PSYB64H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Computational Neuroscience, Behavioral Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience
Chapter 1: What Is Behavioural Neuroscience?
1—1 Neuroscience as an Interdisciplinary Field
•Neuroscience: the scientific study of the brain and nervous system in health and disease
•Neuroscientists want to understand the functions of the brain and nervous system across many
levels of analysis using molecular, cellular, synaptic, network, computational, and behavioural
approaches
•It is as though they zoom in to see the tiniest details, and zoom out for the “bigger picture”
•From most microscopic level and getting larger until most global, the order goes from
molecular, cellular, synaptic, network, to behavioural
•Behavioural neuroscience/biological psychology: study of the biological foundations of
behaviour, emotions, and mental processes
•Primary focus of this textbook
•Subspecialties within behavioural neuroscience:
•cognitive neuroscience - the study of the biological correlates of information processing
•learning
•memory
•decision making
•reasoning
•Social neuroscience explores the interactions between the nervous system and our human
social environment and behaviour
•Computational neuroscience runs parallel to the types of neuroscience described, but draws
from computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, and physics
•There is great need for better understanding of the nervous system
•The Society for Neuroscience (2012) reported that neurological illnesses impact one out of
six Americans annually at a cost of more than $500 billion for treatment, which does not
include the cost of disability
•Delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease on an average of five years would save the United
States $50 billion in annual health care costs
•We also need to understand how the nervous system responds in typical ways to promote well-
being, including better relationships, better parenting, better child development, and better
thinking and learning
1—2 Historical Highlights in Neuroscience
1-2a Ancient Milestones in Understanding the Nervous System
•Archaeological evidence of brain surgery suggests that as long as 7,000 years ago, people tried
to cure others by drilling holes in the skull, a process known as trephining or trepanation
•Some skulls have been located that show evidence of healing following the drilling
procedure
•Hence, we can assume that the patient lived through the procedure and that this was not
a postmortem ritual
•What is less clear is the intent of such surgeries
1-2b The Dawn of Scientific Reasoning
•French philosopher René Descartes (1596 - 1650) for the mind-body dualism
•Mind-body dualism: philosophical perspective put forward by René Descartes in which the
body is mechanistic, whereas the mind is separate and nonphysical
•The mind is neither physical nor accessible to study through the physical sciences
•Monism: a philosophical perspective characteristic of the neurosciences in which the mind
viewed as product of activity in the brain
•The mind is the result of activity in the brain
•The invention of the light microscope by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in 1674 opened up a whole
new level of analysis
•Luigi Galvani experiments with frogs helped establish understanding of the electrical nature of
neural communication
1-2c Modern Neuroscience Begins
•Camillo Golgi, continued to support the concept of the nervous system as a vast,
interconnected network of continuous fibres
•Neuron Doctrine: Santiago Ramón y Cajal, argued that the nervous system was composed of
an array of separate, independent cells
•Cajal used a stain invented by Golgi to prove that Golgi was incorrect
•Localization of function: notion that certain body functions are controlled by certain areas of
the brain
•Phrenology: the misguided effort to correlate character traits with bumps in the skull
•Gall and Spurzheim proposed a more modern view of the brain as the organ of the mind,
composed of interconnected, cooperative, yet relatively independent functional units
1—3 Behavioural Neuroscience Research Methods
1-3a Histology
•Histology: the study of cells and tissues at the microscopic level
•Observes the structure, organization, and connections of individual cells
•The first investigation of nerve tissue under a microscope was done by Anton van
Leeuwenhoek in 1674
•However, the 1800s is when stronger, clearer lens were developed
•To study tissue under a microscope, it must be made thin enough to allow light to pass through
it
•Brain tissue, being watery and fragile, is difficult to thin out
•Hence, the first step in the histological process is to “fix” the tissue—either by freezing
it or by treating it with formalin
•Microtome: device used to make very thin slices of tissue for histology
•Golgi silver stain: developed by Camillo Golgi, best for observing single neurons/a small
number of single cells for detailed structural analysis
•Nissl stain: a stain used to view populations of cell bodies
•Myelin stain: used to trace neural pathways
Document Summary
States billion in annual health care costs: we also need to understand how the nervous system responds in typical ways to promote well- being, including better relationships, better parenting, better child development, and better thinking and learning. 1-3a histology: histology: the study of cells and tissues at the microscopic level, observes the structure, organization, and connections of individual cells, the first investigation of nerve tissue under a microscope was done by anton van. Computerized tomography (ct: german physicist wilhelm r ntgen laid out the groundwork for brain imaging by discovering. Therefore, it cannot help us answer questions about behaviour. 1977: uses powerful magnets to align hydrogen atoms within a magnetic field. Pet scans: mri and fmri machinery also produces images using diffusion tensor imaging (dti): the use of mri technology to trace fibre pathways in the brain by tracking the flow of water.
