Biological LOA

Giacomo Rizzolatti-

A- study language acquisition and learning of new behaviors M- researchers placed food in close proximity of the monkeys, allowing them to reach for the food and measured singular neurons in the monkey's brain. F- some neurons became activated when the monkeys saw the researcher pick up the food and when they themselves picked up the food. E- Although monkeys are the closest to humans which allows us to conduct experiments on them, you cannot study singular neurons in humans which may pose as an inability to relate the results. Suggests that there is a part of the brain that prevents us from imitating others. Mirror neurons help us better understand empathy and interpretation of communication.

Hans Selye

A-Study the effect of prolonged stress on the immune system of rats M- High stress was inflicted on the rats, including chemical injections, surgical incisions, exposure to extreme temperatures and drowning simulation F- ARE of GAS Alarm Resistance Exhaustion E- although it was a lab experiment which allows for a cause and effect relation, the use of rats diminishes the ability to attribute the results to humans. It was unethical because it caused stress upon the rats.

Jill Bolte

A: Demonstrate the difference between the left side of the brain and the right side. M: One day she suffered from a stroke and she had to basically rebuild her brain. She went through surgery, and they removed a blood clot from the left side of her brain. She evaluated herself and how her behavior changed. F: She found that she became more right brained after her surgery ( more emotional), rather than before when she was more left brained (analytical/ more focused on logic) E: This was a case study on herself. This can be used for a lateralization of function question

Robert Gazzaniga

A: Determine the effects of split brain procedures on patients with seizures M: Gazzaniga used patient W.J. who was a world war II. paratrooper with seizures so Gazzaniga split his corpus callosum F: Found that right side of the body is controlled by left brain and vice versa. Determined localization of function of two sides of the brain. E: The negative was that it was an Invasive surgery and there was no guarantee that it would cure seizures. The positive was that patient W.J's confidentiality was kept.

Bennet Omalu

A: Determine the short and long term effects of concussions caused by playing football M: studied the brain of Mike Webster, a former pro football player on the steelers who died from a heart attack F: Discovered tau proteins in Webster's brain which impair functions upon accumulation and named the condition Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) E: Used post-mortem study. Helped to create the movie "Concussion" and inform people on the severe effects caused by concussions and CTE

Carol Shively

A: How social stress affects disease susceptibility including atherosclerosis, obesity and depression M: she and her team fed the animals a typical Western diet, with 40% of calories coming from fat, measured their cortisol levels and used CT scans to calculate the amount of visceral fat each monkey carried. The monkeys were housed in groups of four prompting them to establish a linear hierarchy of dominance. F: Monkeys further down the power chain appeared more stressed-out. They also spent more time alone, out of contact with the other monkeys. T scans showed that group leaders and the second most dominant monkeys had lower amounts of visceral fat than their subordinates, who carried the bulk of their body fat in their guts E: This coincides with the Whitehall study which also showed that people higher up in the hierarchy tend to have better health and less stress than people lower in the hierarchy. There is ecological validity

Simon LeVay

A: Looked for structural differences in part of the brain called the hypothalamus Studied if sexual orientation has any relation in brain physically M: Quasi- experiment,Post-mortem study of HIV/gay and straight men, the independent variable was sexual orientation of the person and the dependent variable was the size of the hypothalamus F: Average size of the anterior hypothalamus was larger in heterosexual men, while in homosexual men had their hypothalamus the same size as women E: attribution of homosexuality to size of the hypothalamus ( correlation not a cause)

