Lectures and book Biological psychology
,Index
Lecture 1 – Structure and function of nerve cells .................................................................................. 5
From chemical elements to cell membrane .................................................................................. 5
Nerve cells ....................................................................................................................................... 6
Practice questions ........................................................................................................................... 8
Glia cells (support cells) .................................................................................................................. 8
Bioelectricity ................................................................................................................................... 9
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 14
Things from the book (first part Chapter 2) ................................................................................. 15
Lecture 2 – Neurotransmission ............................................................................................................ 17
The synapse................................................................................................................................... 17
Regulation neurotransmitter concentration ............................................................................... 20
Effect postsynaptic potentials on postsynaptic neuron .............................................................. 20
From neuron to behavior: Patella reflex...................................................................................... 21
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 21
Overview neurotransmitters ........................................................................................................ 22
Psychopharmacology .................................................................................................................... 23
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 27
Things from the book (second part Chapter 2 and Chapter 4).................................................... 28
Lecture 3 – Neuroanatomy ................................................................................................................... 36
Development ................................................................................................................................ 36
Anatomy spinal cord ..................................................................................................................... 39
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 42
Anatomy brain .............................................................................................................................. 43
Anatomy ventricular system and cerebral membrane................................................................ 45
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 46
Things from the book (Chapter 3) ................................................................................................ 47
Lecture 4 – Vision .................................................................................................................................. 52
Visual stimulus and sense organ .................................................................................................. 53
Visual coding ................................................................................................................................. 56
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 59
Visual cortex basic processing ...................................................................................................... 59
Visual higher order processing ..................................................................................................... 61
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 64
Things from the book (Chapter 6) ................................................................................................ 65
Lecture 5 – Control of movement ........................................................................................................ 69
, Muscles ......................................................................................................................................... 69
Control from motor cortex and cerebellum ................................................................................ 71
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 72
Higher order control ..................................................................................................................... 73
Basal ganglia ................................................................................................................................. 75
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 77
Things from the book (Chapter 8) ................................................................................................ 78
Lecture 6 – Sleep and biological rhythms ............................................................................................ 81
Sleep stages................................................................................................................................... 81
Function of sleep........................................................................................................................... 83
Physiological mechanisms of sleep .............................................................................................. 85
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 87
Sleep disorders.............................................................................................................................. 88
Sleep-wake rhythm ....................................................................................................................... 89
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 90
Things from the book (Chapter 9) ................................................................................................ 91
Lecture 7 – Emotions (stress) ............................................................................................................... 94
Emotions: Darwinistic view .......................................................................................................... 94
Anxiety .......................................................................................................................................... 94
The amygdala ................................................................................................................................ 95
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex ............................................................................................ 97
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 98
Hippocampus, stress, and cortisol ............................................................................................... 99
Effects stress on immune system ............................................................................................... 100
Subjective feelings of emotions ................................................................................................. 101
Expression of emotions: Faces ................................................................................................... 101
Feedback of stimulated emotions .............................................................................................. 102
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 103
Things from the book (Chapter 11 and Chapter 17 pages 568-578) ......................................... 104
Lecture 8 – Learning and memory...................................................................................................... 107
Perceptual, motor, and S-R learning .......................................................................................... 107
Classical conditioning ................................................................................................................. 108
Instrumental conditioning .......................................................................................................... 110
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 111
Relational learning ...................................................................................................................... 112
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 115
, Things from the book (Chapter 13) ............................................................................................ 116
Lecture 9 – Human communication ................................................................................................... 120
Language lateralization .............................................................................................................. 120
Organization language processing ............................................................................................. 121
Language disorders (aphasia) ..................................................................................................... 122
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 125
Reading........................................................................................................................................ 126
Writing......................................................................................................................................... 128
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 128
Thing from the book (Chapter 14) .............................................................................................. 129
Lecture 10 – Neurological disorders................................................................................................... 132
Tumors ........................................................................................................................................ 132
Epilepsy (seizure disorders) ........................................................................................................ 132
Bleeding/infarct .......................................................................................................................... 133
Developmental disorders ........................................................................................................... 134
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 135
Degenerative disorders .............................................................................................................. 136
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 141
Things from the book (Chapter 15) ............................................................................................ 141
Lecture 11 – Cognitive disorders / addiction (mainly dopaminergic system) .................................. 144
Schizophrenia .............................................................................................................................. 144
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 150
Addiction ..................................................................................................................................... 150
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 154
Things from the book (Chapter 16 pages 533-551 and Chapter 18) ......................................... 154
Lecture 12 – Affective disorders (primarily serotonergic system) .................................................... 157
Anxiety disorders ........................................................................................................................ 157
Obsessive compulsive disorder .................................................................................................. 158
Depression .................................................................................................................................. 159
Hypothesis neurobiology depression......................................................................................... 160
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 161
Role of heritability ...................................................................................................................... 162
Gene-environment interaction .................................................................................................. 163
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 166
Things from the book (Chapter 16 pages 551-565 and Chapter 17 pages 582-592) ................ 166
,Lecture 1 – Structure and function of nerve cells
Overview
- From chemical elements to cell membrane
- Nerve cells
- Practice questions
- Glia cells (support cells)
- Bioelectricity
From chemical elements to cell membrane
Overview of the elements that are most dominant in our body:
- Oxygen is most common in our body → 65%.
