• What is behavior?
• What distinguishes human behavior from other animals?
• What are neurological bases (of human behavior)?
• What other bases (of human behavior) are there?
• How do the neurological bases of human behavior affect your life?

• What is behavior?
• What distinguishes human behavior from other animals?
• What are neurological bases (of human behavior)?
• What other bases (of human behavior) are there?
• How do the neurological bases of human behavior affect your life?

• What is behavior?
• What distinguishes human behavior from other animals?
• What are neurological bases (of human behavior)?
• What other bases are there?
• How do the neurological bases of human behavior affect your life?

• Why does taking/drinking X make me feel Y?
• My grandmother has Alzheimer’s disease. What’s happening to her brain?
• Carrie Fisher had bipolar disorder. What’s that about?
• Why is sleep so important for brain health?
• My mom says my frontal cortex isn’t fully mature. Is she right?
• Is it safe for high school athletes to play football (or soccer, hockey, etc.)?

• Introduction to the course
• A bit about systems

http://psu-psychology.github.io/psych-260-2020-fall/

• Study the figures.
• Study regularly – don’t cram.
• Come to class (in-person or virtually).
• Participate!

• What is science?
  • What distinguishes sciences?
  • What is neuroscience?
• Why is neuroscience harder than physics?

• Body of facts or truths
• Process of acquiring knowledge
  • Systematic study
  • Observation, experiment, description
  • Aims at reliable, reproducible, general, systematic, universal laws
  • Strives for objectivity

• Science is a way of thinking and a set of behaviors
• Science describes, tries to predict
• Science alone not well-suited to prescribing (recommending) or proscribing (prohibiting)
  • little to say about what is good, just, right, moral, etc.
  • (Although systematic descriptions of phenomena can be used to make pre/proscriptive claims…)

• Science rests on evidence and logic
  • NOT on authorities (e.g., people whose stature is largely or solely based on their position or economic status)
  • However, some scientific claims (and scientists) are more credible and authoritative than others.
• Science respects tradition
  • but questions and tests it repeatedly…
• Science should be reproducible
  • others can get the same answer

• Science
  • has led to huge advances in human health and prosperity over the last several centuries
  • will be essential for maintaining and extending those advances in the future

• What are the different kinds of X?
  • Form, e.g., anatomy
• How does X work?
  • Function, e.g., physiology
• Where did X come from?
  • Origins, e.g., development/evolution

• “Coronavirus gets its name because of its crown-like shape.”
• “Coronavirus appears to have originated in non-human animals in China.”
• “Viruses reproduce (and cause illness) by forcing host organisms to create massive quantities of the virus.”

• Phenomena of interest (studying what)
• Methods or tools (studying it how)
• Levels of analysis
  • Spatial scale (nanometers to light-years)
  • Temporal scale (milliseconds to millenia)

• The study of the nervous system
  • And the behavior it makes possible
• Questions neuroscience asks…
  • What are the parts of the nervous system?
  • How do the parts work? What do they do?
  • Where did they come from?

• Neuroscience studies the nervous system…
• But what are systems?

• Wikipedia on systems theory
• Wikipedia on systems thinking
• Wikipedia on cybernetics
  • Science concerned with the study of systems of any nature which are capable of receiving, storing and processing information so as to use it for control.

• Think of a system you know something about
• What makes it a system?

• Solar system
• Climate system
• Economic system
• Internet

• Boundaries
• Components
• Interactions
• Forces/influences
• Inputs, outputs, processes

• “Behave” or change state across time
• May return to starting state
• Appear to be regulated, controlled, influenced by feedback loops

• Single parts -> multiple functions
• Single functions -> multiple parts
• Change structure/function over time (learning, development)
• Naturally occurring systems not “designed” like human-engineered ones
• What information is being processed? What is being controlled?

• History of neuroscience
• Methods of neuroscience