1. Concept of Mind Do you have a mind? Concept of mind
If so, where is it located?
Concept of mind
Sense of self
Free Will
Consciousness
A little person in your head
Immaterial spirit or soul
Biological Psychology approach to understanding mind
“.. in this book we explore the many ways in which the structures and actions of the brain produce mind and behavior.” Breedlove & Watson 2013, Biological Psychology, page 1.

2. Mind – Body Problem What is the relationship between mind and body?
First explicitly raised by Descartes
Dualism (Descartes’ version)
Mind (soul) Body (brain) are distinct
The Mind (soul) outlives the body and operates by non-physical means.
Monism - (either Materialism or Physicalism):
Everything that actually exists is material, or physical
There is nothing beyond the physical world
Mind must be some feature or aspect of the Body (brain)

3. Descartes’ Dualism
Animals have body (brain) and act in mechanical ways
Humans
can use words to express thoughts
use reason to solve problems creatively
must have something special: Mind (soul)
The Body (Brain) is a complex "machine".
The Mind (Soul)
distinct from the body
eternal and therefore non-physical
René Descartes' illustration of mind/body dualism.
Descartes believed inputs are passed on by the sensory
organs to the epiphysis in the brain and from there
to the immaterial spirit.
See his Meditations on First Philosophy[1]
From Wikipedia Mind-Body Problem

4. Reductionism
Related to Mind Body problem because it is often referred to as Reductive Physicalism
A theory that all complex systems can be completely understood in terms of their components.
The general attempt to explain and interpret phenomena by means of analysis into simpler components and principles at a different level of analysis.
The idea that certain things might be shown to be nothing but certain other sorts of things.
water is nothing but hydrogen and oxygen molecules
statements about water are reducible to statements about collections of H & O molecules.

5. Hierarchy of Complex Systems to illustrate Reductionism
A Non-Reductive Physicalist Account of Human Nature
By Nancey Murphy

6. Levels of Analysis in Biological Psychology
What is wrong with the arrows on this picture?
Levels of analysis range from social interaction down to the molecular level.
Reductionism breaks a system down into its smaller parts, in order to understand it.

7. Levels of Analysis in Biological Psychology
“In principle, it is possible to reduce each explanatory series down to the molecular or atomic level, though for practical reasons this extent of reductionism is rare.”
“The units of each level of analysis are simpler in structure and organization than those of the level above.”
Biological Psychology by Breedlove and Watson page 10
There are problems with these assumptions about reductionism.
Appears that you can explain everything at the atomic level
Is the atomic and molecular levels really simpler?

8. Limitations of Reductionism
Gendle, Point #2: At present reductive physicalism is fundamentally unable to answer how basic biological, chemical, or physical processes create specific individual experience (“qualia”)
Qualia is subjective personal experience such as seeing the color blue.
Referred to as the “hard problem” of human consciousness.
An “explanatory gap” between our knowledge of neuroscience to explain subjective experience
Conscious awareness includes a sense of self
Humans have a very strong subjective sense of self
Which brings us back around to the concept of mind
Do you have a mind?
If so, where is it?
If so, what is it?
So are we stuck without an explanation for subjective experience?

9. Limitations of Reductionism
Gendle point #3: promissory materialism is a provisionary position, and the inclusion of it in an empirically focus discussion of philosophy of mind is inappropriate.
Neuroscience will one day figure it all out.
There must be a mechanism that explains how the mind works
Gendle is being too harsh with this comment.
Speculation is okay as long as it does not substitute for explanation.
So, what type of explanations exists that could help explain the mind, body problem?

10. Limitations of Reductionism
Application to Current Medical Science
Diagnosis is based on the assumption that information about individual parts is sufficient to explain the whole
However some medical problems occur because of interaction between parts produces behaviors that cannot be predicted by individual parts.
To understand Schizophrenia, cannot just focus on Dopamine levels or a set of genes
Need to take into account living conditions such as stressful environments

11. Limitations of Reductionism
Gendle point #1: There currently exists no one single theoretical framework that can completely account for how mental phenomena arise from physical processes occurring in the nervous system.
Neither monist reductive physicalism nor Cartesian dualism is acceptable.
But other approaches such as non-reductive physicalism
The mind is an emergent property of the brain.
Such as patterns of activity in brain circuits
Mind is more than the sum of brain parts
i.e. not an additive process
could be a nonlinear system explained by chaos theory
Similar to Ryle’s concept of “intelligent acts”
Or Jonah Lehrer’s example “the mind is like music”
The Limits of Reductionism Posted by Jonah Lehrer on January 21, 2008

