Chapter 1 What is biopsychology?

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Psychology

• Scientific study of overt actions

and internal mental and emotional

processes

Neuroscience

• Scientific study of the nervous

system

Biopsychology

• A division of neuroscience that is

the scientific study of the biology

of behavior

“Biopsychologists are

neuroscientists who bring to

their research a knowledge of

behavior and of the methods

of behavioral research. It is

their behavioral orientation

and expertise that make their

contribution to neuroscience

unique.” -Pinel

1. Critical Thinking

• The identification and

evaluation of evidence to guide

decision making and what to do

and believe

Examples

• Judge the credibility of a source

• Critique the methodology of a

research study

• Critique the claims made by a

research study

• Compare and contrast different

research studies

• Decide the usefulness of a

concept to one’s life

2. Attribution

• The process of explaining

yours and others’ behavior

• Explaining the reasons why

you or someone acts the way

they act

Ultimatum Game

• You have $10

• You have to offer DM2 some amount of money ($0-10)

• You will receive the amount of money that is offered

• If you deem the offer to be unfair, you can reject it and neither you or DM1 will get any $

Ultimatum Game

• Think for a moment and

decide on a rejection threshold

– that is, write down a

minimum amount that you

would accept without rejecting

DM1’s offer

• Do not show it to anyone else

Is there a biological basis for generosity ?

Zak, Stanton, & Ahmadi (2007)

Introduction

• In 2005 over $260 billion was

given to U.S. Charities

• In 2005 65 million helped

volunteer charities

Introduction

Generosity: offering more to

another than he or she expects

or needs.

Altruism: helping another at a

cost to oneself

• Someone may give a homeless

person 25 cents (altruism) or

ten dollars (altruism and

generosity)

Introduction

Empathy: The ability to

understand and be aware of

the feelings, thoughts, and

experiences of another person

• Giving charitably activates

brain regions associated with

reward centers and empathy

(Moll et al., 2006)

Introduction

Oxytocin (OT): A

neurotransmitter and hormone

synthesized in the

hypothalamus

• Facilitates attachment

formation to offspring (humans

and nonhumans), sexual

partners, and strangers

* Increases trust and

reciprocity

Specific Research Question

Will elevated levels of OT increase generosity?

Method

• 68 male college students

(average age = 21.8 yrs)

• ½ DM1’s infused with

Oxtocin intranasally

• ½ DM1’s infused with saline

(placebo)

• Randomly assigned to dyads

Method

•Did not interact with partner,

decisions were made at

computers

• All participants first

completed the UG then the DG

Ultimatum Game (UG)

• All participants wrote down a

rejection threshold before

beginning

• DM1: $10

• DM2: Rejected or accepted

the offer

• Requires “perspective taking”

by DM1

• Measure of generosity

Method

Dictator Game (DG)

• DM1: $10

• DM2: Must accept whatever

is offered

• ALL participants played the

role of DM1

• Does not require “perspective

taking”

• Measure of altruism

Method

Dependent Variables

(Measurements)

1. Amount of money offered in

the Ultimatum Game

2. Amount of money offered in

the Dictator Game

Infusion of OT intranasally

increased monetary offers by

21% in the Ulitmatum Game

• Infusion of OT intranasally

did not significantly the

monetary offers in the Dictator

Discussion

• Stingy offers activate a brain

region associated with disgust

• OT selectively affected the

understanding of how another

would experience a negative

emotion, and seemed to have

motivated a desire to reduce

DM2’s experienced negativity

Empathy-Generosity

Hypothesis

OT → Increased empathy →

Increased generosity

Alternate Explanations?

• Decreased cognitive capacity?

• OT increases risk aversion?

What is the connection between the

mind and the brain?

Dualism

• The belief that the brain and

mind are different kinds of

substance that exist

independently

Materialism

• Everything that exists is

material or physical – mental

events don’t exist

Mentalism

• Only the mind exists, the

physical world is a

manifestation of the mind

Identity Position

The view that mental processes

and brain processes are the

same thing, described in

different terms

“Stimulation of any brain area provokes an experience,

and any experiences evokes brain activity. As far as we

can tell, you cannot have mental activity without brain

activity.” –Kalat, p. 6

Mind-Brain Connection

• The mind is brain activity

1. Physiological Psychology

• Study of the neural

mechanisms of behavior by

directly manipulating the

nervous system of nonhuman

animals (e.g., lesions, invasive

recording)

• Lecture 1_Physiological

Psyc_Rat Amygdala 1

(Time 0:00, 1:05, 2:35)

• Lecture 1_Physiological

Psyc_Rat Amygdala 2

Neuroscientists have found that other animals are capable of

making similar instinctive safety decisions. In a study published

online the week of Nov. 29 in the Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences, Univ. of Washington researcher Jeansok

Kim demonstrates that rats weigh their odds of safely retrieving

food pellets placed at varying distances from a perceived predator.

