seemed to have fallen into tonic convulsions.

19 Debate: Neural Communication Doctrine of specific nerve energies All nerves carry electrical signals Different nerves = different outcomes Johannes Muller ( ) German Physiologist

20 Acetylcholine Otto Loewi ( ) Born in Germany, American Citizen Discovered 1 st NT Dreamed the experiment Acetylcholine vagus substance Nobel Prize ACh ACh ACh

21 "The night before Easter Sunday, I woke, turned on the light and jotted down a few notes on a tiny slip of paper. Then I fell asleep again. It occurred to me at six o'clock in the morning that during the night I had written down something most important, but I was unable to decipher the scrawl. The next night at three o'clock, the idea returned. It was the design of an experiment to determine whether or not the hypothesis of chemical transmission that I had uttered seventeen years ago was correct. I got up immediately went to the laboratory and performed the simple experiment." The experiment worked

22 The Experiment: Test the hypothesis of chemical transmission Stimulate Vagus Nerve in Frog decrease in HB take fluid from donor heart place recipient heart in fluid decrease in HB Donor heart most "intuitive" discoveries are associated with earlier hypotheses buried deep in the unconscious mind

23 Camillo Golgi ( ) Italian Physician: Silver Staining Method continuous mass of tissues one cytoplasm (holism) Santiago Ramon y Cajal ( ) Spanish Histologist Labeled Cells neuron doctrine discrete entities Nobel Prize 1906: Research on structure of the nervous Debate: Nature of Neural Communication

24 Debate: Nature of Neural Communication 1. Neurons are discrete and autonomous cells that can interact 2. Synapses are gaps that separate neurons 3. Information is transmitted in one direction from dendrites (input) to the axon (output)

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26 3 major debates Nature of Neural Communication Settled

27 Next Debate: Localism vs Holism brought Anatomy & Psychology together discrete regions of brain controls specific functions = mental state localization Franz Joseph Gall ( ) Phrenology (personology) German Physician Neuroanatomist

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29 Phineas Gage ( ) 25 yrs. Explosion accident (1848) impulsive, unreliable, profane was no longer Gage.

30 Forebrain telencephalon Movement Orientation Recognition Perception of stimuli Reasoning Planning Speech Produce Movement Emotions Problem solving Personality Broca s Visual Processing Wernicke s Perception & recognition of auditory stimuli Memory Speech Comprehension

31 Wilder Penfield ( ) American-Born Canadian Neurosurgeon: Greatest neurosurgeon of all times mapped the brain direct stimulation of the brain Grandmother Cell"

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33 Localism vs holism?

34 Most Valuable Player The Organization of Behavior (1949) First comprehensive theory on how psychological phenomena might be produced by BRAIN ACTIVITY Donald O. Hebb ( ) Canadian Psychologist perceptions emotions thoughts memories A large brain, like large government, may not be able to do simple things in a simple way. Donald O. Hebb

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36 Cell Assemblies Synaptic transmission Material basis mental associations Connectionism LTP Hebb based his theories humans and animals clinical case studies logical arguments = eclectic approach became a hallmark of biopsych

37 3 major debates Localism vs Holism a little of both going on

38 Watson & Crick ( 1953) discovered chemical structure of DNA Nature 171, (1953) Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids WATSON, J. D. & CRICK, F. H. C. Medical Research Council Unit for the Study of Molecular Structure of Biological Systems, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid New debate Nature vs Nurture

39 Rosalind Franklin discovered chemical structure of DNA New debate Nature vs Nurture

40 New debates Nature vs Nurture (0.11 seconds) <> Francis Collins Human Genome Project (NIH) NCBI Genome Project Sequencing of the human genome: the book if life J. Craig Venter Celera Genomic

41 New debates Nature vs Nurture