BIOPSYCHOLOGY

Aulia Iskandarsyah
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
You will learn to idenBfy, explain, and apply major concepts in
biological psychology related to:
Neuroanatomy, neural conducBon and synapBc transmission,
sensory and motor systems.
The biopsychology of vision, movement control, Wakefulness,
Sleep, Dreaming, Circadian Rhythms, hunger ; EaBng disorder,
Sex & hormones; organizing and acBvaBng aects, PlasBcity
Learning; Brain Damage , Memory; Memory disorders,
EmoBon & Stress, LateralizaBon & Language, Psychological
disorders of thinking (Schizophrenia) and emoBon (Mood
disorders and Anxiety disorders), and AddicBon
 Textbook:
Kalat, J.W. (2016). Biological Psychology (12th
ed.). Boston : Cengage Learning.
Pinel, J.P.J. (2011). Biopsychology (8th ed.).
New York: Allyn & Bacon.
 Biopsychology is the scienBc
study of the biology of behavior
So
It is a biological approach to the study of psychology
rather than a psychological approach to the study of
biology
 Disciplines of neuroscience
relevant to biopsychology
The study of the structure of the nervous
Neuroanatomy system.

The study of the chemical bases of neural

Neurochemistry acBvity

Neuroendocrinology The study of interacBons between the

nervous system and the endocrine system.

Neuropathology The study of nervous system disorders

The study of the eects of drugs on neural

Neuropharmacology acBvity.

The study of the funcBons and acBviBes of

Neurophysiology the nervous system.
Nerve Cells and Nerve Impulses

Oleh
Aulia Iskandarsyah
 Nervous system controls everything
you do, ranging from walking to
changes in heart rate and breathing to
the most complex kinds of problem
solving
Einsteins brain has an extraordinary prefrontal cortex, which may have contributed to the neurological
substrates for some of his remarkable cogniBve abiliBes. Einsteins parietal lobes are also unusual and
may have provided some of the neurological underpinnings for his visuospaBal and mathemaBcal skills
(Falk, Lepore & Noe, 2012)
 Nervous system
consists of two kinds of
cells

Neurons
receive informaBon Glia
and transmit it to other serve many funcBons
cells
 The Structure of a Neuron
Neurons are disBnguished from other cells by their shape.
The larger neurons have these components: dendrites, a
soma (cell body), an axon, and presynap>c terminals.
 Dendrites are branching bers that get narrower near their ends.
The dendrites surface is lined with specialized synap&c receptors,
at which the dendrite receives informaBon from other neurons.
The greater the surface area of a dendrite, the more informaBon
it can receive.
Some also contain dendri>c spines

The cell body, or soma (Greek for body; pl.: The axon is a thin ber of constant
somata), contains the nucleus, ribosomes, diameter, in most cases longer than the
mitochondria, and other structures found in most dendrites.
cells. The term axon comes from a Greek word
Much of the metabolic work of the neuron occurs meaning axis.
here. The axon is the informaBon sender of the
Cell bodies of neurons range in diameter from 0.005 neuron, conveying an impulse toward other
mm to 0.1 mm in mammals and up to a full neurons or an organ or muscle.
millimeter in certain invertebrates. An axon has many branches, each of which
Like the dendrites, the cell body is covered with swells at its Bp, forming a presynap>c
synapses on its surface in many neurons. terminal, also known as an end bulb or
bouton (French for bu=on).
 An aerent axon brings informaBon into a structure; an
eerent axon carries informaBon away from a structure
GLIA
 Glia (or neuroglia), the other major components of the
nervous system, do not transmit informaBon over long
distances as neurons do, although they do exchange
chemicals with adjacent neurons.

The term glia, derived from a Greek word meaning

glue, reects early invesBgators idea that glia were
like glue that held the neurons together (Somjen,
1988).

Glia are smaller but also more numerous than neurons.

 The brain has several types of glia with
dierent funcBons
The star-shaped astrocytes:
By taking up chemicals released by
axons and then releasing them back
to axons, it helps synchronize the
acBvity of the axons, enabling them
to send messages in waves
Remove waste material created when
neurons die and control the amount
of blood ow to each brain area.
During periods of heightened acBvity
in some brain area, astrocytes dilate
the blood vessels to bring more
nutrients into that area
Release chemicals that modify the
acBvity of neighboring neurons.
 Microglia, very small cells, also
remove waste material as well as
viruses, fungi, and other
microorganisms. In eect, they
funcBon like part of the immune
system
 Oligodendrocytes (OL-i-go-DEN-druh-
sites) in the brain and spinal cord and
Schwann cells in the periphery are
specialized types of glia that build the
myelin sheaths that surround and insulate
certain vertebrate axons.
 Radial glia guide the migraBon of
neurons and their axons and dendrites
during embryonic development. When
embryological development nishes,
most radial glia dierenBate into
neurons.
The Blood-Brain Barrier

Although the brain, like any other

organ, needs to receive nutrients
from the blood, many chemicals
cannot cross from the blood to the
brain (Hagenbuch, Gao, & Meier,
2002).
The Concept of the Synapse
 In 1906, Charles Scoi Sherrington
physiologically demonstrated that
communicaBon between one
neuron and the next diers from
communicaBon along a single
axon.
He inferred a specialized gap
between neurons and introduced
the term synapse to describe it.
Speed of a Reex and Delayed
Transmission at the Synapse
 PostsynapBc PotenBals (PSPs)
PostsynapBc depolarizaBons = Excitatory PSPs
(EPSPs)
PostsynapBc hyperpolarizaBons = Inhibitory
PSPs (IPSPs)
EPSPs make it more likely a neuron will re,
IPSPs make it less likely
PSPs are graded potenBals their size varies

Copyright 2007 by Allyn and Bacon

Temporal and spatial summation
 Spatial
Summation

Copyright 2007 by Allyn and Bacon

 Temporal
Summation

Copyright 2007 by Allyn and Bacon

Copyright 2007 by Allyn and Bacon