Biopsychology: Scientific understanding of aspects of behaviour and mental

processes from the perspective of brain and genetic makeup

Neuroscience and Biopsychology: Different or same?

❖ Major divisions of Biopsychology:
➢ Physiological Psychology:Neural correlates of behaviour by manipulating
neural activities
➢ Psychopharmacology: Effects of different drugs on brain and behaviour
➢ Neuropsychology: Psychological effects of brain damage (clinical cases)
➢ Cognitive neuroscience: Neural basis of cognition (Brain imaging techniques)
➢ Comparative Psychology:Comparing species to understand genetics and
adaptiveness of human behaviour
Physiological Psychology Removing hippocampus in rats to see the memory effects

Psychopharmacology Improving memory of alzheimer's patients by

administering drugs and improving the function of the
neurotransmitter acetylcholine

Neuropsychology Broca’s aphasia and overuse of alcohol producing

damaged memory especially the remembering the recent
events (retrograde amnesia)

Cognitive neuroscience Frontal part of the brain activity is associated with

decision making, language is lateralized in the left part of
the brain

Comparative Psychology Species of birds that cache their seeds have big
hippocampus indicating its involvement in locational
memory
Brain/Genetic bases of behaviour/cognition
❖ Are the behavioural/psychological abnormalities such as Schizophrenia,
parkinsons, depression, dyslexia, autism etc. have genetic expressions?
❖ Genetic linkage to personality, sexual preferences and spirituality (Mustanski et al.,
2005; Comings, Gonzales, Saucier, Johnson, & MacMurray, 2000).
❖ Phenylketonuria causing decline in cognitive functions and psychiatric disorders?
❖ If we go by the logic of evolutionary perspective of psychology, shouldn’t be the
case that deadly diseases should become less and less common and then get
extinct?
❖ Sickle cell anaemia: Why it is expressed differently in different geographical
regions?
 Genetic-environmental interaction?

Tienari et al. (2004) study on Schizophrenia

❖ Of adoptees whose biological mothers had schizophrenia (high genetic risk) and
who were raised in disturbed family environments, 36.8% were likely to develop
schizophrenia.
❖ Of adoptees whose biological mothers had schizophrenia (high genetic risk) and
who were raised in healthy family environments, 5.8% were likely to develop
schizophrenia.
❖ Of adoptees with a low genetic risk (whose mothers did not have schizophrenia)
and who were raised in disturbed family environments, 5.3% were likely to
develop schizophrenia.
❖ Of adoptees with a low genetic risk (whose mothers did not have schizophrenia)
and who were raised in healthy family environments, 4.8% were likely to develop
schizophrenia
Brain bases of behaviour/cognition
❖ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00406-019-00981-7
❖ https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01489/full

Basic building blocks of the nervous system

❖ Neuron cells: Active carrier of afferent and efferent information

➢ Sensory neurons: Carrier of information from sensory receptors to the brain
➢ Motor neurons: Carrier of information from the brain to the body parts
➢ Interneurons: Integration of sensory and motor information
❖ Glial Cells: Produce Myelin sheath for smooth flow of neuronal information, active
in cleaning cellular debris to prevent blood-brain barrier (Multiple sclerosis)
How does a neuron function?

More than 100 billions Neurons

are there in human brain
Major parts of neurons
❖ Axons: Long thread like extension of a nerve cell communicating information
❖ Dendrites: A short-branched extension of nerve cells receiving information
❖ Myelin Sheath: Smooth insulation around axons producing rapid movement of
nerve impulse; multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder is caused by the
progressive degeneration of myelin sheath
❖ Synaptic vesicles: Contains, releases/reuptakes neurotransmitters
❖ Neurotransmitters: Endogenous chemical enabling neurotransmission
➢ Agonist Vs antagonist drugs used by pharmacologists

❖ Synapse: A place of communication between two neurons

Communication of neurons
❖ Resting potential: Neurons are at rest. Number of negatively charged ions are
more within the cell membrane than outside, maintaining the potential between -60
to -70 microvolt.
Communication of neurons
❖ Graded potential: A basic signalling of an external stimulus reaching dendrites.
This message may or may not cross the threshold level to produce action potential
Communication of neurons
❖ Action potential: A signalling of an external stimulus crossing the threshold level
and thus more positively charged ions permeate the membrane. This cause electric
impulse to cross the cell membrane reaching axons and further to the dendrites of
other neurons
❖ Conduction of an action potential can be as fast as 270 miles per hour
How the nerve impulses correspond to our graded sensations?
The nervous system
❖ Central Nervous System: The brain and the Spinal cord
❖ Spinal cord: Relay centre for afferent and efferent neurons, 30 vertebrae, upper
the injury greater the loss

The Brain

Fore brain Brain stem

Cerebral cortex/lobe, thalamus, Midbrain Hindbrain

hypothalamus, limbic system and (Reticular formation, (Medula, Pons, &
pituitary system Substantia Nigra, Ventral Cerebellum)
Tegmental Area)
The nervous system
❖ Peripheral Nervous System: Bundles of axons connecting Central Nervous
System to the body parts and the sense organs

The Peripheral Nervous System

Somatic NS Autonomic NS
(Voluntary actions) (Involuntary actions)

Sympathetic NS Parasympathetic NS
Use energy Conserve energy
The Brain: Lateralization
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHqDf8wfABM
 How far it is lateralized?

https://www.learner.org/courses/neuroscience/common_includes/si_flowplayer.html?pid=2377
Forebrain
Forebrain constitute primarily the cortical areas and a few important sub-cortical
areas such as thalamus, limbic system and pituitary system.
Fore brain
❖ Hypothalamus, hippocampus and amygdala constitute together the limbic system
Cortices/lobes
❖ Frontal lobe/cortex: Reasoning, emotions, language and motor control. It contains
the motor cortex and the prefrontal cortex. Broca’s area fall in the prefrontal cortex.
❖ Example of Broca’s aphasia: “Mother watch garden. Cat, butterfly run. Ocean
big people boat”. (Nouns and verbs preserved, sense of prepositions and articles
lost. These people are aware of their weaknesses.
Cortices/lobes
❖ Parietal lobe/cortex: Sensory information processing, the spatial information
processing, sense of heat cold pain etc.