"When animals go out to forage, they're taking a risk," says Kim, a

UW psychology professor. "They're leaving the safety of their

nests, venturing out where there may be predators that could eat

them."

2. Psychopharmacology

• Study of the effects of drugs

on the brain and behavior

3. Neuropsychology

• Study of the psychological

effects of brain damage in

humans

• The Case of Jimmie G., the

Man Frozen in Time

4. Psychophysiology

• Studies the relation between

physiological activity and

psychological processes in

human subjects

• Non-invasive techniques

(EEGs, muscle tension, HR,

How many of you have ever experienced stress or

anxiety when taking a test?

Did you notice how your body was reacting

physiologically?

Holroyd, Westbrook, Wolf, and Badhorn (1978)

Introduction

Test Anxiety:

* Cognitive Component: Feelings of inadequacy, helplessness,

worry, anticipation of loss of status or esteem, self-critical

attentional focus (self-preoccupation)

* Physiological Component: State of physiological arousal

Previous Research

• Has not established a specific relationship between physiological

arousal and cognitive functions of test anxiety

• The assumption: test-anxious individuals experience higher

levels of physiological arousal.

Is this really true?

• However, previous studies only assess arousal responses of test-

takers from self-report measures

*Confound: increased attention to arousal cues

Research Questions

1. What are the physiological indices of the cognitive aspects of

test anxiety?

2. How do physiological responses to anxiety affect test performance?

3. Do test-anxious and non-anxious individuals differ in their

physiological responses to high-stakes testing?

Method

Participants

• 72 F, enrolled in intro psyc

• Test Anxiety Scale

administered at beginning of

quarter

• High test-anxious (n = 36)

• Low test-anxious (n = 36)

Procedure

• Participants sat at a table,

electrodes were attached,

subjects sat for 12 min. to

acclimate to environment

Experimental Conditions

1. Evaluative (measure of intelligence, “should be easy”

2. Nonevaluative (experimenters unconcerned w/performance –

they will be difficult)

Dependent Variable

Time to solve 8 difficult anagrams

broni _________

ueylbaj _________

Physiological Measurements

• Skin conductance

• Spontaneous skin responses

• Heart Rate

• Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

– the naturally occurring beat-

to-beat changes

Cognitive Measurements

• State anxiety

• Worry

Results

• High test-anxious individuals had higher levels of state

anxiety

• High test-anxious women performed worse than low test-

anxious individuals in these conditions:

*Evaluative

*Nonevaulative

Research Questions

1. What are the physiological

indices of test anxiety?

Results

• Only HRV was correlated

with test anxiety

Research Questions

1. What are the physiological

indices of test anxiety?

2. How do physiological responses

to anxiety affect test performance?

Results

• Only HRV was correlated

with test anxiety

• HRV was significantly

correlated to test performance

for high-anxious women

• Increased levels of HRV were

associated with lower levels of

anxiety and faster anagram

solution times

Research Questions

3. Do test-anxious and non-

anxious individuals differ in their

physiological responses to

evaluative (high-stakes) testing?

Results

• The only measure that

successfully differentiated high

and low test-anxious women

was HRV

Discussion

• HRV may be an physiological index of test anxiety (and predicts

the deficits in cognitive activity associated with test anxiety)

What Does That Mean?

• People who have low test anxiety may still experience high

degrees of physiological arousal. Thus, deficits in cognitive and

attentional processes do not arise merely from maladaptive levels

of autonomic arousal.

• Test anxiety can be conceptualized as a cognitive and

attentional phenomenon, not merely a state of elevated

physiological arousal

Bradley and colleagues (2010)

The Heart

• Large role in emotion generation (our bodies generate

emotions…not just the other way around)

The heart operates as a primary and consistent generator of rhythmic

information patterns that affect the function of the brain and body as a

whole.” (Bradley et al., 2010)

• Signals traveling from the heart to the brain affect autonomic

signals in the brain stem then cascade up to limbic system and

cortex

What is Heart Rate Variability?

