INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY Flashcards
is defined as “the branch of psychology that studies the biological foundations of behavior, emotions, and mental processes”
Biological psychology
are not the sources of intellect, reason, sensation, and movement – during the old times.
Brain and Nervous systems
drilling procedure. We can assume that the patient lived through the procedure and that this was not a postmortem ritual. What is less clear is the intent of such surgeries. Possibly, these early surgeons hoped to release demons or relieve feelings of pressure (Clower & Finger, 2001).
Trephining or Trepanation
represents the oldest known medical writing in history (5,000 years old).
Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus
Greek scholars of the fourth century b.c. proposed that the brain was the _____.
organ of sensation
went further by suggesting that the brain was also the source of intelligence. He correctly identified epilepsy as originating in the brain.
Hippocrates
believed that the heart was the source of intellect.
Aristotle
who is often referred to as the father of anatomy, believed that the ventricles (the fluid-filled cavities in the brain) played this important role.
Herophilus
a Greek physician serving the Roman Empire and believed that the ventricles played an important role in transmitting messages to and from the brain.
Galen
Fluids flowing within the _____ were believed to be ______ with fluids in the nerves.
ventricles, continuous
French philosopher whom Galen gained support from
Rene Descartes
A philosophical perspective put forward by Rene Descartes in which the body is mechanistic, whereas the mind is separate and nonphysical.
Mind-body dualism
A philosophical perspective characteristic of the neurosciences in which the mind is viewed as the product of activity in the brain and nervous system.
Monism
microscopes
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
observer of electricity
Benjamin Franklin
established electricity as the mode of communication used by the nervous system.
Luigi Galvani and Emil du Bois-Reymond
had connected wires from a rooftop antenna to the legs of his frogs, and electrical disturbances in passing clouds would make the frogs twitch in unison.
Galvani
continued to support the concept of the nervous system as a vast, interconnected network of continuous fibers.
Camillo Golgi
argued that the nervous system was composed of an array of separate, independent cells.
Santiago Ramon y Cajal
Cajal’s concept came to be known as the _____.
Neuron Doctrine
The notion that certain body functions are controlled by certain areas of the brain, called _______, began with an idea proposed by _______ and elaborated by ________.
localization of function, Franz Josef Gall, Johann Casper Spurzheim
The examination of body tissues following death.
Autopsy
An imaging technology in which computers are used to enhance X-ray images.
Computerized tomography (CT)
An imaging technique that provides information regarding the localization of brain activity.
Positron emission tomography (PET)
An imaging technique that provides very high resolution structural images.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
A technology using a series of MRI images taken 1 to 4 seconds apart in order to assess the activity of the brain.
functional MRI (fMRI)
A technology for studying the activity of the brain through recordings from electrodes placed on the scalp.
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
A technology for recording the magnetic output of the brain.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
an injury to neural tissue and can be either naturally occurring or deliberately produced.
lesion
large areas of brain tissue are surgically removed
Ablation
Biological explanations of behavior fall into four categories:
physiological, ontogenetic, evolutionary, and functional.
relates a behavior to the activity of the brain and other organs. It deals with the machinery of the body—for example, the chemical reactions that enable hormones to influence brain activity and the routes by which brain activity controls muscle contractions.
physiological explanation
describes how a structure or behavior develops, including the influences of genes, nutrition, experiences, and their interactions.
ontogenetic explanation
reconstructs the evolutionary history of a structure or behavior.
evolutionary explanation
describes why a structure or behavior evolved as it did. Within a small, isolated population, a gene can spread by accident through a process called genetic drift.
functional explanation