John Money

A: Money wanted to discover if gender identity based on the way one is treated rather than the way one is born. M: Money used an intrasex case study, Bruce Reimer, to see if he could influence his gender identity by having his parents treat him as a girl. Bruce's penis had been burned off in a circumcision gone wrong. Bruce became Brenda through estrogen shots and surgery. Money forced Brenda and his twin Brian to act out sexual situations with each other. F: Brenda was very unhappy and threatened to kill herself if her parents took her back to Money. She felt like something was wrong with her her whole life. Her parents finally told her she was born a boy and she was very relieved. Brenda became a male once more, but this time with the name David. Through this case study Money found that gender identity is more closely tied with nature rather than nurture and that people are not born gender neutral. E: What Money did was grossly unethical because he knew that his experiment was not working but continued to do it. Money has to be held accountable for his continuation of the experiment and its ensuing emotional harm to Bruce Reimer. Brenda reached a point of unhappiness where she threatened to kill herself if she had to continue with Money's procedures. Money also used some disturbing methodology in which he used role playing and unsettling pictures. Money made Brenda and her twin act out sex as children to try and enforce "her" sexuality as a female. This along with Money's other methods traumatized David. After suffering years of severe depression Reimer committed suicide which can be connected to the unhappiness brought on by his earlier life.

Oliver Sacks

A: Not a real study but a famous neurologist with prosopagnosia also known as face blindness. We talk about him because it is a researcher who has the effect and could have a damaged fusiform gyrus. It is not normal that an experienced researched has the brain that is being studied. M: He wrote a book called "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" and many others. It is in a way a case study but he wasn't actually studying himself it was just a rare and interesting occurrence. F: The fusiform gyrus is likely the part of the brain that affects face blindness. E: There is localization of function that connects the biological part of the brain and the cognitive task.

Robert Sapolsky

A: Sapolsky's aim was to determine the correlation between hierarchy and the level of stress M: A 30-year field study of baboons to gather behavioral and psychological data on individual members, including blood samples, tissue biopsies, and electrocardiograms. He measured the hormone levels in blood for stress hormones, such as glucocorticoid and adrenaline. F: Sapolsky found that baboons that had a higher rank (therefore more dominant) had lower stress levels. He found that protection from stress-related diseases is most powerfully grounded in social connectedness, and that's far more important than rank. E: He ethically used baboons because it was applicable to humans. Sapolsky's findings are validated by the Whitehall study by Marmot which was done with humans, proving that the lower your perceive yourself to be in a hierarchy, the more stressed you will be and the worse health. This was a field study and is therefore ecologically valid. Another strength of this study is that Sapolsky used baboons, which are very similar to humans. Baboons were a good choice in animals for the following: like humans, they don't have many predators and they have a lot of free time; like unhealthy humans, unhealthy baboons have elevated resting levels of stress hormones; and they are intelligent animals with complex emotional lives. Unlike baboons though, humans can overcome their low social status and isolation by belonging to multiple hierarchies.

Jose Delgado

A: See how electrical stimulation of the brain will evoke responses in the brain M: He placed a stimoceiver in the brain of a bull (on the caudate nucleus) and monitored the brain waves with an EEG. He then had the bull charge him and then stimulated the caudate nucleus. F:Delgado found that he could not only elicit emotions, but he could also elicit specific physical reactions. Once the caudate nucleus was stimulated, the bull stopped charging him. E: This was a very good (and theatrical) experiment. It shows very well localization of function of the brain. Considering the ethical considerations of this experiment because an animal was used and had to have something implanted in it's brain.

Jay Giedd

A: Studied the teen brain. What is the age reason? Why do teenagers tend to do "stupid" things even though they are relatively intelligent. M: Uses brain scan technology, specifically PET scans. Case study, compared brain at young ages to teenage brain, to adult brain. Using this he was able to see what parts of the brain developed and what age. F: Age of reason is 25 years old. The prefrontal cortex is the last to develop because the brain develops from back to front. This is why teenagers tend to make stupid decisions and sometimes don't seem to have a filter even though they are intelligent. His findings helped push back the death penalty to age 18 because he showed that teenagers did not have completely developed brains and thus shouldn't be held completely responsible for their actions. E: Biological explanation for teenagers "not smart" behavior. Geidys findings helped push the age that capital punishment can be administered to 18, due to the fact that a teenagers brain is not fully developed.

