OUTLINE Historical Overview Scientific Method Research Ethics Chapter 1 What is Behavioral Neuroscience Neuroscience Multidisciplinary study of the nervous system Behavioral Neuroscience Branch of psychology that studies the relationship between the brain and behavior Many Interconnected Levels of Analysis Brain intervention Brain Variables Correlations Behavioral intervention Behavioral Variables Historical Highlights Psychobiology Biological Psychology Behavioral Neuroscience A Brief History Trepanation The International Trepanation Advocacy Group ITAG A Brief History Ancient Egyptians Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus oldest known medical writing A Brief History Ancient Greeks Men ought to know that from nothing less but the brain comes joys delights laughter sorrows grief despondency and lamentations And by this in an especial manner we acquire wisdom and knowledge and see and hear And by the same organ we become mad and delirious and fears and terrors assail us All these things we endure from the brain when it is not healthy Hippocrates On the Sacred Disease A Brief History Ancient Greeks Galen 130 200 AD Animal dissections and study of gladiator injuries Nervous system is a network of fluid filled interconnected tubes and chambers Fluid in ventricles plays important role in transmitting messages to and from the brain The Reflex According to Descartes Pineal gland This idea was disproven by Galvani 1780 who showed that the nervous system operated by electrical transmission Electricity and the nervous system Luigi Galvani 1737 1798 Emil du Bois Reymond 1818 1896 Spinal Reflexes Francois Magendie 1783 1855 Charles Bell 1774 1842 Spinal Reflexes Spinal cord has two parallel pathways Sensory Nerves Motor Nerves Basic structural unit of the brain Camillo Golgi nervous system consists of vast interconnected web of continuous fibers Santiago Ramon y Cajal nervous system composed of array of separate independent cells Cajal won mostly Established the Neuron Doctrine Not proven until development of EM in the 1950s Localization of Function Phrenology Franz Josef Gall Johann Casper Spurzheim Gage s Personality Before the Accident responsible intelligent socially well adapted After the Accident intelligence speech learning movement intact no sense of responsibility no respect for social conventions profane irreverent The equilibrium between his intellectual faculty and animal propensities had been destroyed Gage s physician Gage was no longer Gage Gage s friends Localization of Function Phineas Gage 1848 Broca 1861 localization of language Broca s area Fritsch and Hitzig 1870 localization of motor function in the cortex What is Science Method of acquiring knowledge Empiricism use direct observation If it were not for observation there would be little reason for choosing between scientific theories and fictional accounts between science and pseudoscience between warranted assertions and fanciful Types of Observation Naturalistic observation Case study Survey Experiment Theory integrates and interprets many observations to explain a phenomenon Hypothesis Testable yes no prediction that is used to guide further research Example Dopamine theory of schizophrenia No Final Answers Correlational Studies Systematic research design that does not manipulate but rather observes whether two variables are connected Correlational study A causes B Observed frontal lobe impairment A B B causes A Confounding variable Drug use or physical abuse causes both A and B Violent or aggressive behavior What is an Experiment Research Design characterized by Random Assignment Control of extraneous confounding variables Manipulation of a condition Measurement of changes from the manipulation Experimental Group Receives the manipulation Control Group Does not receive the manipulation What is an experiment Independent variable IV manipulation of a condition e g exercise Dependent variable DV measurement of changes from the manipulation e g weight loss EXPERIMENTAL STUDY Induced frontal lobe impairment IV causes DV IV DV Because the experimenter induces the brain impairment it is not confounded with drug use or physical abuse Violent or aggressive behavior Experimental Designs Unlike correlational designs they permit cause and effect inferences May lack generalizability from lab to real world RESEARCH ETHICS Research with Human Participants Must minimize pain discomfort risk Informed Consent Deception only if necessary Debriefing Institutional Oversight IRB Why animals Controlled environment Homogenous history Briefer development and lifespan Some experiments cannot ethically be completed in people Benefits of Research with Animal Subjects Virtually every advance in medical science in the twentieth century from antibiotics and vaccines to anti depressant drugs and organ transplants has been achieved either directly or indirectly through the use of animals in laboratory experiments American Medical Association 1992 Animal Research Guidelines Institutional Oversight IACUC As few subjects as possible Humane Housing Careful attention to health welfare Minimization of discomfort and stress