o Together with hydrogen it makes water.
- Carbon → Fats are made of carbon → 18%.
- Potassium, sodium, and chloride are very important in bioelectricity.
- Elements themselves do not mean much for the body but they start to mean something
when they make molecules together.
Bonding elements together to make molecules.
- Bonds between elements can be done in two ways → Ionic or covalent bond.
- Ionic bond → Electrostatic force.
o Opposite attracts → + attracts -.
o Example → NaCl → Na+ attracts Cl- to produce nice crystals known as table salt.
- Covalent bond → Sharing of electrons to forms molecules.
o Atoms have protons and neutrons surrounded by electrons in different shells.
▪ Inner shell can have a maximum of 2 electrons.
▪ Outer shell can have a maximum of 8 electrons.
▪ Atoms always want to have full shells.
o Example → Water.
▪ Water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen.
▪ Oxygen has no charge → It has 8 protons and 8 electrons.
• The inner shell has 2 electrons → This one is full.
• The first outer shell has 6 electrons → The shell is not full.
▪ Hydrogen has no charge → Has one proton and one electron.
• The inner shell has one electron → The shell is not full.
▪ Atoms want to have full shells:
• Oxygen will make a paring with 2 hydrogens so they can share their
electrons so their shells will become full most of the time →
Sometimes oxygen will have 8 electrons in outer shell and other
times hydrogen will have 2 electrons in inner shell.
▪ The oxygen part of water is a little bit negatively charged because there are
more electrons (10) than protons (8) in the oxygen atom most of the time.
▪ The hydrogen part of water is a little bit positively charged because the
electrons are more attracted towards oxygen because of the more
positively charged oxygen core which leads to a more positively charged
hydrogen.
, … and carbon chains
- Glucose (sugar) C6H12O6 is made by covalent bonds between carbon, hydrogen, and
oxygen.
- Amino acids are also formed by covalent bonds.
o Carbon chains with extra nitrogen atom → Amino acids always have a NHH-group.
o COOH-group → This group makes the molecule an acid → Carboxyl group.
o The carbon side chain in an amino acid can be different which leads to different
amino acids.
- Protein.
o Different amino acids can bind together to form a protein.
o Peptides are short protein chains.
- Lipids (fat).
o Long carbon chains formed by covalent bonds.
… and phospholipids
- Phospholipids contain a head and two tails.
o Tails → Strings of carbon.
o Head → Carbon chains are connected by an extra
phosphate (P) group.
- Phosphate has many protons and therefore tend to attract
electrons → Phosphate has a static negative charge and is
consequently hydrophilic (likes water).
o The negativity of phosphate likes to combine with the
positive charge of the hydrogen of water molecules.
- Lipids (fats) are hydrophobic (don’t like water).
o The carbon chains don’t have any charge.
Double layer of phospholipids forms cell membrane.
- If you have a lot of phospholipids in water:
o The heads will orientate so they make contact with water.
o The lipids don’t like to touch the water so they will connect to other
lipids to avoid the water.
- This will lead to a double layer of phospholipids → Cell membrane.
- The cell body of a neuron, as well as the axons and the dendrites will have a
double layer of phospholipids as membrane.
Nerve cells
Global functions of neurons:
- Dendrites → To receive information of other cells.
o Nerve cells can have a lot of dendrites.
- Cell body → Soma.
o Integrates all the signals that are received by the
different dendrites.
o Signals can be excitatory or inhibitory.
o When there are more excitatory than inhibitory
signals an action potential is generated and
passed on to the axon.