Genie

A: The effects that an extremely impoverished environment on the linguistic and cognitive development of a child. M: Longitudinal/Case Study, Genie was found in her house isolated and alone, she had been neglected severely, being tied to a chair and punished for speaking. She was taken to a hospital and worked with a linguistic professional and was studied by professionals. (Children's Hospital) F: Once the child develops past the age of development you can only retain and or gain back so much cognitive and linguistic skills. Genie gained back some linguistic abilities but was not able to fully recover because she was passed the age of development, which limited her. E: Would not be ethical if it was to be repeated again, but given the circumstances the experiment was beneficial but the staff may have gotten too involved towards the end of Genie's time in Children's Hospital.

Marian Diamond

A: The effects that an impoverished environment has on the brain. M: Marian Diamond did an animal study, since putting humans in an impoverished environment wouldn't be ethical. These effects can only be seen in case studies (this one in particular is correlated with the case study of Genie).There were three environments created for her rat study. One rat was left alone and had no toys, this was the impoverished environment. The standard environment had 3 rats and 3 toys. The enriched environment had 12 rats and 12 toys, they were also picked up and tickled every 4 hours (TLC). F: It was found that the average lifespan for a rat, which was 600 days, extended to 900 in an enriched environment and decreased to 300 days in an impoverished environment. She also found several important things that: 1) without a proper diet the brain doesn't function as well, 2) exercise allows for moderate brain stimulation, 3) newness (brain seeking out new things/ learning new things) is very important, 4) challenge which allows for brain stimulation and for the brain to enlarge (dendrites flourish) , 5) TLC- tender, loving, and care. She also found that flow (engagement of challenges with a reasonable expectation of success) affects brain development. The cerebral cortex was significantly thicker in the rats who were in an enriched environment than those in the impoverished. E: Animals were used in order to better understand how the environment affects humans.

Phineas Gage (1848)

A: To compare his post accident behavior to his pre accident behavior and record the distinct differences. M: A case study where a tamping iron went through his brain and severed the connection between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system. F: When these two parts of the brain were disconnected, researchers were able to determine localization of function for both parts of the brain. The limbic system for emotion and reactions and the prefrontal cortex for inhibition. E: The case study method is great because you can learn about something that you could never be able to study if this situation wasn't given to you. It is sometimes hard to apply case studies to everyone else though. The culture has nothing to do with this study. There were no ethical problems with the study because he was already in this position when he came in. There could be a difference between male and female brains but it is unlikely.

Thomas Bouchard

A: To determine how much of intelligence is attributed to genetics and environment. M:Longitudinal study. Over 100 sets of monozygotic, identical twins raised together, and DZT, fraternal twins raised together, from around the world who were reared/raised together and apart. Researchers gave them 50 hours of psychological and physiological testing. F: Similarity rates between monozygotic twins reared apart for intelligence was approximately 76%. He determined an estimate of 70% of intelligence attributed to genetics, and 30% to other factors. E: A lot of research has supported his findings, making them more reliable. There was a large sample of participants, making the study more externally valid than most twin studies. Although, he had no control over the frequency of contact between twins before the study. He also assumed that the twins reared together experienced the same environment.

Roger Sperry

A: To determine if the cutting of the corpus callosum would help a paratrooper patient with PTSD and epilepsy M: Cut the corpus callosum of the patient's brain and ran tests F: left/right hemispheres have different functions, neuroplasticity, brain was able to adapt to the changes E: Completed a hugely invasive brain surgery with largely no evidence of what would happen afterword

Bruce McEwen

A: To determine the effects of stress (and the hormones involved) on memory M: Lab experiment with mice. Created a stressful environment for some mice and a peaceful environment for others and measured their dendrite levels. F: He found that the dendrites of the more stressed mice were shorter than the dendrites of mice in a peaceful environment.When you're stressed cortisol floods the hippocampus making you forget explicit memories (Stress makes you stupid). E: Animal study: Stressed out mice but was ethical because it has direct correlation to human brain. Also, other factors can influence dendrite lengths and cortisol levels. It was a lab experiment so not ecologically valid -- could have been stressed out by just being in a lab and handled by researchers.

