PSYC3310 grounds psychological phenomena in their biological substrate — teaching students that behavior and mental processes, however subjectively experienced, arise from identifiable neural and physiological mechanisms.
Neuroanatomy and the nervous system
PSYC3310 covers the major brain structures and their functions — the cerebral cortex's lobes, the limbic system's role in emotion, and the autonomic nervous system's regulation of involuntary bodily functions — giving students a functional map of how different brain regions contribute to different aspects of behavior and experience.
Neurotransmission and the biological basis of behavior
The course covers how neurons communicate via neurotransmitters, and how specific neurotransmitter systems (dopamine, serotonin, GABA) relate to mood, motivation, and various psychological disorders — connecting basic neuroscience directly to psychological phenomena students encounter throughout the broader curriculum.
Key topics in PSYC3310
- Major brain structures: cerebral cortex lobes, limbic system, brainstem
- The autonomic nervous system: sympathetic and parasympathetic regulation
- Neuron structure and the process of neurotransmission
- Key neurotransmitter systems: dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and their psychological roles
- Brain imaging techniques used in biological psychology research
- The biological basis of emotion, motivation, and select psychological disorders
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Worked example: the fight-or-flight response through a biological lens
- Trigger: A person perceives a sudden threat
- Brain activation: The amygdala rapidly signals a threat, triggering the hypothalamus to activate the sympathetic nervous system
- Physiological response: Adrenal glands release adrenaline, increasing heart rate, redirecting blood flow to muscles, and heightening alertness
- Recovery: Once the threat passes, the parasympathetic nervous system activates to return the body to baseline ("rest and digest")
- Lesson: A subjectively experienced emotion (fear) corresponds to a specific, traceable sequence of neural and physiological events
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Frequently asked questions
Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that neurons use to communicate with each other across synapses, and different neurotransmitter systems are associated with different psychological functions — dopamine is heavily involved in reward, motivation, and pleasure-seeking behavior (and is implicated in addiction, since addictive substances often artificially spike dopamine release), while serotonin is involved in mood regulation, and disruptions in serotonin signaling are implicated in depression and anxiety disorders, which is why many antidepressant medications (SSRIs) work by affecting serotonin availability in the brain. PSYC3310 teaches these neurotransmitter systems because understanding this biological substrate helps explain why certain psychological experiences and disorders respond to specific pharmacological treatments, and it grounds psychological phenomena (mood, motivation, pleasure) in identifiable biological mechanisms rather than treating them as purely abstract mental states disconnected from the body's physiology.
Psychological disorders like depression or anxiety can be studied and explained through multiple complementary lenses — biological psychology examines neurotransmitter imbalances and genetic predispositions, cognitive-behavioral approaches examine maladaptive thought and behavior patterns, and social psychology examines the role of relationships and social context — and PSYC3310 teaches that these aren't competing explanations so much as different, complementary levels of analysis for the same underlying phenomenon. Understanding the biological level matters practically because it explains why pharmacological treatments can be effective for some psychological disorders (medication addresses the neurochemical dimension), while also explaining why medication alone is often not fully sufficient (since learned cognitive-behavioral patterns and social/environmental factors also contribute), which is why many effective treatment approaches for conditions like depression combine both pharmacological and therapeutic interventions, addressing multiple levels of the disorder simultaneously rather than assuming any single level of analysis provides the complete picture.