Article 3

The Biological Perspective

       One of the many perspectives in psychology is the biological perspective. This perspective is all about the biological part of psychology. It deals with how the brain functions but more importantly how our brain influences our behavior. Psychologists who are oriented to this perspective look for connections between brain activity and human emotions, behavior, mental processes etc. By studying the brain we can understand where our behavior comes from. For example some behavior is transmitted genetically or a person started behaving differently after an accident and it turns out that they had damages a part of their brain. Thanks to the biological perspective many theories about mental processes, medical conditions, behavior and even the brain itself have arisen.

       The nervous system is the control center of our body. It controls every movement whether is voluntary or involuntary, our mental processes, our actions and everything that we do. The nervous systems cells are called neurons which are messenger cells. Neurons send impulses all over our body and it is estimated that we have more than 100 billion neurons. An impulse inters the neuron through its dendrites which are like branches that spread out to the axon terminals. The impulse then travels along the axon and the message goes to the axon terminals where it is passed to the dendrites of the next cell. The nervous system is divided into the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system includes the spinal cord and the brain. The peripheral nervous system is outside of the central nervous system and it transmits impulses from the central nervous system out to the rest of the body. There are many parts of the brain all of which have a different ´purpose. The hind brain holds the medulla which is responsible for involuntary actions like breathing and heart rate. It also holds the pons which is responsible for body movement and the cerebellum which is responsible for balance and coordination. Then there is the midbrain which contains the reticular activating system who’s involved in attention sleep and arousal. The forebrain contains the thalamus which transmits sensory information. The hypothalamus is also in the forebrain. The hypothalamus is involved in behavior and many psychological functions. It also regulates body temperature. The limbic system is what controls learning, memory, emotion, hunger sex and aggression. The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain. It is 70% of the weight of the brain and its surface is called the cerebral cortex.  This part of the brain is divided in two hemispheres and what connects them is called the corpus callosum. The hemispheres work in opposite ways meaning that the left brain controls the right side of the body and the right brain controls the left side of the body. Each hemisphere is divided in four parts which are the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe and temporal lobe. The primary visual area is located in the occipital lobe. The hearing/auditory area is in the temporal lobe. Skin senses are projected by the sensory cortex and the motor cortex is in the frontal lobe. The association areas are in charge of problem solving, making plans and decisions. The left and right hemispheres are very different and can perform different functions. Language abilities lie on the left hemisphere. There are two key areas for language, the Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas. Damage to either of these areas can result in serious language disabilities. As mentioned before both hemispheres are very different. The left brain is associated with logic, language, problem solving and mathematical computation. The right brain is associated with imagination, art, feelings and special relations. There are many methods to study the brain, one of them is studying brains that have been in some kind of accident. Another is electrical stimulation of the brain which is used to show functions of specific areas. The electroencephalogram is a device that records the electrical activity of the brain. Scans are used to show images of the brain. There are many types of scans like the CAT scans and MRIs.

               (Anatomy of the Brain)

       Glands are what control our hormones. There are a variety of different glands throughout the body. The most important gland is the pituitary gland. This gland controls growth and the development of all the other hormones. The thyroid gland affects the body’s metabolism, this is possible because this gland produces thyroxin. The adrenal glands are located in the kidneys. They secrete cortical steroids which increase resistance to stress. The testes (male) and ovaries (female) produce male or female sex hormones. Finally the pineal gland controls our wake/sleep patterns. Heredity and genetics are very influential to psychology. A simple example is how behavior like shyness or aggressiveness can be inherited as previously mentioned in this article.

       As previously mentioned one of the ways of studying the brain is accidents. Some interesting cases have lead to discovery of sources of psychological problems and have helped understand the mystery that is our brain. One interesting case is the Phantom Limb case. In this case the individual had his arm amputated after an accident. After the amputation he claimed to feel pain in his missing arm. Another interesting factor of this case was that whenever he touched his face he would also feel something on his missing limb. Neurologist Ramachandran came up with the theory that since the sensory area of the face is next to the sensory area of the arm the area of the face took over the area of the arm because it was “hungry” for stimuli. This theory was shown to be accurate by doing a scan and detecting that the sensory area of the face was a lot larger than normal since it had taken over the sensory area of the arm. Another interesting case is the Kapgra delusion (which is in the same documentary as the first) was a patient who was in a car accident. He seemed not to have brain damage and didn’t have abnormal behavior. Yet he started saying that his parents were impostors, that they weren’t really his parents. What was happening was that he couldn’t find an emotional connection with his parents. When we look at something it goes to the occipital lobe and then it goes to the amigdala. Here is where we do any emotional connection we have to the object or person. In the accident the patient had damaged this part of the brain so when he looked at his parents he did not feel the emotional connection. Therefore his brain reasoned that those people were not his parents, they were impostors because he couldn’t find the emotional connection. This was proven by a lie detector, a photo of his mother or father was shown and the detector did not detect any emotion in him.

       The brain has 100,000,000,000 elements. This means that the human brain is the most complex thing in the whole universe. The brain the organ of which we know least about. There are people living perfectly fine with only half a brain yet there are people who are permanently psychologically damaged because of an injury to a small part of the brain. Our brain’s biology is very important and it is the key to solving numerous psychological mysteries.

(Dr. Ramachandran)