Physiological psychology is a subdivision of behavioral neuroscience (biological psychology) that studies the neural mechanisms of perception and behavior through direct manipulation of the brains of nonhuman animal subjects in controlled experiments. This field of psychology takes an empirical and practical approach when studying the brain and human behavior. Most scientists in this field believe that the mind is a phenomenon that stems from the nervous system. By studying and gaining knowledge about the mechanisms of the nervous system, physiological psychologists can uncover many truths about human behavior. Unlike other subdivisions within biological psychology, the main focus of psychological research is the development of theories that describe brain-behavior relationships. Physiological psychology studies many topics relating to the body's response to a behavior or activity in an organism. It concerns the brain cells, structures, components, and chemical interactions that are involved in order to produce actions. Psychologists in this field usually focus their attention to topics such as sleep, emotion, ingestion, senses, reproductive behavior, learning/memory, communication, psychopharmacology, and neurological disorders. The basis for these studies all surround themselves around the notion of how the nervous system intertwines with other systems in the body to create a specific behavior.
Nervous system
The nervous system can be described as a control system that interconnects the other body systems. It consists of the brain, spinal cord, and other nerve tissues throughout the body. The system's primary function is to react to internal and external stimuli in the human body. It uses electrical and chemical signals to send out responses to different parts of the body, and it is made up of nerve cells called neurons. Through the system, messages are transmitted to body tissues such as a muscle. There are two major subdivisions in the nervous system known as the central and peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system is composed of the brain and spinal cord. The brain is the control center of the body and contains millions of neural connections. This organ is responsible for sending and receiving messages from the body and its environment. Each part of the brain is specialized for different aspects of the human being. For example, the temporal lobe has a major role in vision and audition, whereas the frontal lobe is significant for motor function and problem solving. The spinal cord is attached to the brain and serves as the main connector of nerves and the brain. The nerve tissue that lies outside of the central nervous system is collectively known as the peripheral nervous system. This system can be further divided into the autonomic and somatic nervous system. The autonomic system can be referred to as the involuntary component that regulates bodily organs and mechanisms, such as digestion and respiration. The somatic system is responsible for relaying messages back and forth from the brain to various parts of the body, whether it is taking in sensory stimuli and sending it to the brain or sending messages from the brain in order for muscles to contract and relax.
Emotion Emotion constitutes a major influence for determining human behaviors. It is thought that emotions are predictable and are rooted in different areas in our brains, depending on what emotion it evokes. An emotional response can be divided into three major categories including behavioral, autonomic, and hormonal.
The behavioral component is explained by the muscular movements that accompany the emotion. For example, if a person is experiencing fear, a possible behavioral mechanism would be to run away from the fear factor. The autonomic aspect of an emotion provides the ability to react to the emotion. This would be the fight-or-flight response that the body automatically receives from the brain signals. Lastly, hormones released facilitate the autonomic response. For example, the autonomic response, which has sent out the fight-or-flight response, would be aided by the release of such chemicals like epinephrine and norepinephrine, both secreted by the adrenal gland, in order to further increase blood flow to aid in muscular rejuvenation of oxygen and nutrients. Emotions in decision making can cause irrational outcomes. Two types of emotions occur in the decision-making process which anticipating emotions and immediate emotions. Loss and gain in anticipated emotions people will experience the outcomes differently depending on the situation. Immediate emotions are considered true emotions which integrates cognition with somatic or bodily components of the autonomic nervous system to express the emotion externally. Emotion activates several areas of the brain inside the limbic system and varies per emotion:
Fear: the amygdala is the main component for acquisition, storage, and expression of fear. Lesions on the central amygdaloid can lead to disruptions in the behavioral and autonomic emotional responses of fear. Anger/aggression: the hypothalamus and amygdala work together to send inhibitory/excitatory impulses to the periaqueductal gray which then carries out usually defensive behaviors. Happiness: the ventral tegmental area works closely with the prefrontal cortex to produce emotions of happiness as they lie upon the same dopamine pathways. Several hormones are secreted in response to emotions and vary from general emotional tuning to specific hormones released from certain emotions alone:
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
