Psych 130

• Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system
• Four major themes of this text:

  • Thinking creatively about biopsychology
  • Clinical implications
  • The evolutionary perspective
  • Neuroplasticity
• Thinking creatively involves thinking in productive, unconventional ways and analyzing research outside the box
• Clinical implications in biopsychology involve learning from dysfunctional brains and applying discoveries to brain dysfunction treatment
• The evolutionary perspective considers environmental pressures that led to the evolution of human brains and behavior
• Neuroplasticity research shows that the adult brain continuously grows and changes in response to the environment and experiences
• Emerging themes of this text:

  • Epigenetics: Genes are only a small part of what determines who you are, interactions between genes and experiences are key
  • Consciousness: Examines different aspects of consciousness from a biopsychological perspective
• Biopsychology is the scientific study of the biology of behavior
• Biopsychologists are important members of the neuroscience team, bringing a knowledge of behavior and methods of behavioral research
• Biopsychology draws knowledge from neuroscientific disciplines and applies it to the study of behavior
• Disciplines relevant to biopsychology:

  • Neuroanatomy
  • Neurochemistry
  • Neuroendocrinology
  • Neuropathology
  • Neuropharmacology
  • Neurophysiology
• Biopsychological research involves both human and nonhuman subjects
• Advantages of human subjects include following instructions, reporting subjective experiences, and having human brains
• Nonhuman subjects are simpler and can reveal fundamental brain-behavior interactions
• Ethical considerations in biopsychological research involve independent committees and strict guidelines
• Nonexperimental studies include quasiexperimental studies and case studies
• Experiments are used to study causation and involve independent and dependent variables
• Quasiexperimental studies are conducted when assigning subjects to conditions is not feasible
• Quasiexperimental studies cannot prove causation due to the inability to control all variables
• Quasiexperimental studies have shown that heavy drinkers tend to have more brain damage than abstainers
• However, such studies cannot prove that the brain damage was caused by alcohol
• Case studies focus on a single subject or a very small number of subjects
• They are rarely concerned with having control subjects
• Their focus is on providing a more in-depth picture and generating testable hypotheses
• A major problem with all case studies is their generalizability—the degree to which their results can be applied to other cases
• Pure research is motivated primarily by the curiosity of the researcher and is done solely for the purpose of acquiring knowledge
• Applied research is intended to bring about some direct benefit to humankind
• Pure research often becomes the topic of translational research, which aims to translate the findings of pure research into useful applications for humankind
• Pure research is more vulnerable to political regulation because politicians and the voting public have difficulty understanding why research of no immediate practical benefit should be supported
• Physiological psychology studies the neural mechanisms of behavior through direct manipulation and recording of the brain in controlled experiments
• Subjects are almost always laboratory animals due to the focus on direct brain manipulation and controlled experiments
• There is a tradition of pure research in physiological psychology, focusing on theories of the neural control of behavior
• Psychopharmacology focuses on the manipulation of neural activity and behavior with drugs
• A substantial portion of psychopharmacological research is applied, aiming to develop therapeutic drugs or reduce drug abuse
• Neuropsychology studies the psychological effects of brain dysfunction in human patients
• It deals with case studies and quasiexperimental studies of patients with brain dysfunction resulting from disease, accident, or neurosurgery
• The outer layer of the cerebral hemispheres, the cerebral cortex, is most likely to be damaged by accident or surgery, making it a focus of neuropsychology
• Neuropsychology is the most applied of the biopsychological subdisciplines
• Neuropsychological tests facilitate diagnosis, help prescribe effective treatments, and provide a basis for patient care and counseling
• Psychophysiology studies the relation between physiological activity and psychological processes in humans