A third party in American politics refers to any political party other than the two major parties, which are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Third parties can influence elections, introduce new ideas, and represent specific interests or ideologies that may not be addressed by the major parties. Examples include the Green Party and the Libertarian Party.

What is Biological Psychology?

• „Biological psychology relates behavior to bodily processes, especially the workings of the brain. It is also known as physiological psychology or behavioral neuroscience”.

• Five perspectives to explore the biology of behavior:

1. Describe behavior

2. Study the evolution of behavior

3. Observe the development of behavior (over the life span)

4. Study the biological mechanisms of behavior

5. Study applications of biological psychology to dysfunctions of human behavior.

Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system

Behavioral neuroscience is the study of biological bases of psychological processes and behavior = biological psychology 

Five Research Perspectives Applied to Three Kinds of Behavior (examples)

What are the main approaches to studying the neuroscience of behavior?

Correlations

Causality (ultimate aim)

What are the levels of analysis used by behavioral (neuro)psychologists? 

Animal Research Makes Vital

Contributions

The study of biological bases of behavior requires research on other species.

Regulations for the use of animals are in place at the federal, state, and local institutional levels and current legal policies on treating animals ethically and humanely are in place.

Most people believe that animal research is justified, yet some active opponents believe it is unethical no matter how much benefit is gained.

– Animal rights activists have made personal attacks on scientists to intimidate and frighten them into abandoning their research.

Use of Animals in Research in the 21th Century

How do we study the brain through the perspectives of biological psychology?

• Observation of behavior

• Lesions (consequences of physical interventions)

• Anatomy (tracing, identification of cells, connections, receptors, etc...)

• Electrophysiology (neurophysiology)

• Neuroimaging

• Preferably all of the above (multidisciplinary approach)

Observation of Behaviour #1 (the old-new „phrenology” issue)

Observation of Behavior #2 (testing memory)

Lesions studies – legendary cases

P. Broca’s patient, Leborgne Railroad worker, Phineas Gage

Lesion studies - limitations

• Lesion are difficult to control

– Lesions tend to appear in certain places (e.g. where particular blood vessels run)

– Often large or multiple areas can be are damaged

– Sometimes not only the neurons are damaged but also the fibres en passage

– Small number of similar cases

• Recovery alters results

– Brains can ‘rewire’ (sprouting)

– New strategies can be learned

Lesions in animal studies

• Making deliberate lesions by stereotaxy

– Aspiration, chemical lesions, electrocoagulation, cooling.

– Selectivity

• Regional

• Chemical

• Transient

– Repeatability

– Lesions that would not occur in human patients

http://www.hcnr.med.harvard.edu/programs/R&R/downloads/Stereotaxic_handout_for_Feb_26_2005.pdf

Modern age of lesions - TMS

• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) involves creating a strong focal magnetic field over the scalp – mainly stimulates cortical areas.

Can cause transient deficits, i.e., “virtual lesions”.

Anatomy

• Studies conducted on brain tissue post-mortem

• Use tracers to determine which areas are connected to which

– Anterograde: travels forward showing which area this cell body projects to

– Retrograde: travels back from nerve endings showing where inputs (cell bodies) come from

• With high-powered ‘electron microscopes’ we can also look at the morphology of individual intracellular compartments (e.g., vesicles)

Electrophysiology (neurophysiology)

• To record direct electric signals from individual (or multiple) neurons, we insert micro-electrodes in the brain and record action potentials.

• By measuring the rate or the time interval at which neurons fire (release) action potentials we can determine the “function of those cells”. E.g. a motor neuron might fire during a hand-movement, a visual neuron during the presentation of a particular stimulus, an abstract neuron at the presentation of a reward.

(Source: http://e.guigon.free.fr/rsc/article/TremblaySchultz99.pdf) Forrás: Purves, D., et al. Neuroscience. Oxford Univ. Press, 2018

Electrostimulation

Intracranial self stimulation (ICSS) Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

Olds and Milner, 1954

Source: http://mikeclaffey.com/psyc2/notes-cog-motivation-emotion.html

Optogenetics

28

Chemogenetics 

Imaging gross neur(on)al activity

• Computerised Axial Tomography (CAT/CT)

– X-ray based, diagnosis of stroke

• Positron Emission Topography (PET)

– Inject radioactive isotope in the bloodstream and measure distribution in the body

• Electro-encephalography (EEG)

– Measure the local electrical activity with scalp electrodes

• Magneto-encephalography (MEG)

– Measure magnetic field and infer where electrical activity occurs

• (Functional) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

– Measure the amount of oxygenated blood in an area

Electroencephalography - EEG

Neuroimaging – (f)MRI

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI (anatomical scans)

• fMRI – same basic technique to measure Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal

• BOLD signal is related to activity in the brain

(indirect method, detects increased metabolism in active areas?) 

Multidisciplinary approach

• Ideally we should use multiple methods:

– Measure the behavioural characteristics of a phenomenon - psychophysics

– Use fMRI to see which gross brain structures are activated by a “task”

– Use electrophysiology to see what the responses of the neurons are like – adding a function to the system on the cellular level!

– Finally use anatomy to locate the cells involved, see the important proteins they express and/or trace their interconnections.