,Index
Lecture 1 – Structure and function of nerve cells .................................................................................. 5
From chemical elements to cell membrane .................................................................................. 5
Nerve cells ....................................................................................................................................... 6
Practice questions ........................................................................................................................... 8
Glia cells (support cells) .................................................................................................................. 8
Bioelectricity ................................................................................................................................... 9
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 14
Things from the book (first part Chapter 2) ................................................................................. 15
Lecture 2 – Neurotransmission ............................................................................................................ 17
The synapse................................................................................................................................... 17
Regulation neurotransmitter concentration ............................................................................... 20
Effect postsynaptic potentials on postsynaptic neuron .............................................................. 20
From neuron to behavior: Patella reflex...................................................................................... 21
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 21
Overview neurotransmitters ........................................................................................................ 22
Psychopharmacology .................................................................................................................... 23
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 27
Things from the book (second part Chapter 2 and Chapter 4).................................................... 28
Lecture 3 – Neuroanatomy ................................................................................................................... 36
Development ................................................................................................................................ 36
Anatomy spinal cord ..................................................................................................................... 39
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 42
Anatomy brain .............................................................................................................................. 43
Anatomy ventricular system and cerebral membrane................................................................ 45
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 46
Things from the book (Chapter 3) ................................................................................................ 47
Lecture 4 – Vision .................................................................................................................................. 52
Visual stimulus and sense organ .................................................................................................. 53
Visual coding ................................................................................................................................. 56
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 59
Visual cortex basic processing ...................................................................................................... 59
Visual higher order processing ..................................................................................................... 61
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 64
Things from the book (Chapter 6) ................................................................................................ 65
Lecture 5 – Control of movement ........................................................................................................ 69
, Muscles ......................................................................................................................................... 69
Control from motor cortex and cerebellum ................................................................................ 71
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 72
Higher order control ..................................................................................................................... 73
Basal ganglia ................................................................................................................................. 75
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 77
Things from the book (Chapter 8) ................................................................................................ 78
Lecture 6 – Sleep and biological rhythms ............................................................................................ 81
Sleep stages................................................................................................................................... 81
Function of sleep........................................................................................................................... 83
Physiological mechanisms of sleep .............................................................................................. 85
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 87
Sleep disorders.............................................................................................................................. 88
Sleep-wake rhythm ....................................................................................................................... 89
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 90
Things from the book (Chapter 9) ................................................................................................ 91
Lecture 7 – Emotions (stress) ............................................................................................................... 94
Emotions: Darwinistic view .......................................................................................................... 94
Anxiety .......................................................................................................................................... 94
The amygdala ................................................................................................................................ 95
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex ............................................................................................ 97
Practice questions ......................................................................................................................... 98
Hippocampus, stress, and cortisol ............................................................................................... 99
Effects stress on immune system ............................................................................................... 100
Subjective feelings of emotions ................................................................................................. 101
Expression of emotions: Faces ................................................................................................... 101
Feedback of stimulated emotions .............................................................................................. 102
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 103
Things from the book (Chapter 11 and Chapter 17 pages 568-578) ......................................... 104
Lecture 8 – Learning and memory...................................................................................................... 107
Perceptual, motor, and S-R learning .......................................................................................... 107
Classical conditioning ................................................................................................................. 108
Instrumental conditioning .......................................................................................................... 110
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 111
Relational learning ...................................................................................................................... 112
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 115
, Things from the book (Chapter 13) ............................................................................................ 116
Lecture 9 – Human communication ................................................................................................... 120
Language lateralization .............................................................................................................. 120
Organization language processing ............................................................................................. 121
Language disorders (aphasia) ..................................................................................................... 122
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 125
Reading........................................................................................................................................ 126
Writing......................................................................................................................................... 128
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 128
Thing from the book (Chapter 14) .............................................................................................. 129
Lecture 10 – Neurological disorders................................................................................................... 132
Tumors ........................................................................................................................................ 132
Epilepsy (seizure disorders) ........................................................................................................ 132
Bleeding/infarct .......................................................................................................................... 133
Developmental disorders ........................................................................................................... 134
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 135
Degenerative disorders .............................................................................................................. 136
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 141
Things from the book (Chapter 15) ............................................................................................ 141
Lecture 11 – Cognitive disorders / addiction (mainly dopaminergic system) .................................. 144
Schizophrenia .............................................................................................................................. 144
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 150
Addiction ..................................................................................................................................... 150
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 154
Things from the book (Chapter 16 pages 533-551 and Chapter 18) ......................................... 154
Lecture 12 – Affective disorders (primarily serotonergic system) .................................................... 157
Anxiety disorders ........................................................................................................................ 157
Obsessive compulsive disorder .................................................................................................. 158
Depression .................................................................................................................................. 159
Hypothesis neurobiology depression......................................................................................... 160
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 161
Role of heritability ...................................................................................................................... 162
Gene-environment interaction .................................................................................................. 163
Practice questions ....................................................................................................................... 166
Things from the book (Chapter 16 pages 551-565 and Chapter 17 pages 582-592) ................ 166
,Lecture 1 – Structure and function of nerve cells
Overview
- From chemical elements to cell membrane
- Nerve cells
- Practice questions
- Glia cells (support cells)
- Bioelectricity
From chemical elements to cell membrane
Overview of the elements that are most dominant in our body:
- Oxygen is most common in our body → 65%.