❖ Damage of left parietal area can cause reading and writing problems and also
difficulty in locating things whereas damage to the right parietal part can cause
problem in locating the right part of your body. Example??
Cortices/lobes
❖ Temporal lobe/cortex: Hearing, memory, emotions and some aspects of language
processing. Wernicke’s area is situated in parietal area involved in language
comprehension
❖ Example of damage to the Wernicke’s area “Last night I broke a river. Tunnels
were running the fields. My friend had a fried table and slept whole night with
ocean on.” Such persons can repeat the spoken sentences or even words, neither
can they read and write. They can’t even name the common objects and will
always substitute with incorrect sound or words.
Cortices/lobes

❖ Left temporal damage: Inability to understand spoken words

❖ Right temporal damage: Recognize speech but inability to get the organization of
sound such as melodies, rhythm and tones
Cortices/lobes
❖ Occipital lobe/cortex: visual processing abilities

❖ All the four cortices constitute only 20-25% of the total cortex area. Rest is
occupied by the association cortex
❖ The association cortex integrate information from sensory channels and further
translates those into motor output. It is also involve in higher cognitive functions
such as thinking, reasoning, remembering, language and facial recognition.
Thalamus, hypothalamus and the limbic system
❖ Thalamus is called a relay centre of the brain connecting all the sensory
organs except olfaction
❖ Hypothalamus is very small (one cubic centimeter) yet critical for so many
important functions
➢ Regulates ANS
➢ Maintains homeostasis level
➢ Regulates eating (overeating vs starving); Bulimia and anorexia nervosa
➢ Regulates motivating behaviour such as mating, emotional outburst
Limbic system
❖ Nuclei from thalamus, hypothalamus and cortical areas are interconnected forming a
ring-like structure called the “limbic system”. It includes “olfactory bulb”, “hippocampus”,
“amygdala” and “cingulate gyrus”.
❖ Hippocampus: Involved in the formation of memories and learning, dysfunctional
hippocampus can result in different kinds of amnesia
➢ The retrograde amnesia
➢ Anterograde amnesia: The case of Henry Molaison (1953)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Od5DrdPA4

❖ Amygdala: Involved in the experience of emotion and in trying emotional meaning to

our memories, also in emotional control

Since amygdala controls emotional behaviour, can it be assumed that criminals have
dysfunctional amygdala? Andrian Raine’s work is mostly on criminal behaviour
Association cortex (AC): Frontal lobe
❖ Prefrontal cortex is labelled as the frontal association cortex
❖ It is interconnected with thalamus, visual, auditory, somatosensory cortex as well as with some areas of
parietal and temporal lobe
❖ Damage to the prefrontal AC can cause
➢ Bipolar symptoms
➢ Lack of restraints or impulsivity
➢ Immune to social relationships
➢ Sexual promiscuity
Issues of morality
➢ Decrease in spontaneous talking
➢ Not taking initiative
➢ Reduced emotional expressions
❖ Kolb and Wishaw (1980) noted that it can also impact specific intelligence of a person such as planning
and formulating, loss of flexibility, voluntary eye gaze problem (Teuber, 1964) and loss of sequential
memory (Milner, 1974)
Association cortex (AC): Parietal lobe
❖ Located behind primary somatosensory cortex
❖ Connected with visual, auditory, somatosensory cortex and the thalamus
❖ Sends output to the frontal and temporal association areas, thalamus and the cerebellum controlling and
coordinating movement
❖ Lateralization of brain is very distinctively noted such as symbolic functions associated with language and
arithmetic vs. image and spatial processing
➢ Study by Heilman and Watson (1977) proposed that right parietal AC damage can cause
“contralateral neglect
➢ Study by Kolb and Whishaw (1980) noted that left parietal AC can affect reading, writing, inability in
doing simple arithmetic, inability to distinguish from right to left, and compromised verbal short-term
memory (Digit span)
➢ Either the left or right damage can cause perceptual problem called “ tactile agnosia with no loss of
touch”
Association cortex (AC): Temporal lobe
❖ Wernicke area, hippocampus and amygdala fall within temporal AC
❖ Auditory agnosia
❖ Visual agnosia with no visual damage
❖ Impaired attention: Difficulty in selecting and focusing on visual as well as auditory
stimuli
❖ Language pathology
❖ Loss of memory: Anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia (Milner et al.,
1968)
Midbrain
❖ Reticular formation (ARAS): A bunch of short to long nerve fibres and neurons
starting from medulla to medulla, extending in the forebrain as well as the
hindbrain, primarily involved in the regulation of sleep/wakefulness cycle, arousal,
alertness and motor activity
❖ Substantia Nigra and the Ventral Tegmental Area: Production of dopamine; both
are critically involved in movement, mood, reward addiction
❖ Dysfunctional Substantia Nigra can cause Parkinson’s disease
Hindbrain
❖ Medulla Oblongata: Controls ANS such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure,
coughing and sneezing
❖ Pons: Similar functions as that of the reticular formation
❖ Cerebellum: Motor balance, coordination and procedural learning
What are the evidences of the lateralization of brain?