Biopsychology

• The study of the relationship between behavior, mental processes, and biological factors such as the nervous system, biochemistry, hormones, and genetics.

Why Biopsychology Is Important

• Biopsychology is crucial because it is the foundation of other disciplines in psychology, including:

  • Senses and perception

  • Cognitive

  • Learning

  • Developmental

  • Abnormal

• Biopsychology is also more effective in applied psychology which includes the following:

  • People seeking therapy are often taking psychoactive drugs as a prescription or recreationally.

  • Disorders having underlying neurological components.

  • Understanding how drug treatments work and their side effects.

• Other ways biopsychology is essential is because of the following:

  • It allows us to differentiate between science and pseudoscience.

  • It helps us combat charlatans and quack remedies for the brain.

    • Example: “Homeopathy”

  • Helps us dispel myths about the brain, which might include things like:

    • “We only use 10% of our brain.”

    • “People are right-brained vs left-brained.”

    • “Autism is caused by vaccines.”

Assumptions in Biological Psychology

• Assumptions in Biological Psychology include:

  • Biological/physiological basis for behavior.

    • Causes of psychological disorders include genetics, neurotransmitters, and structures of the brain.

  • Specific structures in the brain relate to certain behaviors.

    • Techniques to study what different brain structures do.

Techniques to Study the Brain

• Lesion

  • Destroy, inactivate, disconnect, or remove and see what behaviors are affected.

• Stimulation

  • Stimulate parts of the brain to either bring about or interfere with activity.

• Recording/ Scans & imaging.

Research With Animals: Stereotaxic Surgery

• Stereotaxic Surgery

  • The head is placed in a series of clamps.

  • A brain atlas is consulted to see where to insert electrodes for a particular region of the brain.

  • Electrodes are guided to specific areas of the brain.

  • The area of the brain is either stimulated or lesioned.

  • After it has been either stimulation or lesion studied, the brain is then surgically removed.

  • Thin slices are made to the brain in an effort to identify the location of the electrode(s).

• Lesion studies include:

  • Animal research

    • Lesion part of the brain and see what behaviors are affected.

  • Human research

    • Events occur, such as a stroke, head trauma, or surgery, and observations are conducted to see what behaviors are affected.

Understanding the Frontal Lobes

• Associated with Prefrontal lobotomies

• Executive functions:

  • Damage can affect the ability to understand abstractions, decision-making, personality as well as other higher cognitive functioning.

• Head Trauma:

  • A person who was in a car accident can damage the frontal lobes.

Prefrontal Lobotomy

• A prefrontal lobotomy lesions the connections between the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain.

• A prefrontal lobotomy is considered one of the most unethical treatments and was used to “help” people with the following:

  • Agitation

  • Depression

  • Schizophrenia

• Prefrontal lobotomies were also used with wives who were deemed to be “too difficult.”

• Moniz first developed the prefrontal lobotomy in Portugal.

• After the development of the prefrontal lobotomy, Freeman in the US developed the “Ice pick” technique.

  • The “Ice pick” technique involved inserting a metal rod into the eyeball of a subject in order to sever the connections; this allowed for drastic results, including death, to some who were subjected to it.

• The frontal lobes are not fully developed until a person is in their 20’s.

The Case of Henry Molaison (HM)

• Henry Molaison had his hippocampus removed in both hemispheres in order to control his seizures.

• The surgery would help with controlling his seizures, but other consequences would arise, including the inability to form new memories.

• Henry lost the ability to form any permanent memories and, as a result, would talk to someone but later wouldn’t remember what was said.

• Henry still had procedural memory; thus, his skills at golf would improve; however, he would have no memory of having gone golfing before.

The Hippocampus

• The hippocampus is vital for forming memories and is what allows the transfer of information from short-term memory to long-term memory.

The Wada Test

• The Wada Test is an example of temporary lesioning.

• A subject is injected with barbiturate (sodium amytal) in their carotid artery; The right carotid artery supplies blood to the right hemisphere while the left carotid artery carries blood to the left hemisphere.

• The injection is administered to the subject’s left carotid artery, and when the drug hits, the subject can no longer speak; this shows that language is in the left hemisphere of that subject.

Stimulation

• Pleasure Centers

• Hypothalamus

  • VMH: Satiation Center

  • LH: Hunger Center

Hypothalamus: VMH

• VMH: Station center: Tells a rat they are satiated/full.

• Stimulate: The rat stops eating.

• Effect of a lesion on the VMH: The rat eats until 2 or 3 times the average size.

Prader-Willi Syndrome

• Prader-Willi Syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder.

• One symptom is hyperphagia: Excessive appetite.

• This disorder affects the functioning of the hypothalamus.

Hypothalamus: LH

• LH: Hunger center: Tells a rat they’re hungry.

• Stimulate: The rat eats.

• Effect of a lesion on the LH: The rat stops eating and could starve to death unless force-fed.

Types of Recording/Scans/Imaging

• EEG: Brainwaves/electrical activity

  • Electroencephalogram/graph.

  • Measures brain waves/electrical activity.

  • Used to study activity during sleep, seizures, and other disorders.

  • Electrodes placed on the skull.

  • Not invasive.

• Microelectrodes

  • Electrodes are inserted into the brain.

  • Stimulate or lesion single neurons or a limited number.

  • Hubel & Wiesel mapped out the visual cortex in cats.

  • Recorded electrical activity from individual neurons in the brains of cats and created a map of the visual cortex with these experiments.

• CAT/ CT Scan: Structure.

• Computerized axial tomography.

• MRI: Structure

  • Magnetic resonance imaging.

• PET: Activity/functioning

  • Positron emission tomography.

  • Can see which part of the brain is active when a person is doing a task.

• fMRI: Activity/functioning

  • Functional Magnetic resonance imaging.

  • Can see which part of the brain is active when a person is doing a task.

• Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)

  • Low-frequency electrical stimulation.

  • Noninvasive.

  • Possible treatment for depression.

  • It may boost attention and other cognitive functions.

  • Still being investigated.

  • Mixed results.

• Deep brain stimulation (DBS)

  • Stereotaxic surgery to place electrodes to stimulate areas of the brain.

  • Used for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder.

  • It may also be used for Parkinson’s disease and chronic pain.