Biological Basis of Behavior Notes

Lecture – 10 Jan
Final report - 20 march - 1500 words, 5pm
Case study, introduction, definition of disorder, prevalence, symptoms
Presentation - 10 minutes

Lecture – 17 Jan
Body walls - exhibition
Nodes - keeping movement of energy constant
Most in body - multipolar neuron
Difference between afferent and efferent neuron - there is a loop between messages - example vessel hot being
carried to the table
Nuerons in psychopathology (motor neurone) - Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, Huntington’s, Tourette syndrome
If it’s a burning sensation in body, it’s a neurological pain
Astrocytes respond to hormones.

Case - present
Biological basis
Narrative in the final report
Extra points - neurological and biological basis of symptoms (if you can talk about it) and treatment.

Lecture – 24 Jan
Presentation - Meet the case, disorder, how is it linked to brain, symptoms and treatment
-Pharmacokinetics – refers to study of drug admin (intravenous viens - inhalation nose– Intra muscularly fats–
Intraperitoneol- subcutaneous - orally- transdermally), absorption (drugs get into bloodstream or the impact of
the brain), distribution, metabolized (metabolized in liver) and eliminated
Every drug can be named via chemical name (chemical structure), brand name (Prozac) and generic name
(fluoxetine – active ingredient)
Tolerance of drugs and cross tolerance (getting tolerant with family of specific drugs) – metabolic, cellular
-Pharmacodynamics – influence on target cells – neurotransmitter synthesis, storage, release, reuptake and its
metabolism.
Agonists – excites the persons behavior (more of)
Antagonists – depresses the persons behavior (less of)
“But I am a psychologist.. why should I understand the relationship between the pharmacokinetics and
pharmacodynamics?” – to have clinical acumen

Lecture – 31 Jan
-Does human behavior depend on genetics, environmental influences or both? Both interact, but how much role
does each factor play?
Defining characteristic of genertic variance is taste of PTC – phenylthiocarbamide.
Does psychotherapy alter our psychic based on epigenetics – participation in psychotherapy and the impact on
genes?
Genes do not directly produce behavior – genes alter by making you react to a certain behavior.
Early stages of brain development can happen only in early experiences.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome – experiencing alcohol when mother is pregnant in large amounts.

Group –
Brain – psychological changes and learning spatial areas
Motor reflex -
Skin
Sensation and pain
Physiotherapy
Caretaker
Therapy and forming socializations

Lecture – 7 Feb
-Difference between Bipolar and BPD – Comorbid – Bipolar have odd characteristics and that is of person –
does that mean they have Borderline?
- All neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin etc are involved in the disorders, almost all of them.
- In Bipolar disorder, rods that are related to eyes are more in function because the colour is very vivid in the
manic phase.
- presentation – case, what is OCD, Genetic background, prevalence, comorbidity, symptomatology of case,
neuropsychological impairments – memory, concentration, executive functions, brain abnormalities,
neurotransmitters in OCD (mention all), treatment and conclusion.
-For PTSD, the manifestation is not from the trigger but from the day to backward to one month and six months
- In PTSD, if all the symptoms are there, but the event has not happened – how will we go about dealing that?
Biological basis of behavior in anxiety disorders
1. Fear is response to stimulus; anxiety is permanent state of existence.
2. The idea is to understand how many neurotransmitters go up or down in every disorder.
3. People with GAD are not doing productively more but impairmentally more – anxiety paralyses you.
4. People use alcohol to self-meditate and not taking the medications particularly in the case of bipolar
disorder.
5. Barbiturates discovery is the one that started the modern psychopharmacology.
6. Benzos as the second gen and GBH as the third-generation drugs (GABA Agonists)
7. Yale brown obsessive compulsive scale – assessment tools for OCD, Orbifrontal cortex and other areas
– READ, emotions through amygdala, thalamus regulates and suppresses the activity, chain reactions,
covid cases in OCD, antipsychotics, SSRI, SNRI – they need dopamine. Serotonin agonists with
atypical antipsychotics, surgical treatment of OCD – CINGULOTOMY, Slurt speech – watch inside
rare brain surgery of OCD.
8. Any change in behavior is attributed to change – expert of manipulation.

