Behavioral neuroscience facts for kids

Behavioral neuroscience, also called biological psychology or biopsychology, is a field that studies how our biology affects our behavior. It looks at how our bodies, genes, and development influence what we do and how we think. This science helps us understand both human and animal behavior.

How Behavioral Neuroscience Started

Behavioral neuroscience began to take shape a long time ago. In the 1700s and 1800s, scientists and thinkers started to explore how the mind and body are connected.

Early Ideas About Mind and Body

One famous thinker, René Descartes, thought that our bodies worked like machines. He believed a small part of the brain, called the pineal gland, was where the mind and body met. Descartes also thought that body fluids could explain simple actions like reflexes. He got this idea from watching moving statues in a garden!

Other philosophers also helped create the field of psychology. William James, a very important psychologist, wrote a book called The Principles of Psychology. He argued that to truly understand psychology, we needed to study biology.

William James was an important early psychologist.

Studying Living Things

For a long time, doctors mainly studied dead bodies to learn about anatomy. But then, scientists called physiologists started doing experiments on living things. This was a new idea! Important scientists like Claude Bernard, Charles Bell, and William Harvey showed that we could learn a lot from studying living subjects. This helped behavioral neuroscience become a real science.

The Mind-Body Puzzle

Even before the 1700s, people wondered about the connection between the mind and body. This big question is called the mind-body problem. There are two main ideas about it:

• Monism: This idea says the mind and body are actually one thing.
• Dualism: This idea says the mind and body are separate.

Ancient thinkers like Plato and Aristotle debated this. Plato thought the brain was where all thoughts happened. Aristotle, however, believed the brain just cooled down emotions that came from the heart! This debate was a big step toward understanding how our minds and bodies work together.

Brain Parts and What They Do

Another important debate was about whether different parts of the brain do different jobs (called localization of function) or if the whole brain can do any job (called equipotentiality). Research showed that specific brain areas control specific behaviors.

For example, Wilder Penfield created maps of the brain's outer layer (the cerebral cortex) by studying patients with epilepsy. This helped us understand which brain parts control movement and feeling. A famous case study of Phineas Gage, a man who had a serious brain injury, also showed how specific brain damage can change behavior.

What is Psychobiology?

The word "psychobiology" was first used in its modern way by Knight Dunlap in 1914. He wrote a book called An Outline of Psychobiology. Dunlap also started a journal called Psychobiology. He said the journal would publish research about "the connection of mental and physiological functions." This is exactly what behavioral neuroscience studies today!

How it Connects to Other Sciences

Behavioral neuroscience often studies animals like rats, mice, and monkeys. This is because it's easier to do certain experiments on animals. Scientists believe that humans and animals share many biological and behavioral similarities. This allows them to learn from animals and apply that knowledge to humans.

Because of this, behavioral neuroscience is closely linked to:

• Comparative psychology: Comparing behaviors across different species.
• Ethology: The study of animal behavior in their natural environments.
• Evolutionary biology: How living things change over time.
• Neurobiology: The study of the nervous system.

Behavioral neuroscience is also similar to neuropsychology. Neuropsychology studies how brain damage or problems affect human behavior.

What Behavioral Neuroscientists Study

Behavioral neuroscientists study many of the same things as other psychologists. However, they often use animals in their research. They look at behaviors and mental processes that are common across many animal species, such as:

• Sensation and perception: How we sense the world and understand it.
• Motivated behavior: Why we feel hungry or thirsty.
• Control of movement: How our bodies move.
• Learning and memory: How we learn new things and remember them.
• Sleep and biological rhythms: Our sleep cycles and body clocks.
• Emotion: How we feel and express emotions.

As technology gets better, behavioral neuroscientists are also studying more complex topics in humans, like:

• Language: How we use and understand words.
• Reasoning and decision making: How we think and make choices.
• Consciousness: What it means to be aware.

Helping with Medical Conditions

Behavioral neuroscience has also helped us understand and treat many medical conditions, especially those related to the brain and mental health. While animal models don't exist for all illnesses, this field has provided important information about conditions like:

• Parkinson's disease: A brain disorder that affects movement and speech.
• Huntington's disease: A genetic brain disorder causing uncontrolled movements and changes in thinking.
• Alzheimer's disease: A brain disease that causes memory loss and thinking problems, usually in older people.
• Clinical depression: A common mood disorder where people feel very sad and lose interest in activities.
• Schizophrenia: A mental illness that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves, sometimes causing hallucinations.
• Autism: A brain development disorder that affects social interaction, communication, and causes repetitive behaviors.
• Anxiety: A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, often about something with an uncertain outcome.

Important Awards

Many scientists who study behavioral neuroscience have won major awards for their discoveries.

Nobel Prize Winners

The following people, who could be considered behavioral neuroscientists or neurobiologists, have won the Nobel Prize:

Kavli Prize in Neuroscience

• Ann Graybiel (1942)
• Cornelia Bargmann (1961)
• Winfried Denk (1957)

See also