THE

BIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE-1
 There is a famous saying by Rene Descartes, " Cogito ergo sum" which means “I think, therefore I
am”.
 We can not exist, think or behave without our bodies. Our entire behavior, thinking, emotion and
even urges are biological functions.
 We cannot laugh, love, study, aggress, compete, study, explore without our bodies. Without our
genes, our brain, our appearance, reflexes, we are nobody.
 It has been discovered that we are each a system composed of subsystems that are in turn composed
of even smaller subsystems.
 Tiny cells organize to form body organs. These organs form large system for digestion, circulation
and information processing. These systems are part of larger system- the individual who in turn is
part of family and society.
 To understand our behavior, we need to study how these biological, social and psychological systems
work and interact.
 (A)
Neurons and Nerves :
Building the Network.
 Nervous system, a network of cells that carries information to and from all parts of the body.
 The field of neuroscience is a branch of the life sciences that deals with the structure and functioning of
the brain and the neurons, nerves, and nervous tissue that form the nervous system.
 Biological psychology, or behavioral neuroscience, is the branch of neuroscience that focuses on the
biological bases of psychological processes, behavior, and learning, and it is the primary area associated
with the biological perspective in psychology.
 Neuron
 In 1887 a doctor, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, first theorized that the nervous system was made
up of individual cells.
 The entire body is composed of cells, each type of cell has a special purpose and function and a
special structure.
 Most cells have three things in common: a nucleus, a cell body, and a cell membrane holding it
all together.
 The neuron is the specialized cell in the nervous system that receives and sends messages
within that system.
 Neurons are one of the messengers of the body, and have a very special structure.
 A typical neuron consists of a cell body, dendrites, an axon and synaptic terminals.
Structure of the Neuron
 Dendrites: The parts of the neuron that receive messages from other cells are called the dendrites. The
name dendrite means “tree-like,” or “branch,” and this structure does indeed look like the branches of a
tree.
 Soma: The dendrites are attached to the cell body, or soma, which is the part of the cell that contains the
nucleus and keeps the entire cell alive and functioning. The word soma means “body.”
 Axon: The axon attached to the soma, and its job is to carry messages out to other cells. Axons may be
very long projecting several feet through the body and are covered in a myelin sheath, a layer of fatty
tissues that insulates axons and that increases the speed of impulses passed through those axons. The
myelin sheath is laid down up to the age of 25 approximately. As myelin sheath keeps covering neurons,
our neural efficiency, judgment and self-control grows. If the myelin sheath degenerates, multiple
sclerosis takes place and the communication to muscles slows down and eventually loss of muscle
control takes place.
 Axon Terminnals: The end of the axon branches out into several shorter fibers that have swellings or
little knobs on the ends called axon terminals (may also be called presynaptic terminals, terminal
buttons, or synaptic knobs), which are responsible for communicating with other nerve cells.
 Glial Cells
 Neurons are not the only cells that affect our thinking, learning, memory, perception, and all of the
other facets of life that make us who we are.
 The other primary cells are called glia, or glial cells, which serve a variety of functions.
Functions of Glial Cells:
 They serve as a sort of structure on which the neurons develop and work and that hold the neurons in
place.
 They are also involved in getting nutrients to the neurons, cleaning up the remains of neurons that
have died, communicating with neurons and other glial cells, and providing insulation for neurons.
 Glial cells affect both the functioning and structure of neurons and specific types also have properties
similar to stem cells, which allow them to develop into new neurons, both during prenatal
development and in adult mammals.
 Recent findings also implicate glial cells in learning and behavior, both by affecting synaptic
connectivity during development, and in mice transplanted with human glial cells, faster learning
across a variety of learning and memory tasks.
 Types of Glial Cells
 Two special types of glial cells, called oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells, generate a layer of fatty substances
called myelin.
 Oligodendrocytes produce myelin for the neurons in the brain and spinal cord (the central nervous system);
Schwann cells produce myelin for the neurons of the body (the peripheral nervous system).
 Myelin wraps around the shaft of the axons, forming an insulating and protective sheath. Bundles of myelin-
coated axons travel together as “cables” in the central nervous system called tracts, and in the peripheral nervous
system bundles of axons are called nerves.
 Myelin from Schwann cells has a unique feature that can serve as a tunnel through which damaged nerve fibers
can reconnect and repair themselves. That’s why a severed toe might actually regain some function and feeling if
sewn back on in time.
 Unfortunately, myelin from oligodendrocytes covering axons in the brain and spinal cord does not have this
feature, and these axons are more likely to be permanently damaged.
Generating the Message Within the Neuron: The
Neural Impulse
 Resting Potential
 A neuron that is at rest, that is not currently firing a neural impulse is actually electrically charged.
