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PSYC220
Week 1
What is behavioral neuroscience?
It is an interdisciplinary field that takes on the task of understanding the phsyiological
and neurological correlates of behavioral and cognitive processes in living systems (not
just humans).
Foundations of behavioral neuroscience:
The goals of research
Generalization: Refers to explanations as general laws
Reduction: Explanations of complex phenomena in terms of simpler ones
We can’t be only one of them, as behavioral neuroscientists, we must
understand the overall function of a given behavior.
Sometimes physiological mechanisms can tell us something about psychological
processes.
Roots of behavioral neuroscience
Contributions from the ancient world
Trephination: bore/drill in Greek.
oldest technique in brain surgery (Neolithic)
5-10% of Neolithic skulls have evidence and half of them survived
head as a place for mind and spirit
Aristoteles: Brain as a cooling system and the “balance of humors”
Cephalocentrism vs Cardiocentrism
PSYC220 1
, Tripartite theory of the soul (or mind) was the main model in the ancient
world. You have the reason part, the appetite part, and the spirit part. (Platon
gibi)
mind’s origins, and where is the reason part settled at.
Both showed importance of the brain and nervous system
Mind-body problem
What role does the mind play in all these?
Dualism: mind and body are seperate
Monism: everything in the universe consists of matter and energy and
that the mind is a phenomenon produced by the workings of the nervous
system.
Descartes
Electrical communication and Bioelectricity
Bioelectricity is the physiological study of the brain using electrical current
PSYC220 2
, Galvani
most systematic work on animal electricity on frog legs
contractions occured even when the nerve and muscle were detached
Helmholtz
speed of conduction through nerves, turned out to be slower than the
speed of light
Anatomy
Localization vs Distribution debate:
Whether the functions are localized in a certain area/region of the brain
or it occurs in the whole of the brain.
Fritsch and Hitzig
primary motor cortex in dogs, firrst stimulation of the cortex
Franz Joseph Gall
Phrenology: approach to psychological attributes by measuring the
topology of the skull
Johannes Müller
Doctrine of specific nerve energies: All nerves carry the same basic
message. Different parts of the body interpret it in different ways
Experimental ablations: Removing various parts of animals’ brains and
seeing what the animal can’t do
PSYC220 3
, Falsified phrenology —> Crude localization is present, but finer
localization is complicated.
Contemporary neuroscience
Natural selection and evolution
Functionalism and the inheritance of traits
All of an organism’s characteristics have functional significance.
Even the behavior itself isn’t inherited to the offsprings, the structure (brain) is. It
is what causes the behavior to occur.
Darwin’s functionalism theory:
The principle that characteristics of living organisms perform useful
functions. To understand physiological basis of various behaviors, we must
understand what these behaviors accomplish.
Effects of physiological alterations can be seen in an animal’s behavior. This
means that the process of natural selection can act on behavior indirectly.
Evolution of human brains
The evolution of fruit-bearing trees —> fruit-eating primates —> color vision
The first hominids appeared in Africa: made tools, produced clothing, fire-usage,
dog domestication, hunt, symbolic communication, bipedalism
The evolutionary process produced a primate brain with an abundance of neural
circuits that could be modified by experience
There are some specialized circuits that were necessary —> complex
sounds used for speech
PSYC220 4
PSYC220
Week 1
What is behavioral neuroscience?
It is an interdisciplinary field that takes on the task of understanding the phsyiological
and neurological correlates of behavioral and cognitive processes in living systems (not
just humans).
Foundations of behavioral neuroscience:
The goals of research
Generalization: Refers to explanations as general laws
Reduction: Explanations of complex phenomena in terms of simpler ones
We can’t be only one of them, as behavioral neuroscientists, we must
understand the overall function of a given behavior.
Sometimes physiological mechanisms can tell us something about psychological
processes.
Roots of behavioral neuroscience
Contributions from the ancient world
Trephination: bore/drill in Greek.
oldest technique in brain surgery (Neolithic)
5-10% of Neolithic skulls have evidence and half of them survived
head as a place for mind and spirit
Aristoteles: Brain as a cooling system and the “balance of humors”
Cephalocentrism vs Cardiocentrism
PSYC220 1
, Tripartite theory of the soul (or mind) was the main model in the ancient
world. You have the reason part, the appetite part, and the spirit part. (Platon
gibi)
mind’s origins, and where is the reason part settled at.
Both showed importance of the brain and nervous system
Mind-body problem
What role does the mind play in all these?
Dualism: mind and body are seperate
Monism: everything in the universe consists of matter and energy and
that the mind is a phenomenon produced by the workings of the nervous
system.
Descartes
Electrical communication and Bioelectricity
Bioelectricity is the physiological study of the brain using electrical current
PSYC220 2
, Galvani
most systematic work on animal electricity on frog legs
contractions occured even when the nerve and muscle were detached
Helmholtz
speed of conduction through nerves, turned out to be slower than the
speed of light
Anatomy
Localization vs Distribution debate:
Whether the functions are localized in a certain area/region of the brain
or it occurs in the whole of the brain.
Fritsch and Hitzig
primary motor cortex in dogs, firrst stimulation of the cortex
Franz Joseph Gall
Phrenology: approach to psychological attributes by measuring the
topology of the skull
Johannes Müller
Doctrine of specific nerve energies: All nerves carry the same basic
message. Different parts of the body interpret it in different ways
Experimental ablations: Removing various parts of animals’ brains and
seeing what the animal can’t do
PSYC220 3
, Falsified phrenology —> Crude localization is present, but finer
localization is complicated.
Contemporary neuroscience
Natural selection and evolution
Functionalism and the inheritance of traits
All of an organism’s characteristics have functional significance.
Even the behavior itself isn’t inherited to the offsprings, the structure (brain) is. It
is what causes the behavior to occur.
Darwin’s functionalism theory:
The principle that characteristics of living organisms perform useful
functions. To understand physiological basis of various behaviors, we must
understand what these behaviors accomplish.
Effects of physiological alterations can be seen in an animal’s behavior. This
means that the process of natural selection can act on behavior indirectly.
Evolution of human brains
The evolution of fruit-bearing trees —> fruit-eating primates —> color vision
The first hominids appeared in Africa: made tools, produced clothing, fire-usage,
dog domestication, hunt, symbolic communication, bipedalism
The evolutionary process produced a primate brain with an abundance of neural
circuits that could be modified by experience
There are some specialized circuits that were necessary —> complex
sounds used for speech
PSYC220 4
