Lecture 1

Question 1

What is biopsychology?

Answer 1

scientific study of the biology of behaviour

Question 2

What might brain activity produce?

Answer 2

Emotions
Thought
Dreams
Memories
Perceptions

Question 3

What is thought to modulate brain activity?

Answer 3

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?)

Question 4

What is some of the history of biopsychology?

Answer 4

Conducted on human and animal experiments (generally looking at behaviours and making logical arguments)
Logical arguments
Clinical case studies

Question 5

What is the purpose of the nervous system?

Answer 5

To produce and control behaviour

Question 6

What are the divisions of biopsychology?

Answer 6

Neuroanatomy
Neurochemistry
Neuroendocrinology
Neuropathology
Neuropharmacology
Neurophysiology
Physiological psychology
Neuropsychology
Cognitive Neuroscience
Comparative psychology

Question 7

What is Neuroendocrinology?

Answer 7

How hormones effect the braini

Question 8

what is Physiological psychology?

Answer 8

Physiological underpinning of the brain

Question 9

What is neurochemistry?

Answer 9

The role of neurochemicals during particular behaviours

Question 10

What is psychopharmacology?

Answer 10

The effect of drugs on the brain

Question 11

What is neuropathology?

Answer 11

Studying diseased brains

Question 12

What is neuropsychology?

Answer 12

Love patients. Assess what areas of the brain are effected from neurological disorders

Question 13

What is cognitive neuropsychology?

Answer 13

Studying humans and brain imaging

How does the healthy brain function?

Question 14

What is psychophysiology?

Answer 14

Assessing how your brain changes your on going physiology

Peripheral changes that happen due to the changes in the brain (polygraph)

Question 15

What is neuroanatomy?

Answer 15

Used to look at how parts of the brain may change due to aging

Question 16

What is comparative psychology?

Answer 16

Asking questions across species

Question 17

What are the benefits of using human subjects?

Answer 17

Communication
-provide feedback
-report experiences
-follow instructions
Have human brain and behaviours
Low maintenance
Cost effects

Question 18

What are disadvantages to using human subjects?

Answer 18

Ethics
- Non invasive
-Less info
Attrition (people drop out of the study)
Uncontrolled lifestyle

Question 19

What are the advantages to non human subjects?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What are disadvantages to non human subjects?

Answer 20

Cannot communicate
High maintenance
Ethics cost (reduce and refine)

Question 21

What is the evolutionary continuity and the comparative approach?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

What are experiments?

Answer 22

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)

Question 23

What is the difference between with in subjects and between subjects?

Answer 23

Between - a different group of subjects is tested under each condition
Within - test the same group of subjects under each condition

Question 24

What is the goal of experiments?

Answer 24

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)

Question 25

What are quasi experimental studies?

Answer 25

Used when it is not possible to bring experimental method to bear on all problems of interest. Physical or ethical impediments

Question 26

What is an example?

Answer 26

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)

Question 27

What are the drawbacks of quasi experiments?

Answer 27

Only correlational (not causal)
Groups are self assigned (not random)
Cannot control for confounding variables

Question 28

What are case studies?

Answer 28

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

Question 29

What are some quasi experimental findings in combination with experimental findings?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

What is pure research?

Answer 30

Conducted for learning new information (just to know)

• how does the brain function to produce memory?
• often becomes translational

Question 31

What is applied research?

Answer 31

conducted to better humankind
- how to prevent Alzheimer’s disease or reverse amnesia
Pure research is the basis of applied

Question 32

We need to think critically about validity of biopsychological claims scientific interference based off empirical observations to piece together unobservable phenomena

Answer 32

Lobotmy

Bull Example