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Module 1.4a

Module 1.4a The Brain: Neuroplasticity

and Tools of Discovery

LEARNING TARGETS

1.4-1 Explain why psychologists are concerned with human biology.
1.4-2 Explain how biology and experience together enable neuroplasticity.
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1.4-3 Compare and contrast several techniques for studying the brain’s
connections to behavior and mind.

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1.4-1 Why are psychologists concerned with human biology?
1.4-1
e psychologists concer
ned with human biology?

Why ar
Our understanding of how the brain gives birth to the mind has come a long way. The ancient AP Science Practice
®
Greek physician Hippocrates correctly located the mind in the brain. His contemporary, the
philosopher Aristotle, believed the mind was sited in the heart, which pumps warmth and Research
vitality to the body. The heart remains our symbol for love, but science has long since over- Unlike phrenologists, psycholog-
taken philosophy on this issue: It’s your brain, not your heart, that falls in love. ical scientists take an empirical,
or scientifically derived approach
In the early 1800s, German physician Franz Gall proposed that phrenology, studying to studying the brain. As Unit 0

bumps on the skull, could reveal a person’s mental abilities and character traits ( Figure 1.4-1 ) . explained, they use an evidence-

At one point, Britain was home to 29 phrenological societies. Phrenologists also traveled North based method that draws on
observation and experimentation.
America to give skull readings ( Dean, 2012 ; Hunt, 1993 ). Using a false name, humorist Mark
Twain put one famous phrenologist to the test. “He found a cavity [and] startled me by saying
that that cavity represented the total absence of the sense of humor!” Three months later, Twain biological psychology the
sat for a second reading, this time identifying himself. Now “the cavity was gone, and in its scientific study of the links
place was . . . the loftiest bump of humor he had ever encountered in his life-long experience!” between biological (genetic,
( Lopez, 2002 ). Today, the “science” of phrenology reminds us of our need to engage in critical neural, hormonal) and
psychological processes.
thinking and scientific analysis. Phrenology did at least succeed in focusing attention on the Some biological psychologists

localization of function — the idea that various brain regions have particular functions. call themselves behavioral
Today, we are living in a time Gall could only dream about. Biological psychologists neuroscientists, neuropsychologists,
use advanced technologies to study the links between biological (genetic, neural, hormonal) behavior geneticists, physiological
psychologists, or biopsychologists.
Figure 1.4-1
Movement A wrongheaded theory
Planning
Thinking
Spatial (a) Despite scientists’ initial
awareness Touch Judging
Speech Feeling acceptance of Franz Gall’s
Comprehension Sound Taste speculations, bumps on the skull
Visual Smell
processing Emotion tell us nothing about the brain’s
Recognition Memory
Vision underlying functions. Nevertheless,
some of his assumptions have
Coordination
held true. Though they are not the
Arousal functions Gall proposed, different
parts of the brain do control
Bettmann/Getty Images suggested in (b) (from The Human
different aspects of behavior, as
)
Brain Book , and as you will see
throughout this unit.
(a) (b)
The Brain: Neuroplasticity and Tools of Discovery Module 1.4a 55

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