 The inside of the cell is actually a semiliquid solution in which there are electrically charged particles called ions.
 There is semiliquid solution surrounding the outside of the cell also. This outside semiliquid also contains
sodium ions.
 The ions inside the cell are negatively charged while the ions outside the cell are positively charged.
 This difference in charges is an electrical potential. The cell wall itself is permeable, so, some substance that is
outside the cell can enter through this porous cell wall and some substance within the cell can come out of the cell
through this porous wall.
 Positively charged sodium ions are too big to enter the cell membrane when the cell is at rest because even
though the cell membrane is permeable, the openings are too small at resting state.
 When the cell is resting, that state is called resting potential. As the outside ions are positively charged and ions
inside the cell are negatively charged, these opposite electrical charges attract each other. The sodium ions cluster
around the cell wall.
Action Potential
 When the cell receives a strong enough stimulation from another cell, the cell membrane opens up special
gates, one after the other, all down its surface that allows the sodium ions to rush into the cell.
 This causes the inside of the cell to become positive and outside of the cell becomes negative. This electrical
charge reversal starts where axon is closest to cell body, where the first gate opens and then proceeds down the
axon in a kind of chain reaction.
 This electrical charge reversal is known as action potential because the electrical potential is now in action rather
than at rest. In other words, action potential means that the cell is now positive inside and negative outside at the
point where the gate opened. Each action potential sequence takes about one-thousandth of a second.
 After the action potential passes, the cell membrane pumps the positive sodium ions back outside the cell and
shuts the gates one by one until the next action potential opens the gates again. The cell becomes negative inside
and positive outside once again, restoring the cell to its resting potential.
 In short, we can say that when the cell is stimulated, the first gate opens and the electrical charge at that gate only
is reversed. Then the next gate opens and charge at that gate only is reversed. In the meantime, the first gate
closes and the charge returns to its original state, i.e., negative inside and positive outside the cell. The action
potential is the sequence of gates opening all the way down to the length of the cell.
Sending the Message to Other Cells
 The presynaptic terminal has a number of little sac-like structures in it called synaptic
vesicles. The word vesicle is Latin and means a “little blister” or “fluid-filled sac.”
 Inside the synaptic vesicles are chemicals suspended in fluid, which are molecules of
substances called neurotransmitters.
 Next to the axon terminal is the dendrite of another neuron. Between them is a fluid-filled
space called the synapse or the synaptic gap. Instead of an electrical charge, the vesicles at
the end of the axon contain the molecules of neurotransmitters, and the surface of the dendrite
next to the axon contains ion channels that have receptor sites, proteins that allow only
particular molecules of a certain shape to fit into it, just as only a particular key will fit into a
keyhole.
 When that action potential, or electrical charge, reaches the synaptic vesicles, the synaptic
vesicles release their neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap. The molecules then float across
the synapse and many of them fit themselves into the receptor sites, opening the ion channels
and allowing sodium to rush in, activating the next cell. It is this very activation that
stimulates, or releases, the action potential in that cell.
 Cleaning Up the Synapse: Reuptake and Enzymes
 The neurotransmitters have to get out of the receptor sites before the next stimulation can occur. Some just drift
away through the process of diffusion, but most end up back in the synaptic vesicles in a process called
reuptake(they are sucked back into the vesicles). Thus, the synapse is cleared for the next release of
neurotransmitters.
 Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter that doesn't undergo reuptake. ACh is responsible for muscle activity, and
muscle activity needs to happen rapidly and continue happening, it’s not possible to wait around for the “sucking
up” process to occur. Instead, an enzyme* specifically designed to break apart ACh clears the synaptic gap very
quickly (enzymatic degradation).
 Impact of Drugs and Other Chemicals on
Neurotransmitters
 When the brain is flooded with opiate drugs such as heroin and morphine, the brain may stop producing its own
natural opiates. When the drug is withdrawn, the brain may then be deprived of any form of opiate, causing
intense discomfort.
 Nature charges a price for suppressing the body’s own neurotransmitter production. Drugs and other chemicals
affect brain chemistry at synapses, often by either exciting or inhibiting neuron’s firing.
 Agonist molecules may be similar enough to a neurotransmitter to bind its receptor and mimic its effects. Some
opiate drugs are agonists and produce a temporary “High” by amplifying normal sensation of arousal and
pleasure.
 Antagonists also bind to receptors but their effect is instead to block a neurotransmitter’s functioning. These
antagonists are enough like the natural neurotransmitters to occupy its receptor sites and block its effects. But
they are not similar enough to stimulate the receptor.
 Example: Botulin, a poison that can form in improperly tinned food, causes paralysis by blocking ACh release.
Small injections of botulin- Botox- smooth wrinkles by paralyzing the underlying facial muscles.