Transcript Psychology 261

Psychology 261
Physiological Psychology
Welcome to the course!
How does PSYCH 261 fit into the
psychology curriculum?
We expect some basic knowledge from PSYCH
101
We DO NOT expect any particular background
in the life sciences, but inevitably such
background will help you if you have it.
This course serves as prerequisite for: PSYCH
306 (perception), PSYCH 307 (human
neuropsychology), PSYCH 399 (Research in
behavioural neuroscience), PSYCH 461
(Honours seminar in behavioural neuroscience).
Who is teaching the course?
Colin Ellard (phone ext. 6852, email
[email protected]).
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More about me than you care to know.
What I can do for you
Lectures, questions, evaluation
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What I can’t do for you
Read the textbook or make this really easy
Who else is teaching the course?
The teaching assistants
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Gillian Munro ([email protected], PAS
4219)
Chris Striemer ([email protected], PAS
4227)
What the teaching assistants can do for you
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Tutorials and office hours
What the teaching assistants cannot do for you
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Tell you what questions are on the tests (they won’t
know) or give you extra marks.
What is the textbook?
Biological psychology (Rosenzweig, Breedlove &
Leiman) 3rd edition.
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Used copies MAY be available but check edition
One copy will be on reserve in Porter
The bookstore doesn’t have enough copies for all of
you (but they will get more if they sell out).
Don’t ignore the CD – it’s got some good stuff on it.
Check out the website (www.biopsychology.com) for
great summaries of breaking neuroscience news
How do I get an ‘A’?
All evaluation is by multiple-choice (I don’t like it, but
that’s life).
The midterm is on October 16th and is worth 40%.
The exam is in the exam period and is worth 60%
Official documentation is required for a rewrite
I will bring example questions to class as often as I can.
In the past, few people who have failed to attend class
regularly and kept up with the reading have succeeded
in the course.
Try not to get behind.
Ask for help when a problem arises and NOT on the day
before the midterm.
The organization of the course
My lectures will follow the syllabus, which is
organized in terms of textbook chapters. But my
lectures will not necessarily cover everything in
the textbook.
I will publish coursenotes on the course website
in time for you to print off and bring to class if
you wish:
http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~cellard/teaching/
PSYC261/p261index.html
It’s a huge class – but try not to be intimidated
about asking questions. Ask on email and I will
answer in class.
Three simple requests regarding
etiquette
Please do your best to arrive on time (and
I’ll do the same).
Please don’t carry out loud, distracting
conversations in class.
I will always finish class on or before the
stroke of 2:20 pm. Please don’t start
packing up until I’ve finished speaking.
What a great bunch of topics we
have to cover!
Basic neuroscience stuff – brain cells,
neuroanatomy, how brain cells
communicate
How we know the external world (the
senses)
How we engage that world (movement)
Sex, sleep and feeling.
Questions?
Psychology 261
Biological psychology:
Scope and Outlook
Lecture synopsis
What is biopsychology?
The three main experimental approaches
Examples of modern biopsychological
research
What’s in a name?
Biological psychology or biopsychology
Physiological psychology
Psychobiology
Behavioural Neuroscience
What are we?
As neuroscientists, we’re the behaviour
people.
As psychologists, we’re the brain people.
What is physiological
psychology?
The study of the relationship between
brain and behaviour
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study of behaviour
comparative/evolutionary approaches
developmental approaches
mechanism
application
The study of behaviour
structural descriptions of behaviour
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here’s where we say exactly what is
happening (“the gentleman put his left leg
over the melon….”)
functional descriptions of behaviour
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this goes beyond direct observation -- makes
some inferences about what is being done
(“foraging behaviour”)
need to be careful with these-- know where
your inferences come from
Comparative and Evolutionary
approaches
continuity of behaviour
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nature is conservative -- expect to see the
same things re-used
eg. The nerve impulse
species-specificity of behaviour
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nature can be adventurous -- new things can
appear to suit the needs of a species
eg. The evolution of language
We are all alike and we are all
different
Developmental approaches
individuals change over the lifespan
(ontogeny)
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Teenagers
RT to identify emotion in pictures like
these begins to increase after age 11
and until about age 20. Also, emotion
is more often mis-identified
Developmental Approaches (cont)
Teens show more activation in amygdala
Adults show more activation on frontal
cortex.
This is your brain on fear (if you’re
a teenager)
This is your brain on fear (if
you’re an adult
Mechanism
the real engine of biopsychology
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how does the organization and activity of
neurons explain behaviour?
It’s surprisingly rare to be able to give a very
complete explanation of anything in
neuroscience
Brain-behaviour relations
Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus (1700 BC)
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Describes a number of cases of head injuries
First mention of crossed relationship between
brain and body
First mention of aphasia (loss of speech due
to damage to left temporal lobe).
Gall and phrenology
Early origins of localization of function
Basic idea was that the brain is
divided into different areas for
different functions (not so silly) and
that one could ‘read’ individual
brain differences from bumps on
the head (somewhat sillier).
fMRI and localization
The underlying assumptions
That the brain has something to do with our
behaviour
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A stronger form of this statement that most
physiological psychologists would agree with is to say
that the mind is the workings of the brain (This is
identity theory, a form of monism).
That different parts of the brain do different
things
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Often, this is as far as our analysis has taken us.
Response specificity in the visual
system
Gaze direction cells in neocortex
Cells in the brain of a monkey respond to the direction in which another
monkey is looking
Application
research can be applied to human
problems
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There are many great examples (recovery of
function, addiction, early diagnosis of
diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease).
Transplants and implants, recovery
There is some evidence that procedures like this can help with Parkinson’s
disease and perhaps other afflictions
Birdsong and brain growth
Fernando Nottebohm
Cross section of zebra finch
brain showing song
production (blue) and song
learning (red) pathways.
The three main experimental
approaches
somatic intervention
behavioural intervention
correlation
Somatic intervention
we mess with the brain to affect behaviour
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introduce a chemical
make a lesion
stimulate a pathway
Behavioural intervention
we mess with behaviour to affect the brain
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enriched environments
imaging, EEG
Correlation
we mess with mathematics to look at the
relationship between two variables
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these methods rely on individual differences
are bigger brains better?
Is schizophrenia correlated with any interesting
structural variation in brains?
Three main approaches to
studying the physiology of
behaviour
Summary
Physiological psychology is at the interface of
psychology and neuroscience
Physiological psychology is multifaceted, and
includes evolutionary, developmental, applied
and mechanistic elements
The three main experimental approaches
involve somatic or behavioural intervention, or
correlation.
We’re really just getting started – there’s much
to be done.
For next time….
You should read through Chapter 1 (I’ll
bring some questions for you!).
Start reading Chapter 2 (neuroanatomy).
You will want to read this chapter several
times before the midterm. There’s much
to learn here.