Eleanor Maguire

A: To examine the connection between biology and cognition in terms of the posterior hippocampus and navigational memory M: Observed London Taxi Drivers and used brain scan technology. These drivers have to undergo years of training in order to pass a test called The Knowledge about all the streets throughout London. Maguire used an MRI to scan their brains and determine the size of the posterior hippocampus. F: Maguire found that a larger posterior hippocampus correlated with more years as a taxi driver. However, it's difficult to know whether their posterior hippocampus is larger because they're a taxi driver, or they're a taxi driver because they have a bigger posterior hippocampus. E: Brain scan technology is expensive and therefore not available to everyone. In addition Maguire only studied males, and the sample size was small because she only observed 16 matched pairs. There were no ethical violations.

Sir Michael Marmot (1984)

A: To find out if hierarchies can have an impact on one's health when they have the same available health care. More specifically, to find out if someone on the top of the hierarchy will have better overall health than someone on the bottom. M: The study examined mortality rates over 10 years with men in the British government ages 20-64. F: Men on the lower end of the hierarchy with jobs that pay less and are associated with the lower class had a mortality rate that was 3 times more than those on the top of the hierarchy. Low status is also associated with obesity, smoking, and many other negative effects related to health. E: Even with the same opportunities to health care, a different lifestyle, higher or lower class, has an incredibly large impact on one's health. The ethics and methodology were sound for this experiment. A strength of natural observation methodology was that there was no interference by the observers but they didn't have full control over what was happening which could have made things hard to have the perfect results.The culture was only one of an advanced western civilization so it is hard to predict what would happen if this was done somewhere else in the world. Since men were the only one studied, we don't know if it is the same with women. Maybe females think differently and that affects their health in a positive way but we really don't know.

Robert Ader-(father of PNI)

A: To see if the mind can change the body M: Gave rats water with a drug in it. Later they stopped putting the drugs in the water, the rats still responded to the water as if there was a drug in it. Lead to Classical conditioning. Tried this on a girl with lupus, by using smell and taste (rose scented perfume and cod liver oil for taste), then give her a shot of something that will help. Then they gradually stopped giving her the shot but kept giving her the cod liver oil and rose perfume and it still worked as if the drug was being injected. Shows there is a mind and body connection that can affect your body. F: the mind and body are inseparable parts of the whole E: Animals were used for the benefit of humans

Susan Fiske

A: To study the basis of prejudice in neurobiology and what part of the brain is involved in first impressions. M: Used fMRIs and showed pictures to the participants. Lab experiment. A strength of lab studies is that they are controllable. A weakness of lab studies is that they are artificial and might not be ecologically valid. F: Insula was activated when looking at someone who was different looking than them and also activated when looking at trash (insula is center for disgust). This is the biological basis for prejudice. E: This is the basis of prejudice because people are automatically disgusted by people who look different than them. Most people are able to use their PFC to filter their insula in the disgust response, however when someone is unable to do this, it results in prejudice.This response applies to both genders. fMRIs can be dangerous so there is a potential ethical issue.

Abigail Baird

A: To study the differences between the adult and teenage brain. M: Used fMRIs, gave them problems and looked at their brain in response F: Adolescents had labored thinking and used the PFC, adults used the PFC and visualized. E: This can be applied for teenagers in court because they make different type of decisions. This can be applied in the death penalty for people because of how they make decisions. A lawyer could justify the acts of a teenager by saying that they have not fully developed to make decisions like adults do. There could also be cognitive differences between how boys and girls process.

Elizabeth Blackburn

A: To study the effect of chronic stress on brain biology, specifically telomeres M: Observed mothers of disabled children who were under chronic stress, and came together in groups to bond over their shared difficulties (tending and befriending) F: Chronic stress made telomeres of the mothers unwind 6 times faster than the normal rate, meaning they aged 6 times faster. However, laughing and hugging released an enzyme called telomerase which helped rebuild the telomeres, and Blackburn won the nobel prize for that discovery. E: Blackburn's experiment had a high degree of ecological validity considering she observed real life women who suffer from chronic stress.

