Biopsychology: Introduction and Foundations

Week 1: Introduction to Biological Psychology

Acknowledgement of Country

• Monash University acknowledges the Kulin Nations as the traditional owners of the land on which its Australian campuses are located.

• Respect is paid to their Elders, both past and present.

Weekly Learning Outcomes

By the end of this week, students should be able to:

1. Define the field and divisions of biopsychology and understand critical thinking.

2. Describe the major systems, structures, and cells of the nervous system, including:

   • The major divisions of the nervous system and their functions.

   • The meninges, cerebrospinal fluid, and blood-brain barrier and their functions.

   • The structures comprising the five major divisions of the central nervous system and their functions.

   • The internal and external features of a neuron, and the four kinds of glial cells and their functions.

Lecture Structure

1. What is biological psychology?

2. Historical foundations: How dominant theories, frameworks, and technology have shaped our understanding.

3. Current Frameworks: Introduction to current dominant biological psychology frameworks and how this relates to each week of our unit

4. Critical thinking in biological psychology:

   • Distinguishing good science from pop psychology.

   • Understanding the potential pitfalls of biological psychology.

   • Principles of good scientific practice.

   • Engaging with AI.

Part 1: What is Biological Psychology?

Why Study the Brain?

• Fundamental curiosity: Understanding the biological basis of behavior (thought, emotions, actions, consciousness).

• Understanding, diagnosing, treating, and supporting neurological and psychological conditions.

• Enhancing human potential: Optimizing learning and behavior, computer-brain interfaces, AI.

Definition of Biopsychology

• The scientific study of the biology of behavior.

• Behavior is defined as any observable action, reaction, or process - conscious or unconscious, voluntary or involuntary - through which an organism interacts with its environment.

Biopsychosocial Model

• Integrates biological, psychological, and social/cultural factors.

Limitations of Symptom-Based Diagnosis

• NIMH Director Thomas Insel (2002-2015) highlighted that DSM diagnoses are based on clinical symptoms rather than objective laboratory measures, unlike diagnoses in other medical fields.

• Analogy: It is like creating diagnostic systems based on chest pain or fever quality.

• Symptoms alone rarely indicate the best treatment choice; mental disorder patients deserve better.

Part 2: Historical Foundations of Biological Psychology

Importance of Historical Context

• Psychologists are assessed against core competencies (e.g., applying scientific knowledge, ethical conduct, health equity).

• Researchers contribute theoretically and practically to psychology.

• History provides conceptual competence, addressing questions like:

  • What is the nature of disease?

  • How do we determine the validity of diagnostic concepts?

  • How does disease impact our personhood?

• Our models and methods build on 4000+ years of biological psychology research.

Key Considerations in Historical Context

• Evolution of investigative methods (invasive, non-invasive, psychopharmacology, cellular/molecular, computational modeling).

• Influence of available technology on investigation methods.

• Impact of communication and language dominance on global understanding.

• Influence of societal attitudes, assumptions, theoretical frameworks, and philosophies on research and clinical practice.

Timeline of Key Developments

• 1600 BC: Edwin Smith Papyrus

  • First written reference to the word “brain”.

  • Describes the brain including gyri.

  • Lists head injuries, skull fractures, and brain function observations.

  • Notes that injury to one side of the head affects the opposite leg.

• 6th Century BCE: Sushruta Samhita

  • Earliest medical texts relating to Ayurveda (holistic system of medicine from India).

  • Recognized the brain’s role in perception, cognition, and behavior through head injuries and surgery.

  • Tridosha Theory: Linked mental health to biological factors (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) - an early biopsychological model.

  • Described cranial injuries, their effects on behavior, and early psychiatric treatments (herbal medicine, diet, surgery).

• 5-4th Century BCE

  • Alcamaeon of Croton (500 BCE): Brain as the center of thought and sensation via animal dissections.

  • Hippocrates (460-370 BCE): Refuted the heart as the center of thought, observing that head injuries impair speech, memory, and reasoning; epilepsy originates in the brain, not divine punishment.

    • Methods used: dissection, lesion studies, observational studies.
      *“Men ought to know that from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs, and tears.”

• 3rd Century BCE

  • Herophilus (335-280 BCE):

    • Earliest known illustrations of the central nervous system.

    • Observed thread-like pathways (nerves) through dissection.

    • Noted that convolutions of cerebral hemispheres were more prominent in humans than in other animals.

  • Plato (428-348 BCE):

    • Argued the brain was the seat of intelligence and most divine part of body.

    • Reason resided in the brain, spirit in the heart, and desire in the liver.

