Lesson Structure:   Biopsychology 2 – BPS204

There are 7 lessons:

1. Evolution, Genetics and Experience
   • What is biopsychology
   • The organism’s genetic endowment, experience and perception.
   • Adaptation
   • Behavioural genetics
   • The nature nurture debate
   • The human genome
   • Benefits of genetic research
   • Critical policy and ethical issues
2. Research Methods in Biopsychology
   • Behavioural genetics
   • Methods of investigating the brain: insvasive and non invasive
   • Localisation of function
   • Neuroanatomical techniques
   • Psychophysiological measures
   • Other methods
   • Lesions
3. Brain Damage
   • Causes of brain damage
   • Frontal lobe damage
   • Damage to other areas and effects
   • Types of brain damage
   • Case study : Phineas Gage
   • Case study: diagnosing epilepsy
   • Case study: Alzeimer’s disease
4. Recovery from Brain Damage
   • Neuro plasticity
   • Stages of recovery: unresponsiveness, early responses, agitated and confused, higher level responses,
   • Case study: Parkinson’s disease
   • Parkinsons disease symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, stages, etc
   • Drug treatments for parlinson’s disease
   • Complimentary and supportive therapies for Parkinson’s disease
   • Coping with Parkinson’s disease
   • Terminology
5. Drug Dependence and the Brain
   • Drugs
   • Definitions
   • Effects of illegal drugs
   • Other drugs: steroids, barbituates, etc
   • Physiological and psychological effects of drugs: illicits, stimulants
   • Addiction: how drugs work in the brain
   • Central nervous system
6. Memory
   • Models of memory: multistore model, eorking memory model, levels of processing model
   • Levels of processing model
   • Amnesia and types of amnesia
   • Case study: traumatic amnesia
   • Case study: Korsakoff’s syndrome (Alcohol amnesic syndrome)
7. Language
   • The brain and language
   • Paul Broca
   • Carl Wernicke
   • Aphasia and Diphasia
   • Apraxia

PLEASE NOTE:    Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school’s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Learning Goals:      Biopsychology 2 – BPS204

• Understand how evolution, genetics and experience influence behaviour and individual differences.
• Discuss methods of research used to understand the functioning of the nervous system and behaviour.
• Explain different causes of brain damage and the resultant effects on brain functioning.
• Understand neuro-plasticity from the perspective of development, learning and recovery from brain damage.
• Delineate the effects of drugs on the CNS and to explain biopsychological theories of addiction and reward systems in the brain.
• Describe memory structures in the brain, theories of memory storage and evidence from different types of amnesia.
• Describe different models of language localisation and to evaluate evidence for these models.

Practicals:  (Set Tasks)    Biopsychology 2 – BPS204

• Discuss how human behaviour is linked to evolution.
• Explain how dominant traits are passed on to offspring by genetics.
• Describe the relationship between gene expression and the genetic code.
• Consider how studies of identical twins shed light on the development of differences among individuals.
• Explain how CT and PET scans are used to obtain images of the brain.
• Determine what invasive research methods have been employed to understand the brain and behaviour.
• Consider how drugs are used to understand neurotransmitters and their effect on behaviour.
• Explain how gene knockout and gene replacement techniques are used.
• Outline methods of neuropsychological testing.
• Determine how studying animal behaviour in the laboratory can be useful in understanding human behaviour.
• List and define the most common causes of brain damage.
• Explain the significance of neuron death.
• Explain what happens during neural regeneration and neural degeneration.
• Determine the function of slow and rapid neural reorganisation in the mammalian brain.
• Determine the extent of neurotransplantation of replacement parts in the brain.
• Explain the relationship between physical dependence on drugs and withdrawal syndrome.
• Explore the extent to which neural mechanisms may be involved in addiction.
• Determine what medial temporal lobe amnesia tell us about implicit and explicit memory.
• Consider cerebral dominance through language lateralisation and left and right-handedness.
• Consider evidence that suggests that the hemispheres of split-brain patients function independently.
• Identify what we now know about lateralisation of function in the left and right hemispheres.
• Evaluate the Wernicke-Geschwind model of cortical localisation of language.

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