Behavioral Neuroscience

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Behavioral Neuroscience

Behavioral neuroscience is also known as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology, is the application of the principles of biology to the study of physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior in humans and other animals.

Behavioral neuroscience as a scientific discipline emerged from a variety of scientific and philosophical traditions in the 18th and 19th centuries. In philosophy, people like Rene Descartes proposed physical models to explain animal as well as human behavior. Descartes suggested that the pineal gland, a midline unpaired structure in the brain of many organisms, was the point of contact between mind and body. Descartes also elaborated on a theory in which the pneumatics of bodily fluids could explain reflexes and other motor behavior. This theory was inspired by moving statues in a garden in Paris.  Electrical stimulation and lesions can also show the effect of motor behavior of humans. They can record the electrical activity of actions, hormones, chemicals and effects drugs have in the body system all which affect ones daily behavior.

The term "psychobiology" has been used in a variety of contexts, emphasizing the importance of biology, which is the discipline that studies organic, neural and cellular modifications in behavior, plasticity in neuroscience, and biological diseases in all aspects, in addition, biology focuses and analyzes behavior and all the subjects it is concerned about, from a scientific point of view.

The term "psychobiology" was first used in its modern sense by Knight Dunlap in his book An Outline of Psychobiology (1914). Dunlap also was the founder and editor-in-chief of the journal Psychobiology.

Disabling or decreasing neural function

Surgical lesions:

 Neural tissue is destroyed by removing it surgically.

Electrolytic lesions: 

Neural tissue is destroyed through the application of electrical shock trauma.

Chemical lesions:

 Neural tissue is destroyed by the infusion of a neurotoxin.

Temporary lesions:

Neural tissue is temporarily disabled by cooling or by the use of anesthetics such as tetrodotoxin.

Psychopharmacological manipulations: 

 A chemical receptor antagonist induces neural activity by interfering with neurotransmission. Antagonists can be delivered systemically or intracerebrally during a surgical procedure into the ventricles or into specific brain structures. For example, NMDA antagonist AP5 has been shown to inhibit the initiation of long term potentiation of excitatory synaptic transmission in rodent fear conditioning which is believed to be a vital mechanism in learning and memory.

Limitations and advantages

Different manipulations have advantages and limitations. Neural tissue destroyed as a primary consequence of a surgery, electric shock or neurotoxin can confound the results so that the physical trauma masks changes in the fundamental neurophysiological processes of interest. For example, when using an electrolytic probe to create a purposeful lesion in a distinct region of the rat brain, surrounding tissue can be affected: so, a change in behavior exhibited by the experimental group post-surgery is to some degree a result of damage to surrounding neural tissue, rather than by a lesion of a distinct brain region.

Journal of Clinical Psychology and Cognitive Science is an interdisciplinary open access, peer reviewed publication that focuses on the research that probes clinical, medical, and social, aspects of the psychological disorders with a special emphasis on the cognitive sciences.

Contributors are welcome to publish high quality clinical, and laboratory research as case series, reviews, guidelines, techniques, and practices.  Manuscripts that mitigate social stigma, and offers emotional support to the patients undergoing psychological stress and strain are solicited. The journal also solicits manuscripts that discuss technical and medical advancements in Computational neuroscience, Neuropathology, Telemedicine, Behavioral sciences, Educational, health and medical psychology, and psychiatry to address the issues and challenges in this field.

Author(s) may submit their manuscripts through the journal's online submission at: https://www.pulsus.com/submissions/clinical-psychology-cognitive-science.html

Media Contact
Rose Jackson
Managing Editor
Journal of Clinical Psychology and Cognitive Science
E-Mail: clinicalpsycology@emedicalscience.com