Lecture – 21 Feb
1. ECT – one flew over the cuckoo’s nest – can lead to memory impairments – referred to shock
treatment.
2. Supplementary therapy along with medications and used as a last resort and when it comes to a clinical
decision, it is difficult.
3. Side effects – headache, sore, whole day off, affected with short term memory.
4. How do you present this treatment – it has the stigma attached and some people benefit from this
treatment. A psychologist should be present here. If a person wants to try it, it is a positive sign. Our
job is to make the patient make an informed decision.
5. Our job as a therapist is not to take sides but for the person to make informed choices.
6. Read the papers – their affiliation, their funding of the paper, and the details (if it is very opinionated)
7. History taking should be extensive so the comorbidity can be traced.
8. Pain is so closely associated with depression that some language use the same word for both – language
has hidden messages.
9. Block the reuptake of serotonin for transmitters in depression
10. St. Johns wort – drug is used to treat depression – interferes with birth control.
11. For bipolar, mania episodes realization can be horrid and trigger the depressive phase.
12. Mood induced psychosis – differential diagnosis
13. Excessive as related to his previous state – excess has to be for them – more than their average

Lecture – 28 Feb
1. Self-Plagiarism is not permitted, double quotes and include page numbers.
2. Two attempts for the quiz
3. Poverty of speech, cognitive load due to multiple types of voices,
4. Schizophrenia – said that it can start very early and primarily during college.
5. Season and vitamin D deficiency cause schizophrenia as environmental factors
6. Psychosis makes you deny and we challenge it – this is the problem because we don’t do this is it’s a
medical problem – don’t challenge the experience, support it.
Lecture – 6 March
1. For substance abuse, there is always a choice for you to consume substance.
2. The resulting increase in prescriptions lead to widespread abuse that it qualifies as an epidemic –
opiates for pain relief for pain relief which were unlikely addictive.
3. Antagonist – drugs blocking neurotransmitter.
4. Agonist – drugs mimics or increases an effect.
5. Sex, shopping, video games mimic addiction
6. Tobacco is not being talked about much – but has highest addiction – but is more culturally accepted.
7. At a biological level, this becomes a learned behaviour. – similar experience like music, sweet,
imagining something pleasant.
8. Drug releases less dopamine after addiction, but cues associated with the drug releases more.
9. Tolerance – decrease in effect when an addiction develops – and is learned due to large extent.
10. Addictive behavior is an attempt for withdrawal symptoms – it is a powerful learning experience.
Power to teach – who taught you to do this?
11. You need to see people drug free for you to understand that there is a presence of other disorders.
12. People who show less intoxication, including less body sway, after drinking a moderate amount of
alcohol are more likely than average to develop alcohol abuse – this is the behaviour.
13. Why can all addictive drugs be used without addiction happening?
14. What makes an addictive drug more addictive than other addictive drugs?
15. Occasional user has a high chance of dying because professional knows their dose and the way and
might not die due to overdose.
16. Relapse is more environmentally induced – cue induced craving can also lead to relapse– cognitive
level.
17. Abstinence, withdrawal, craving, relapse – cycle of addiction
18. What happens when pharmacological drugs become addictive as well?
19. Clinical career – ontology – what is it? Epistemology – how do we make meaning out of it?
20. Neural adaptations need to be different completely for a person to be addicted. No evidence for sex,
gambling and video games are addictions.

Lecture – 13 March
1. Assignment – brain areas, neurotransmitters, genetics and epigenetics and structural (piece of brain is
missing) and functional components, neuropsychology.
2. Associate problems with symptoms – biological basis of symptoms – explain the symptom
biologically.
3. The paper will discuss the biological basis of the disorder through the case of Dylan. Don’t present the
case, don’t talk much of epidemiology. Remove the tool and criterion of diagnosis. Apply biological
theory to practice. The paper refers to experiences of Dylan who has been given the diagnosis of OCD.
4. For sure, mention the pharmacological treatment but mention psychological only when there are words.
Although there is understanding of the psychological treatment as first line, when comes the
pharmacological treatment we will use. Put in direct quotes and use reference and page number.
5. NO MORE THAN 1500 WORDS.
6. Tell me what you are going to tell me and tell me what you told me – Intro and Conclusion.

Autism
1. Conner Rating scale used as a diagnostic tool.
2. People with autistic spectrum disorder – they look at you as if they look through you. They will take
your body as an extension of themselves.
3. Use mirror, water, music and education in the activities with autistic disorders.

Lecture – 20 March
1. Vagus nerve reset and association with trauma.
2. People with hearing impairments have a trouble in walking.
3. Damage in occipital lobe can result in cortical blindness – brain area is missing for visual info.
4. ABACUS – how it can be related to parietal lobe
5. Phrenology – process of relating skull anatomy to behavior
6. Epistemology is based on research question and therefore methods will be also be defined on the basis
of that.
Lecture – 27 March
1. What happens to the health services when we add the complexity to the disorders for example like C-
PTSD.
2. Don’t DEFINE THE PERSON based on the DAIGNOSIS. People with autism identify themselves as
autistic.
3. Be adventurous in your research and safe in your practice.
4. When taking a path, ask who do you care about or what do you care about the most?