-Goals of science/research is to explain the phenomena under study. This can be done through generalization, the deduction of general laws using the results from experiments, or reduction, the use of simple phenomena to explain more complicated phenomena.Roots of physiological psych.-3000 BC was the dawn of neurology when the first descriptions of the brain and brain injuries where done. -Hippocrates--the father of medicine, said its not the heart in charge of the mind, but its the brain. The hippocratic corpus provided the 1st statement about the brain and as a continuous center of the body. While Aristotle disagreed claiming the heart was the organ that resulted in the mind and the brain helped tame it, Galen agreed from his research of dissections resulting in anatomical descriptions of nerves and more. -Descartes (during renaissance) was a 17th century philosopher that supported dualism, and believed the mind was a uniquly human attribute that is not a subject to the laws of the universe. He was also the first to suggest a connection between the mind and its physical housing, the brain. ● His believed the world to be mechanistic and viewed human behavior in terms of reflective mechanisms elicited by environmental stimuli.● He proposed the idea that the mind interacted with the physical body through the pineal body with its control of hydraulic pressure within the brain.-Era of cortical location● Gall and phrenology- believed individual development of cortex was reflected in bumps and depressions in the skull● Muller, doctrine of specific nerve energy/Localization of function-believed specific nerves carry messages from different sensations. ○ Flourens used ablation (the removal of discrete brain areas) of animals to assess the role of brain parts in control of behavior. However, the problem is that you never know if the effect is due to one piece of the whole system. ○ Broca and cortical location of function: demonstrated that cancer cells can spread through blood by looking at his patient “Tan/Leburgne” who was paralyzed on the right side of his body, he progressively lost control of left. Tan showed major speech deficiet (aphasia) following a stroke. ■ His autopsy of Tans brain noted damage to the left hemisphere. The location, Broca’s area, is important for the production of speech. ● Fitsch and Hitzig--applied electrical stimuli to cortex in dogs to elicit muscle contractions on opposite side of the body--discovered connection between motor cortex and actual muscles is contralateral. Also, they identified the primary motor cortex of the brain, that is the region that activates discrete muscles contralaterally. Natural selection and Evolution (a lot of the terms/information is incorrect, especially the definition of evolution, but they are in the textbook). ● Functionalism--belief that characteristics of an organism display some useful function○ EX: hands--allow for grasping. EX: color can allow for blending in. EX: color vision allows detection of ripe vs rotten fruit.● Natural selection--suggest that characteristics (including behavior) that allow an organism to reproduce more successfully are passed on to offspring. (a consequence is that these characteristics will become more prominent in a species) ● Evolution--the gradual change in structure and physiology as a result of natural selection.● Human evolution (hominids: human-like apes that first appeared in Africa)○ Humans evolved from the first hominids, and evolved all these characteristics that enabled them to fit their environment and successfully compete (including color vision, bipedalism, and a large brain to accommodate for language).Ethics of animal research: physiological psychologists study animals to learn of the relation between physiology and behavior. ● Animal studies protected by APA guidelines and are justified on the basis of minimized pain and discomfort, the value of the information gained, and the importance of science for understanding ourselves and animals. ● Animal rights activists will target the use of animals in research, even though only .3% ofanimals are used in research.Neuroscience Careers: ● Behavioral neuroscientist--study the physiology of behavioral phenomena in animals. Most have earned doctoral degrees in psyc or neuroscience.● Neurologists--physicians who diagnose and treat nervous system diseases. Cells of nervous system: Hard to study due to size and consistency of neuron.● Parkinje cells were the first identified neurons● Niss 1 staining: makes neurons look purplish making the soma and nucleus visible. ● Golgi staining: allows us to label cell body and see axons and dendrites. ○ “Golgi” published the first paper on silver nitrate staining method. he believed in reticular theory of the brain (all nerves are connected to each other like a net of a spider web)● Cajal and neuronal doctrine: improved the golgi stain and said nerve cells were independent elements, in which there was no continuum between cells. He also found no evidence for reticular theory, no anastomosis between axons and dendrites. Sherringston--concept of synapse as a place of connection between neurons.Neuron partsSoma--cell body, contains nucleusDendrite--receives information from other neuronsSynapse--junction between terminal button axon and the membrane of another neuronAxon--conveys info from soma of a neuron to its terminal buttonsTerminal buttons--bud at the end of branch of an axon that forms a synapse with another neuron and sends that other neuron information. neurotransmitters--chemicals released by terminal buttons to send an excitatory or inhibitory message to another neuron.Neuron types: ● According to function: sensory neurons bring info from outside of body to the CNS interneurons(which connect cells) in the brain, which allow the ability to provide more levels of specific behaviors. Motor Neurons send signals from the brain and spinal cord to muscles.● According to number of neurites: unipolar neurons have one stalk that splits into 2 branches, bipolar neurons have one axon and one dendritic tree, and multipolar neurons have one axon and many dendritic branches. ● According to Shape: pyramidal cells (many neurites) and stellate cells (minimal neurites, no long