Divisions of Biopsychology

Physiological
Psychology
SO: neural mechanisms of behaviour through
invasive, direct manipulation of the brain in
controlled experiments
Mostly lab animals: surgical
and electrical methods of
brain manipulation
More pure research:
emphasis on
theories than
practical benefits
Study contributions of hippocampus to
memory by surgically removing the
hippocampus in rats and assessing
ability to perform various memory tasks
Psycho-
pharmacology
SO: effects of drugs on brain and behaviour Animals and humans Mostly applied:
therapeutic drugs or
reduce drug abuse

Improve memory of Alzheimers
patients by administering drugs that
increase the levels of the
neurotransmitter Acetylcholine
Neuro-
psychology
SO psychological effects of brain damage in
human patients looking at individuals who
have suffered disease, stroke, etc that have
created damage
- Focused on cerebral cortex, because it is
most likely damaged by accidents or
surgery or disease
- look at their deficits and make relationship
between damage and impaired cognitive
processes
Humans: almost exclusively
case studies and quasi-
experimental studies
because of ethical concerns

The most applied:
always about
benefiting a patient

Shown that patients with alcohol
produced brain damage have particular
difficulty in remember recent events
Psycho-
physiology
SO relation between physiological activity and
psychological processes, structure and
function, in human subjects by non-invasive
physiological recording
Humans: non-invasive
methods, ex. EEG
Both pure and
applied
Familiar faces elicit the usual changes in
autonomic NS activity even when
patients with brain damage report they
dont recognize a face
Cognitive
Neuroscience
SO neural mechanisms of human cognition,
relation between cognition and brain function,
largely through use of functional brain
imaging fMRI
Mostly humans because of
focus on cognition, non-
invasive methods
Brain imaging technology to observe
changes that occur in various parts of
the brain while human volunteers
perform memory tasks
Comparative
Psychology
SO evolution, genetics, and adaptiveness of
behaviour, largely through use of the
comparative method more generally the
biology of behaviour rather than specific
neural mechanisms
Two subfields:
1. evolutionary psychology: focuses on
understanding behaviour by considering
its likely evolutionary origins
2. Behavioural genetics: genetic influences
on behaviour
Lots of animals
ethological research: study
of animal behaviour in
natural environment
Species of birds that cache their seeds
tend to have big hippocampi,
confirming that the hippocampus is
involved in memory for location