Shelley Taylor

A: To study the female stress response M: Case studies of women experiencing stress. A strength of a case study is it is ecologically valid and it is unique. A weakness of case studies is that they might not be able to be generalized to the population and it can't be repeated. Lab studies taking blood from stressed women. A strength of lab studies is that they are controllable. A weakness of lab studies is that they are artificial and might not be ecologically valid. Meta-analysis of research on stress and coping. F: Women typically respond to threat by using the tend and befriend response. She found that tending is the protection of offspring and befriending is seeking a social group for mutual defense. She found that this response involved an increased amount of oxytocin, as she found oxytocin in the blood of the women she studied in the lab. E: There is a gender issue with this study because this stress response is typically used by women and women tend to have more oxytocin. This means that this likely applies more to women than men. Tend and befriend may not apply to all cultures because stress responses tend to vary based on cultures of independence vs interdependence. For example, Korean students used social support for coping much less than other cultures.

Paul Broca/Tan/Louis Victor Leborgne

A: Understand why speech was affected M: This is a case study/ postmortem study, where Louis Victor Leborgne lost the ability to speak and could only say Tan. After Leborgne died, Broca studied his brain. F: An autopsy revealed that there was a large lesion in the posterior frontal lobe area, which controls speech. He named the particular area, Broca's area. E: Since this is a case study, it can't be repeated as it is unethical to intentionally make a lesion in someone's brain. Also this shows localization of function.

Nancy Adler

A: how an individual's' sense of their place in the social ladder which takes into account standing on multiple dimensions of socioeconomic status and social position affects health M: presented a "social ladder" and asks individuals to place an "X" on the rung on which they feel they stand. F: The results have shown that subjective status is related to a range of health indicators, including poor self-rated health, higher mortality, depression, cardiovascular risk, diabetes and respiratory illness. E: This experiment was done with a mainly western focused group so it may not be applicable to other cultures. BOA: Physiology & Behavior

Eric Kandel

A: psychologist; showed that forming a new memory produces functional and structural changes in neuron (LTP) M: Studied learning and memory at a cellular level in the sea snail aplysia (single celled organism). Kandel stimulated the snails' sensory neurons directly with electrodes. By a process of elimination, neuron by neuron, he mapped out the entire neural circuit of a simple behavior in the snails (the gill-withdrawal reflex) that changes and learns in response to its environment. Then, by removing parts of the circuit to a petri dish and subjecting the neurons to electric shocks and different chemicals, he determined many of the chemical pathways that mediate memory formation. F: Showed that learning means formation of a memory, in other words growing new connections or strengthening existing connections between neurons to form neural networks. Found that STM and LTM result in a synaptic changes in the neural network. These changes are important in memory function. In the 1990s, kandel studied memory function in relation to synaptic changes in the hippocampus. E: Kandel discovered the chemical sequences for both short-term and long-term memory. In short-term memory, the neuron does not grow new synaptic terminals but adjusts the amount of neurotransmitters, In long-term memory, new synaptic terminals appear—this only happens when neurotransmitters are pumped in high concentrations repeatedly

David Snowden

A: study a homogeneous group to determine factors that may inhibit one's possibility of developing alzheimer's M: researchers got ahold of a sisterhood of nuns who come from similar backgrounds. The researchers accessed documents about the nuns prior to the sisterhood including the autobiographies produced by each nun upon joining the sisterhood. The essays were examined for linguistic density, like the complexity and fluidity of their writing. F: Nuns whose writing tended to lack in linguistic density were at a greater risk of developing alzheimer's. Nearly 80% of those lacking in linguistic density went on to develop alzheimer's, while only 10% of those not lacking in density went on to develop alzheimer's. In summary it concluded that parts of your early and mid life influence your chances of developing alzheimer's, along with other mental and cognitive disabilities. E: It is essential that participants must be made aware of any health issues they may have, but Snowden feared that it would cause stress upon them. Because the participants were a homogenous group it minimizes extraneous confounding variables that may alter the results. It was a lab study, therefore it allows for a cause and effect conclusion and it does not lack ecological validity.