o Together with hydrogen it makes water.
- Carbon → Fats are made of carbon → 18%.
- Potassium, sodium, and chloride are very important in bioelectricity.
- Elements themselves do not mean much for the body but they start to mean something
when they make molecules together.
Bonding elements together to make molecules.
- Bonds between elements can be done in two ways → Ionic or covalent bond.
- Ionic bond → Electrostatic force.
o Opposite attracts → + attracts -.
o Example → NaCl → Na+ attracts Cl- to produce nice crystals known as table salt.
- Covalent bond → Sharing of electrons to forms molecules.
o Atoms have protons and neutrons surrounded by electrons in different shells.
▪ Inner shell can have a maximum of 2 electrons.
▪ Outer shell can have a maximum of 8 electrons.
▪ Atoms always want to have full shells.
o Example → Water.
▪ Water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen.
▪ Oxygen has no charge → It has 8 protons and 8 electrons.
• The inner shell has 2 electrons → This one is full.
• The first outer shell has 6 electrons → The shell is not full.
▪ Hydrogen has no charge → Has one proton and one electron.
• The inner shell has one electron → The shell is not full.
▪ Atoms want to have full shells:
• Oxygen will make a paring with 2 hydrogens so they can share their
electrons so their shells will become full most of the time →
Sometimes oxygen will have 8 electrons in outer shell and other
times hydrogen will have 2 electrons in inner shell.
▪ The oxygen part of water is a little bit negatively charged because there are
more electrons (10) than protons (8) in the oxygen atom most of the time.
▪ The hydrogen part of water is a little bit positively charged because the
electrons are more attracted towards oxygen because of the more
positively charged oxygen core which leads to a more positively charged
hydrogen.
, … and carbon chains
- Glucose (sugar) C6H12O6 is made by covalent bonds between carbon, hydrogen, and
oxygen.
- Amino acids are also formed by covalent bonds.
o Carbon chains with extra nitrogen atom → Amino acids always have a NHH-group.
o COOH-group → This group makes the molecule an acid → Carboxyl group.
o The carbon side chain in an amino acid can be different which leads to different
amino acids.
- Protein.
o Different amino acids can bind together to form a protein.
o Peptides are short protein chains.
- Lipids (fat).
o Long carbon chains formed by covalent bonds.
… and phospholipids
- Phospholipids contain a head and two tails.
o Tails → Strings of carbon.
o Head → Carbon chains are connected by an extra
phosphate (P) group.
- Phosphate has many protons and therefore tend to attract
electrons → Phosphate has a static negative charge and is
consequently hydrophilic (likes water).
o The negativity of phosphate likes to combine with the
positive charge of the hydrogen of water molecules.
- Lipids (fats) are hydrophobic (don’t like water).
o The carbon chains don’t have any charge.
Double layer of phospholipids forms cell membrane.
- If you have a lot of phospholipids in water:
o The heads will orientate so they make contact with water.
o The lipids don’t like to touch the water so they will connect to other
lipids to avoid the water.
- This will lead to a double layer of phospholipids → Cell membrane.
- The cell body of a neuron, as well as the axons and the dendrites will have a
double layer of phospholipids as membrane.
Nerve cells
Global functions of neurons:
- Dendrites → To receive information of other cells.
o Nerve cells can have a lot of dendrites.
- Cell body → Soma.
o Integrates all the signals that are received by the
different dendrites.
o Signals can be excitatory or inhibitory.
o When there are more excitatory than inhibitory
signals an action potential is generated and
passed on to the axon.