12. Levels of Analysis in Biological Psychology
biopsych4e-fig jpg

13. We Are All Alike and We Are All Different
Bacterial DNA in Human Genomes
Species can be compared to study evolution of brain and behavior:
Continuity of behavior and biological processes because of common ancestry
Differences in behavior and biology that have evolved as adaptations
A trait that is passed on from a common ancestor is conserved.
Similar appearances can also come from similar solutions that have evolved independently in species that do not have a common ancestry (for e.g. the wings of a butterfly and the wings of a bat).

14. Nature vs Nurture Confusion
Nature vs Nurture (genes vs environment) is a false dichotomy
All mature traits are a combination of genes and environment
for example:
Language
Binocular Vision
Aggressive behavior
Sexual orientation
"To ask what's more important, nature or nurture, is like asking what's more important to the area of a rectangle, its length or its width." attributed to Donald Hebb
length and width can be changed independently of each other but they always are dependent on each other

15. Figure 1.9 Identical Twins but Nonidentical Brains and Behavior
Biological psychology can help to understand brain disorders and devise treatments.
One person in five suffers from some form of neurological or psychiatric disorder.
Clinical and laboratory approaches are both important in this research.

16. Nature and Nurture Interaction
(Genotype) * (Environment)  Phenotype
Genes you are born with
Environment you are exposed to
Both are always present
This is not an additive process
Genes + environment is incorrect
Interaction of genes and environment
Phenotype is an emergent property of genes and environment
* No complete explanation for how this interaction works

17. Nature and Nurture Interaction
Relationship between genes and behavior
Genes are expressed to produce proteins
Proteins provide the structure and chemistry of neurons
Neurons are connected into brain circuits
Brain Circuits process information for sensory, perception, cognition, behavior and so on
There are no genes with a specific behavioral function
A Gene for playing the piano
A Gene for playing basketball
A Gene for math ability
However, genes do influence all of these to some extent

18. Nature Nurture Interaction
Environmental signals (Experience)
odor of food, sound of a predator or sight of a mate
Information processed through the nervous system
molecular biology of brain circuits is modified (neuroplasticity)
long lasting changes to the chemistry and anatomy of neurons.
Genes expression plays a crucial role in this process
Genes code for proteins
Genes are signaled by the environment to express proteins
This is the basis of memory formation which we will cover in chapter 17

19. Nature Nurture Interaction
Intelligence Example
Low genetic heritability for sense of humor, food preferences, political attitude, religious affiliation
However intelligence (g factor) is distinctly influenced by genetic heritability
But there are no specific genes for intelligence, maybe for brain size and certainly for number of neurons
Twin studies indicate 50% genetic influence
Environmental factors must be the other 50%
Although this changes across your life span with more environmental influence at a young age and less as you get older
So the nature - nurture interaction changes with development

20. Role of endophenotypes in mental illness
Endophenotypes are subcomponents or parts of a phenotype
Sequence variations within specific genes related to specific neural system dysfunctions
Can be used as biological markers
They do not directly cause the disease
But represent the individual susceptibility to the disease
Such as sensory gating ratios in Schizophrenia
Environmental factors such as stressor interact with the endophenotypes

21. Nature Nurture Interaction Autism example
Historical opinion on the etiology of autism
(1) that autism is caused by some specific genetic abnormality, spawning a search for the “autism gene”,
(2) that autism is the result of some specific environmental factor or condition, including a “lack of maternal warmth”
Genetic: 60% concordance in monozygotic twins
identified genetic factors explain only a small
Environment: deficits in social perception
Children with reduced social cognitive development
Parents may also have a reduced social perception

22. Determinism
Determinism is the philosophical proposition that every event is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences.
If all processes in the world were due to the mechanical interplay of atoms so that the physical matter of the universe operates according to a set of fixed, knowable laws.
Genetic determinism: genes determine a physical or behavioral phenotype.
Environmental determinism: experience determines a physical or behavioral phenotype