Lecture 1

Biological Psychology Overview

• Definition: The study of the biological basis of behavior and cognition.

• Behavior: Observable actions of humans and animals.

• Cognition: Sum of mental processes produced by the brain.

Key Concepts in Biological Psychology

• Behavioral Neuroscience: Also known as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology; applies biology principles to study physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms affecting behavior.

• Neuroscience Assumption: The brain produces mental phenomena and behaviors.

Brain Organization

• Levels of Organization:

• The brain has various structural levels:

  • Systems

  • Regions

  • Circuits

  • Cells

  • Synapses

  • Molecules

• Cognitive Neuroscience: Focuses on understanding the structure of the brain to explain the mind, utilizing different biological organization levels.

Neurons and Their Function

• Neurons: Basic structural units of the brain, forming networks that propagate and process signals.

• Components: Dendrites (receive signals) and axons (transmit signals).

• Signal Generation: Neurons can generate and propagate electrical signals essential for muscle contractions and other functions.

Action Potentials and Signal Propagation

• Action Potentials: Electrical signals that result from charged particle movement across the neuron's membrane, lasting about 1-2 milliseconds.

• Propagation via Neurotransmitters: Neurons release neurotransmitters to transmit signals to consecutive neurons in their network.

Neural Coding

• Information Representation: The action potential rate (spikes) conveys information; it varies with the intensity of stimuli (e.g., pressure).

• Feature Detectors: Specialized neurons (e.g., discovered by Hubel and Wiesel) respond to specific contrasts in visual fields, demonstrating that neurons can encode low-level features of visual scenes.

Neural Representation

• Cognitive State Representation: Each cognitive state appears to correspond to a specific pattern of brain activity, suggesting that distinct patterns represent the spectrum of experiences.

• Location of Representations: Questions arise about whether specific brain areas correspond to specific types of information; examples include Broca's and Wernicke's areas related to language processing.

Imaging Techniques in Neuroscience

• Functional MRI (fMRI): Enables observation of brain activity during tasks; highlights areas activated by specific stimuli (e.g., parahippocampal place area for physical spaces, extrastriate body area for human bodies).

Distributed Representation

• Multidimensional Cognition: Experience is often multidimensional, where observing a face activates multiple brain areas, indicating functions depend on networked brain structures.

• Functional Connectivity: Researchers analyze correlations between signals from different brain areas during tasks to identify collaborative networks.

The Default Mode Network (DMN)

• DMN Discovery: Identified through functional connectivity; certain brain areas show activation during rest periods or mind-wandering phases, highlighting underlying cognitive processes due to inactivity.

Upcoming Topics

• Next class will cover Consciousness and Attention.