• Encodes info about heart-brain interactions

• Higher levels of HRV correlated with higher performance on

cognitive tasks (Thayer et al., 2009)

• Pattern of wave also important

• Frustration – erratic HRV

• Positive emotions – ordered HRV rhythm

Implications

• If you can change the HRV, you can improve cognition activity

and emotional states and improve and performance on exams

5. Cognitive Neuroscience

• Focuses on the neural basis

of cognitive processes

(learning, memory, attention,

perception)

What is the neurochemical activity that

underwrites stress during exams?

How can this affect performance?

Vedhara and colleaugues (2000)

Research Question

• Does cortisol affect memory

recall?

Cortisol

• Hormone secreted by the

adrenal glands

• The “stress hormone”

*Fight or flight

*Stress-related changes

Cortisol

• Small amounts beneficial

*A quick burst of energy for

survival reasons

*Heightened memory

functions

*A burst of increased

immunity

*Lower sensitivity to pain

High Levels of Cortisol & Cognitive Functions

• Acute increases – deficits in attention and memory

• Cortisol induced participants suffered memory impairment

(Newcomer et al., 999)

• High-cortisol level subjects had impairment on divided

attention (Bohnen et al., 1998)

Method

• 60 undergraduate students

• Cortisol levels measured prior

to and during real-life exam

• 3 cognitive tasks

*Memory recall

*Selective attention

*Divided attention

Results

• Cortisol levels decreased

during exam period

• Increased memory recall

6. Comparative Psychology

• Studies the behavior of different

species to understand the evolution,

genetics, and adaptiveness of behavior

• Look to other species to understand

human behavior

Divisions of Biopsyc coming together

Converging Operations

• Integrating multiple divisions of biopsyc to understand the

biology-behavior connection

Jimmie G.

Korsakoff ’s Syndrome – severe memory loss

• Commonly occurs in alcoholics

• Alcohol believed to be the cause

• Experiments (on rats) revealed alcohol not responsible, rather

Thiamine (vitamin b) deficiency

*Similar patterns of brain damage

How can this help us?

Divisions of Biopsyc coming together

Human and Nonhuman Subjects

Do you think the following research scenarios are ethical or

unethical in nonhuman subjects?

• Inducing addiction to methamphedamine or cocaine to study the

neurological effects of the drugs?

• Cause damage to or remove structures in the brain

• Sever nerves to study the mechanisms of sensation

• Test the effects of new drugs that may cause damage to an

animal’s body

Class Discussion

Do you support or oppose research on nonhuman subjects?

If you support it, what would be your criteria for ethical

research?

“Researchers cannot escape the logic

that if the animals we observe are

reasonable models of our own most

intricate actions, then they must be

respected as we would respect our own

sensibilities.” –Ulrich, 1991, p. 197

Research Ethics

• All research is regulated by

independent committees that

enforce strict ethical guidelines

http://www.apa.org/science/lead

ership/care/guidelines.aspx

1. Justification of the Research

2. Personnel

3. Care and housing of animals

4. Acquisition of animals

5. Experimental procedures

6. Field research

7. Educational use of animals

1. Underlying mechanisms of behavior are similar across species

and sometimes easier to study in nonhuman species

2. We are interested in animals for their own sake

3. What we learn about animals sheds light on human evolution

4. Certain experiments cannot use humans because of legal or

ethical restrictions

Advantages of Humans

1. Follow instructions

2. Report subjective experiences

3. Less expensive (seriously)

4. Have a human brain

“The brains of humans differ

from the brains of other

mammals primarily in their

overall size and the extent of

their cortical development. In

other words, the differences

between the brains of humans

and those of related species are

more quantitative than

qualitative, and thus many of the

principles of human brain

function can be derived from the

study of nonhumans.” -Pinel

Advantages of Nonhumans

1. Brain–behavior connection is simpler

2. Insights gained from a comparative approach

3. Possible to conduct research that cannot be done on humans

Nonhuman Subjects

• Rats most commonly used. Mice, cats, dogs, and nonhuman primates also used

Chapter 1 What is biopsychology?

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