week 1

Question 1

Define Biological Psychology.

Answer 1

A field of study that relates behaviour to bodily processes (genes, nerves, neurotransmitters, brain circuitry).

Question 2

Identify 8 historical icons.

Answer 2

Aristotle 
Hippocrates
Galen
René Descartes
Thomas Willis 
Johannes Peter Muller
Charles Darwin
Santiago Ramon Cajal

Question 3

What was Aristotles understanding of the Localization of function?

Answer 3

The Cardiocentric view - The heart initiates thought and behaviour. It is the root of intelligence and source of nerves in the body. The brain existed only to help balance the heart’s function

Question 4

What did Hippocrates believe was the most powerful organ?

Answer 4

Brain-centered view -
“The brain is the most powerful organ of the human body”…. “eyes, ears, tongue, hands and feet act in accordance with the discernment of the brain”

Question 5

What did Hippocrates mean when he referred to heredity in his writings?

Answer 5

The child “is healthy when it comes from healthy parts, diseased when it comes from diseased parts”

Question 6

What did Hippocrates suggest about the humors of the body?

Answer 6

Humors of the body are chemical systems regulating the human body: the gall bladder(yellow bile), spleen(black bile) , lungs(phlegm water) and liver(blood air)

Any excess or decreased amount of any of them would be a sign of illness

Question 7

What did Hippocrates mean when he referred to homeostasis in his writings?

Answer 7

health = balance between humors
“Health is primarily that state in which these constituent substances [i.e., humors] are in the correct proportion to each other, both in strength and quantity, and are well mixed. Pain occurs when one of the substances presents either a deficiency or an excess, or is separated in the body and not mixed with others”

Question 8

What is Galen the father of?

Answer 8

Father of Experimental Physiology - First to study the structure of the nervous system through dissection and observation.

Question 9

What did Galen discover?

Answer 9

Arteries carry blood (it was thought to be water), to parts of the body
Described valves of the heart
Observations around bones, muscles, and nerves

Question 10

How did Galen advance Hippocrates bodily humors theory?

Answer 10

Typology of Human Temperament;

If there is an imbalance between the humours then there could be different personality types ->
The ideal temperament means humours must be balanced **

Question 11

What was the purpose of the pineal gland during the 4-17th century?

Answer 11

Pineal gland = behaviour
Anterior (part of the pineal gland)= perception/imagination
Middle (part of the pineal gland) = reason
Posterior (part of the pineal gland) = memory

Question 12

What was René Descartes considered the father of?

Answer 12

Father of Modern Philosophy

Question 13

How did René Descartes view the pineal gland?

Answer 13

Pineal gland as the seat of the soul, most important organ. The central point between the mind and the body.

Question 14

What was René Descartes concept of the reflex?

Answer 14

Concept of the Reflex – likened to hydraulics of machines, which is connected to the pineal gland

An automatic reflex to move your hand when hurt.

It was thought that nerves are hollow tubes allowing flow of “animal spirits” from the pineal gland which inflates muscles causing the withdraw movement.
- Connection between the soul and body

Question 15

What was a “problem” that Descartes brought up first?

Answer 15

The Mind-Body problem

Question 16

What is Monism?

Answer 16

Mind and body is considered the same thing

Question 17

What is Dualism?

Answer 17

Mind and body are different kinds of substance that exist independently, that interact.

Question 18

What is Penonmenalism?

Answer 18

physical objects and events are reducible to mental objects, only mind.

Question 19

How did Descarte understand the Mind-Body Problem?

Answer 19

Dualism

The mind is invisible –consciousness
The body has a physical size that occupies space
Non-material soul and a material body
The pineal gland is point of contact

Question 20

What is Thomas Willis the founder of?

Answer 20

Founder of Neurology

Assigned behavioural and physiologic functions to the brain

Question 21

What is the Circle of Willis?

Answer 21

circle of arteries at base of the brain

Internal carotied arties that branch into small per artieries that supply oxygen and blood (oxygeniated blood) to over 80% of the cerebruim

Question 22

What did Johannes Peter Muller discover?

Answer 22

First to experimentally isolate components of the nervous system to see how they function

Doctrine of Nerve Energies: The nature of perception is defined by the pathway over which the sensory information is carried. The origin of the sensation (i.e., the stimulus) is not important

It is not caused by for example, the “blueness” of the sky, rather our optic nerve

Question 23

What 2 principles did Charles Darwin found?

Answer 23

Principle of Natural Selection

Principle of functionalism

Question 24

What is the Natural Selection Principle?

Answer 24

Process in nature by which only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characters in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated

Question 25

What is the Functionalism?

Answer 25

In order to understand a biological phenomenon, you must understand how it functionally serves the organism

Preprogrammed behaviour that has a specific function for survival.
- Nest building in mice

Question 26

What is Santiago Ramon Cajal the father of?

Answer 26

Father of Modern Neuroscience

Question 27

What theory is Santiago Ramon Cajal known for?

Answer 27

Neuron Theory: the relationship between nerve cells is not one of continuity, but rather contiguity

Provided detailed description of cell types in the CNS associated with neuronal structures

Question 28

Who helped Santiago Ramon Cajal visualize the neuron under the microscope?

Answer 28

Cajal used Golgi stain to demonstrate that cells are separate and do not merely merge into one another

Question 29

What are the 4 Biological perspectives of Behaviour?

Answer 29

Evolutionary - explains behaviour via evolutionary history of the structure/behaviour
Functional - why a structure or behaviour evolved (natural selection).
Physiological - relates behaviour to activity of the brain/organs.
Ontogenetic - describes how behaviour developed via the gene X environment.

Question 30

“Some birds have the same call, suggesting they evolved from the same ancestor.” Which of the 4 Biological Explanations is connected to this example?

Answer 30

evolutionary

Question 31

“The male song bird sings only during the reproductive season for mating.” Which of the 4 Biological Explanations is connected to this example?

Answer 31

functional

Question 32

“The area of the brain responsible for “song” grows with testosterone exposure and the brain area is bigger in males than in females.” Which of the 4 Biological Explanations is connected to this example?

Answer 32

Physiological

Question 33

“To be able to sing, song birds require the genetic material and then learn the song by listening to adult males.” Which of the 4 Biological Explanations is connected to this example?

Answer 33

Ontogenetic