Walter Cannon

A: theorized when put under a dangerous situation the fight or flight response would take over M: more of a theory F: came up with the term "fight or flight" a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival the term homeostasis; confirmed the stress response is part of a unified mind-body system,

Tessa Roseboom

A: to determine whether the effects of stress could be seen in people who underwent extreme stress (Dutch Hunger Winter) as fetus'. M: Tested the health of 2,400 people who may have been affected by the Dutch Hunger Winter during prenatal life F: There was an increased rate of cardiovascular disease and poorer overall health. The hormones in the mother's blood during the famine caused problems for the fetus due to the mother's stress E: Ethical considerations may be thought of b/c she exploited people who were starving for a psychological study. Participants were studied in a lab so may not be ecologically valid

Carl Wernicke

A:Broca noticed some patients had problems with speech production and he wanted to find out if their impediment was related to the brain M:Broca dissected the brains of the patients to study damaged areas.(Post death) F:He found that there was damaged area in the left frontal lobe of the patients. Broca's area is localised for some aspects of speech production but Broca's aphasia can be a combination of various damages to brain areas beyond Broca's area. E:Dronkers results suggests that the speech production difficulty of Broca's patients may be due to more extensive brain damage than just Broca's area Plaza et al., (2009) found that patients other brain areas took over the function of Broca's area if their Broca's area was damaged.

David Reimer

David Reimer was treated as an intrasex individual as part of John Money's study to determine if children are born gender-neutral and that gender is a result of upbringing. However, since Reimer lived a very unhappy life as a female and immediately chose to be a boy as soon as he found the truth about his past, this case study didn't support Money's theory that gender identity could be determined by the way one's raised. Discusses the issue of nature versus nurture.

Chris Nowinski

Former football player and pro wrestler. Wanted to bring awareness to the problems that concussions from playing pro sports were causing to later health problems. Founded the concussion legacy foundation and began to popularize the idea that there was a link between repeated concussions and mental and physical health problems. Worked with Bennet Omalu to get players more time off the field in between concussions

Andrea Yates

I: Important to us because it demonstrates how brain chemistry plays a role in behavior. M: On June 20, 2001, after her husband had left for work, Andrea Yates, a Houston mother, drowned her five children in the family bathtub. She told police she drowned them from burning in hell. A jury rejected her insanity defense, and she was sentenced to serve life at a psychiatric prison. In a second trial (the first was appealed), the jury acquitted her, and she was sent to a hospital, not prison. F: Yates was diagnosed as suffering from postpartum depression with psychosis, and she had been taken off her antipsychotic medication about a month before the children's deaths E: Case Study, her children died, and she was hospitalized. BOA: Physiology and Behavior

James Pennebaker

I: Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) It's important to us because it provides information about both language use and personality assessment. M: Participants are instructed to write a story continuously based on a provided picture for 10 minutes. F: The purpose is to see how individuals reveal parts of their own personalities while looking at an ambiguous picture. The participant's writings are analyzed using the LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) program developed at the University of Texas and University of Auckland in New Zealand. E: Not very ecologically valid because it relies on other factors besides what it's meant to asses. BOA: Genetics & Behavior

V.S. fndran

V.S. Ramachandran (or "Rama" to his friends") studied mirror neurons, which were discovered by Giacomo Rizzolatti in the brains of monkeys. Mirror neurons are neurons that fire when an animal (or person) performs an action, or when the animal observes somebody else perform the same action. This theory that mirror neurons are the driving force behind the psychological evolution of humans has been widely publicized but still unproven. Rama believes that mirror neurons will be the key to answering questions on the evolution of the human mind. When an animal watches another animal do something, it's neurons fire as if the animal itself is doing the action. This lead Rama to propose that the development of language is due to human's' ability to understand others intentions and develop a "theory of minds."