Lecture 1 Flashcards
What is biopsychology?
scientific study of the biology of behaviour
What might brain activity produce?
Emotions Thought Dreams Memories Perceptions
What is thought to modulate brain activity?
Physiology (are we stressed or relaxed?, did you just exercise?) and chemistry (what is around to modulate the activity of the brain, what chemicals are available?)
What is some of the history of biopsychology?
Conducted on human and animal experiments (generally looking at behaviours and making logical arguments)
Logical arguments
Clinical case studies
What is the purpose of the nervous system?
To produce and control behaviour
What are the divisions of biopsychology?
Neuroanatomy Neurochemistry Neuroendocrinology Neuropathology Neuropharmacology Neurophysiology Physiological psychology Neuropsychology Cognitive Neuroscience Comparative psychology
What is Neuroendocrinology?
How hormones effect the braini
what is Physiological psychology?
Physiological underpinning of the brain
What is neurochemistry?
The role of neurochemicals during particular behaviours
What is psychopharmacology?
The effect of drugs on the brain
What is neuropathology?
Studying diseased brains
What is neuropsychology?
Love patients. Assess what areas of the brain are effected from neurological disorders
What is cognitive neuropsychology?
Studying humans and brain imaging
How does the healthy brain function?
What is psychophysiology?
Assessing how your brain changes your on going physiology
Peripheral changes that happen due to the changes in the brain (polygraph)
What is neuroanatomy?
Used to look at how parts of the brain may change due to aging
What is comparative psychology?
Asking questions across species
What are the benefits of using human subjects?
Communication -provide feedback -report experiences -follow instructions Have human brain and behaviours Low maintenance Cost effects
What are disadvantages to using human subjects?
Ethics - Non invasive -Less info Attrition (people drop out of the study) Uncontrolled lifestyle
What are the advantages to non human subjects?
Invasive - in vitro vs in vivo Direct measurements of brain and behaviour Can manipulate brain -lesions -drugs -long lasting vs short lasting Comparative approach - learn about how different brains produce behavioural differences (human vs mouse cortex) Controlled lifestyle Simple nervous system Less ethical constraints
What are disadvantages to non human subjects?
Cannot communicate High maintenance Ethics cost (reduce and refine)
What is the evolutionary continuity and the comparative approach?
Insight into the role of functional and behaviour differences
(rates have high non cortisol dependence. Have similar structures and connectivity)
Homology in chemical and anatomical attributes
Fundamental brain-behaviour interactions
What are experiments?
Purpose: study causation (what causes what)
Randomly assign subjects into control and experimental groups (between or within subject design)
Manipulate an independent variable (observe and measure effects of manipulation - dependent variable is operationally defined)
What is the difference between with in subjects and between subjects?
Between - a different group of subjects is tested under each condition
Within - test the same group of subjects under each condition
What is the goal of experiments?
To have one possible explanation for effects observed
-Keep experiments simple
(avoid confounding/ extraneous variables - treatment of the control vs experimental conditions should be exact same outside of the manipulation of the independent variable)
What are quasi experimental studies?
Used when it is not possible to bring experimental method to bear on all problems of interest. Physical or ethical impediments
What is an example?
Alcoholism and brain atrophy and cognitive decline
- unethical to assign groups
- need to examine real world
(already assigned groups - not random, no manipulation of IV)
What are the drawbacks of quasi experiments?
Only correlational (not causal) Groups are self assigned (not random) Cannot control for confounding variables
What are case studies?
Focus on a single subject
More in depth picture
Informative and valuable in combination with experiments and quasi- experimental studies (source of testable hypothesis)
Cannot make generalizations
What are some quasi experimental findings in combination with experimental findings?
Valuable
Additional real experiment can establish cause and effect
Ex. Rodent studies of alcohol exposure
-direct neurotoxic effects
-alcohol interferes with vitamins B metabolism
-thiamine deficiency and thiamine supplementation
- alcohol still causes brain damage in thiamine deficient
What is pure research?
Conducted for learning new information (just to know)
- how does the brain function to produce memory?
- often becomes translational
What is applied research?
conducted to better humankind
- how to prevent Alzheimer’s disease or reverse amnesia
Pure research is the basis of applied
We need to think critically about validity of biopsychological claims scientific interference based off empirical observations to piece together unobservable phenomena
Lobotmy
Bull Example
