Biopsychology

• focuses on brain/behavior relationships

• denotes a biological approach to the study of psychology rather than a psychological approach to the study of biology

• scientific study of the biology of behavior

Origins of Biopsychology

• emerged end of 19th century

• Hebb’s The Organization of Behavior (1949) was a key factor in the development into a major neuroscientific discipline

  • Hebb developed the first comprehensive theory of how complex psychological phenomena (e.g., perceptions, emotions, thoughts, and memories) might be produced by brain activity

• Biopsychologists study how the brain and the rest of the nervous system determine what we perceive, feel, think, say, and do

• Ultimate challenge for the human brain: Does our brain have the capacity to understand something as complex as itself?

Relation to Other Disciplines of Neuroscience

• Neuroscience: scientific study of the nervous system

• Biopsychology: discipline/subfield of neuroscience

  • bridge between psychology and neuroscience

• Different Approaches in Neuroscience

  • Neuroanatomy: study of the structure of the nervous system

  • Neurophysiology: study of the functions and activities of the nervous system

  • Neurochemistry: study of the chemical bases of neural activity

  • Neuroendocrinology: study of interactions between the nervous system and the endocrine system

    • trends; transmitters (e.g., adrenaline, dopamine, serotonin); identities, structures, and functions of compounds (neurochemicals) that are generated and that modulate the nervous system [NEUROCHEMISTRY]

  • Neuropharmacology: study of the effects of drugs on neural activity

    • exogenous chemicals; prescription drugs

  • Neuropathology: study of nervous system disorders

    • neurological illnesses (e.g., infection, trauma, cancers)

• These 6 fields of neuroscience are particularly relevant to biopsychological inquiry

Human and Nonhuman Objects

• Advantages of Human Objects

  • can follow directions

  • can report subjective experiences

  • often less expensive

  • have a human brain

• Advantages of Nonhuman Subjects

  • simpler nervous systems

  • studying various species makes it possible to use comparative approach

  • fewer ethical constraints

Experiments and Non-Experiments

• Experiments

  • used to determine cause-and-effect relationships

  • Between-Subjects Design: different subjects under each condition

  • Within-Subjects Design: same group of subjects under each condition

  • Independent Variable: difference between conditions

  • Dependent Variable: variable measured by the experimenter to assess the effect of the IV

  • Confounding Variable: unintended difference

• Quasi-Experiments

  • used when controlled experiments are impossible

  • examine subjects in real-world situations who have self-selected into specific conditions (e.g., excessive alcohol intake), subjects assigned themselves to treatment conditions

  • Key Problem: cannot control confounds therefore, cannot establish direct cause-and-effect relationships

• Case Studies

  • focused on single subject

  • used when conditions are rare

  • questionable generalizability

    • cannot generalize based on a single person

Pure and Applied Research

• Pure Research

  • primarily motivated by the curiosity of the researcher to find out how things work

  • focuses on establishing building blocks/basic concepts that may provide information salient to many problems

• Applied Research

  • use basic research to answer specific problems

  • human and animal problems are directly addressed

  • more common in medical field, applications in psychology

6 Divisions of Biopsychology

• Physiological Psychology

  • direct manipulation of nervous system in controlled laboratory settings (e.g., lesions, invasive recording)

  • subjects are usually lab animals

  • strong focus on pure research

  • emphasis is usually on research that contributes to the development of theories of the neural control of behavior

• Psychopharmacology

  • focuses on the manipulation of neural activity and behavior with drugs

  • manipulation of nervous system pharmacologically

  • focuses on drug effects on behavior

  • drug effects change neural activity

  • pure research → use drugs to reveal the nature of brain-behavior interactions

  • applied questions → e.g., drug abuse, therapeutic drugs

• Neuropsychology

  • focuses on behavioral effects of brain damage in humans, typically cortical damage

  • uses case studies and quasi-experimental designs

  • most applied of the 6 divisions of biopsychology

  • applied research

  • abnormal and illnesses

• Psychophysiology

  • focuses on physiological and psychological processes

  • uses noninvasive recordings from humans

    • muscle tension

    • eye movement

    • pupil dilation

    • electrical conductance of the skin

  • Scalp Electroencephalogram (EEG): usual measure of brain activity

  • noninvasive → no operation done; external sensors used; no pain involved

• Cognitive Neuroscience

  • newest divisions

  • Focus: Neural basis of cognitive processes

    • learning or memory

    • attention

    • perceptual processes

  • often employs human subjects

    • Key Methods: noninvasive, functional brain imaging techniques

  • often collaborative between varied scientists

• Comparative Psychology

  • focuses on the biology of behavior

  • features comparative and functional approaches

  • features lab research, as well as studies of animals in their natural environments (ethology)

  • includes disciplines of evolutionary psychology (understanding behavior through its evolutionary origins) and behavioral genetics (understanding the genetic influences on behavior)

  • compare the behavior of different species in order to understand the evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of behavior

Converging Operations: How do biopsychologists work together?

• each area has a weakness

• must collaborate to ask good questions

• converging operations

  • progress made using different approaches

  • each compensate for the shortcomings of others

Scientific Interference: How do biopsychologists study the unobservable workings of the brain?

• science is empirical

  • method of answering questions by direct observation

• brain activity is not directly observable (e.g., one cannot see a neuron firing/neurochemicals being released from neurons)

• scientists look at the effects of processes

  • the effects of the processes are observable, but not the processes themselves

  • Scientific Inference: scientists observe the consequences of unobservable processes and from these they infer the nature of unobservable processes

Taming a Charging Bull with Caudate Stimulation

• implanted electrode into caudate nucleus

• delivered an electrical stimulation when bull charged

  • this stopped the charge

• Delgado claimed he found caudate taming center

  • suggested it might cure psychopaths

  • bulls and humans have inherently different neurosystems

  • the bull could have stopped because of the pain

Prefrontal Lobotomy

• Prefrontal Lobotomy

  • a procedure that separates the prefrontal lobes from the rest of the brain

• Moniz wins Nobel Prize based on research with chimpanzees (Becky)

• following reports of success, lobotomy freely used

• the case of Howard Dully

  • lobotomized at 12 years old at the insistence of stepmother

  • procedure done in 10 minutes