• 10th Century – Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and the Canon of Medicine

  • Integration of international medical knowledge of the brain with new empirical knowledge from clinical observation, surgery, pharmacology.

  • Influenced medicine for 600+ years.

• 16th Century - Descartes

  • Proposed mind-body dualism.

  • Introduced the concept of reflexes (automatic bodily responses to external stimuli).

  • Mechanistic view of the body influenced early neuroscience.

  • Impact on modern Western healthcare: separation of mental and physical health.

• 1859 – Charles Darwin

  • On the Origin of Species (1859): Provided a biological basis for mental and behavioral continuity between species.

  • The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872): Emotions and cognitive abilities evolved gradually across species; emotions serve adaptive functions.

  • Comparative observations of humans and animals.

• 18th - 19th Century

  • Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934)

  • Technological advances in cellular imaging and microscopy.

• 20th Century

  • Prof Edgar Adrian and Prof Keith Lucas (1928): Recorded electrical impulses from frog sciatic nerve fibers using extracellular electrodes.

  • Joseph Erlanger & Herbert Gasser (1920s–1940s): Used cathode ray oscilloscopes to visualize nerve impulses; found different nerve fibers conduct impulses at different speeds.

  • 1953: Watson and Crick, with contribution from Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, discover DNA.

  • 1960s:

    • Psychopharmacology: Advances supported the view that psychiatric disorders are discrete entities with specific pathophysiologies, responding differentially to medications.

    • Cognitive neuroscience: Explosion of research in this area.

• 20th-21st Century – Computational neuroscience:

  • How computers work informs how brains work, and vice versa.

  • 1950: Does the brain operate like a Turing Machine?

  • 1950-1970s: Is the brain a network of simple computing elements?

  • 1980s-1990s: Is the brain a Parallel Distributed Processing machine?

  • 1990s-2000: Does the brain use Bayesian inference to combine past knowledge with new data?

  • 2000s–Present: Predictive Coding & Free Energy Principle.

    • The brain and body act to minimise uncertainty (and thereby maintain homeostasis).

    • Do mental health conditions arise from differences in prediction and inference processes?

Divisions of Biopsychology

The six major divisions:

• Physiological Psychology

• Psychopharmacology

• Neuropsychology

• Psychophysiology

• Cognitive Neuroscience

• Comparative Psychology

Part 3: Dominant Frameworks for Understanding Biological Psychology

20th Century – Move to align with other practices of medicine

• Freud (1856-1939)’s psychoanalysis was the dominant psychological practice framework

• Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926) emphasized biological and neurological foundations of mental disorders.

• Post WWII – DSM and ICD-6 (1947-1952): Push by psychiatrists to better classify and diagnose psychiatric conditions

• DSM-III (1980): Prof Robert Spitzer led a taskforce to revise the DSM into a a more standardized, empirically based diagnostic system, aligning with psychiatry to solidify it as a medical discipline, focusing on biological and observable symptoms rather than ‘unconscious conflicts’ (i.e. further shift away from psychoanalysis)

• DSM-V (2013): Prof Thomas Insel oversaw the shift away from the essentialist view that mental health conditions are discrete entities with specific pathophysiologies, towards a dimensional and spectrum-based approach to diagnosis

Transdiagnostic and Dimensional Models

• NIMH's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project.

Links to Unit Topics

• Week 2: Neural conduction and synaptic transmission.

• Week 3: Research methods.

• Week 4: Development of the nervous system.

• Week 5: Biopsychology of psychiatric conditions.

• Week 6: Sensory systems.

• Week 7: Control of Action.

• Week 8: Sleep, dreaming and circadian rhythm.

• Week 9: Stress, health, and emotion.

• Week 10: Learning, memory, and amnesia.

• Week 11: Drug addiction and the brain's reward circuits.

• Week 12: Brain damage and neuroplasticity.

Part 4: Critical Thinking in Biological Psychology

Importance of Critical Thinking

• Biological psychology exists within a broader context.

Overcoming Sources of Bias

• Experimental bias: Careful study design, interdisciplinary collaboration, diverse methods.

• Confirmation and publication bias: Open datasets, meta-analyses, pre-registration, publishing negative/null findings.

• Socio-cultural bias: Consciousness of assumptions reflecting dominant societal perspectives.

Sociocultural Norms Perpetuating Harm

• 19th Century to present: Darwin’s theory used to justify colonialism, slavery, racial segregation, and sexism.

• 20th Century: Genetic determinism used to justify eugenics.

• 1950s: Statistics used to consider those at the “edges of normal” mentally ill (e.g., homosexuality in the DSM).

Contemporary Issues

• Suppression of scientific data and language deemed ideologically dangerous.

Disentangling Neuroscience from