Recommended book- An introduction to Brain and Behavior.
Additional books- Biological psychology by Breedlove and Watson.
Overview on topics- Nervous system, Senses and perception, movement disorders,
emotion, plasticity and learning, mental disorders.
Biological psychology is also known as behavioral neuroscience and it focuses on the
biological foundations of behavior, emotions and any mental processes.
Plato (4th century BC) claimed that the head was the closest to the heavens therefore
making it the most important organ. However, Aristotle disputed this idea and
argued that the heart was the organ of thinking and feeling- and that the brain
merely cooled our blood.
Galen (129-199 BC) dealt with gladiatorial injuries and believed that cerebral
ventricles of the brain carried out our thinking processes.
There has been a philosophical argument taking place for thousands of years about
whether the mind can be explained by our bodies, which is more commonly known
as the mind-body problem.
Some of the proposed solutions were monism and dualism. Monism is where only
one is real, either the physical body or the spiritual mind. And Dualism is the idea
that both exist, interacting with each other in the pineal gland- which was further
developed by Descartes (1596-1650)
Understanding of the brain and its function and structure.
Phrenologists tried to localise functions of the brain to structure based on the shape
of a person’s skull. They even tried to claim specific traits to small regions. Despite it
being incorrect, it gave us an idea about the brain’s localized functions.
Brain damage can tell us a lot of the brain’s structure, its functions and how they
both interlink.
Paul Broca suggested and developed that language could possibly be controlled by
specific regions- his patient Leborgne was unable to speak more than a few simple
words. He understood language and could answer questions in a non-verbal manner
and could produce speech sounds, therefore concluding that it wasn’t a simple
problem with the muscles involved.
Broca did a postmortem of the patient and revealed a lesion in the left hemisphere,
also discovering that several other patients experienced the same issues with a
similar problem in the left hemisphere. This language disorder is now known as
Broca’s Aphasia.
Another type of aphasia was discovered by Carl Wernicke and showed that the
patients could not comprehend language but could produce speech.
1. The left hemisphere.
Additional books- Biological psychology by Breedlove and Watson.
Overview on topics- Nervous system, Senses and perception, movement disorders,
emotion, plasticity and learning, mental disorders.
Biological psychology is also known as behavioral neuroscience and it focuses on the
biological foundations of behavior, emotions and any mental processes.
Plato (4th century BC) claimed that the head was the closest to the heavens therefore
making it the most important organ. However, Aristotle disputed this idea and
argued that the heart was the organ of thinking and feeling- and that the brain
merely cooled our blood.
Galen (129-199 BC) dealt with gladiatorial injuries and believed that cerebral
ventricles of the brain carried out our thinking processes.
There has been a philosophical argument taking place for thousands of years about
whether the mind can be explained by our bodies, which is more commonly known
as the mind-body problem.
Some of the proposed solutions were monism and dualism. Monism is where only
one is real, either the physical body or the spiritual mind. And Dualism is the idea
that both exist, interacting with each other in the pineal gland- which was further
developed by Descartes (1596-1650)
Understanding of the brain and its function and structure.
Phrenologists tried to localise functions of the brain to structure based on the shape
of a person’s skull. They even tried to claim specific traits to small regions. Despite it
being incorrect, it gave us an idea about the brain’s localized functions.
Brain damage can tell us a lot of the brain’s structure, its functions and how they
both interlink.
Paul Broca suggested and developed that language could possibly be controlled by
specific regions- his patient Leborgne was unable to speak more than a few simple
words. He understood language and could answer questions in a non-verbal manner
and could produce speech sounds, therefore concluding that it wasn’t a simple
problem with the muscles involved.
Broca did a postmortem of the patient and revealed a lesion in the left hemisphere,
also discovering that several other patients experienced the same issues with a
similar problem in the left hemisphere. This language disorder is now known as
Broca’s Aphasia.
Another type of aphasia was discovered by Carl Wernicke and showed that the
patients could not comprehend language but could produce speech.
1. The left hemisphere.
