LESSON 1.

1:
Levels of Analysis

Chris H. Miller

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Professor Miller
 Why Should I Learn?
“Because acquiring this knowledge
is difficult. Because you will feel
triumphant when it no longer
confuses you. Because you will
enjoy what you can do with it.
Because in learning it you may
discover new perspectives in life,
new ways of thinking. Because its
possession will make you more
alive.”

- James Banner
 Course Content
• Integration of 2+ Disciplines
• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Others?

• “Modern” Human Neuroscience

• For social scientists
• Human neuroanatomy
• Structure & function
• Levels of analysis
• Biology & behavior

• Course Organization
• Unit 1: Biological Foundations
• Unit 2: Basic Systems
• Unit 3: Advanced Systems
 Course Purpose
• Rigorous intro to neuroscience
• Useful for future courses & careers

• “Drinking from a firehose”

• Challenging but doable!
• Logical organization
• Clear learning expectations
• Canvas for grades & materials
• We’re here to help each other!
 Research Project
Literature Review
• 4-6pg paper
• Individuals or pairs
• Search journal databases for
primary articles & carefully read
relevant papers
• Topic: Clinical neuroimaging; pick
a disease/disorder that interests
you!
• Summarize current state of
knowledge to provide
background & significance
• Begin thinking about groups &
projects & use Canvas discussion
board
•
 The Beauty of Neuroscience

“Men ought to know that from nothing else but the brain come joys,
delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency, and
lamentations. And by this, in an especial manner, we acquire wisdom and
knowledge, and see and hear and know what are foul and what are fair,
what are bad and what are good, what are sweet and what are
unsavory…. And by the same organ we become mad and delirious and
fears and terrors assail us…. All these things we endure from the brain
when it is not healthy…. In these ways I am of the opinion that the brain
exercises the greatest power in the man.

- Hippocrates, On the Sacred Disease (4th century BCE)

 The Beauty of Neuroscience

"The remarkable range of human behavior---indeed, the complexity of

the environment humans have been able to create for themselves---
depends on a sophisticated array of sensory receptors connected to a
highly flexible neural machine---a brain---that is able to discriminate an
enormous variety of events in the environment. The continuous stream
of information from these receptors is organized by the brain into
perceptions (some of which are stored in memory for future reference)
and then into appropriate behavioral responses. All of this is
accomplished by the brain using nerve cells and the connections between
them."

- Eric Kandel, Principles of Neuroscience (2012)

 The Beauty of Neuroscience

“The brain is cool. You should study it.”

- Chris Miller (2018)

 The Beauty of Neuroscience
• Helps understand human (and
animal) behavior, cognition, and
emotion
• Provides tools & ideas to improve
human condition and alleviate
suffering from disease
 The Beauty of Neuroscience
• Answers longstanding philosophical
questions
• Biological materialism
• Nature vs. nurture
• Dualism vs. monism
• Determinism vs. free will
• Empiricism vs. rationalism
 “Neuroscience Revolution”
• Study of the nervous system
• Very rapidly growing field
 Interdisciplinary
• Social Sciences: psychology,
behavioral science, cognitive
science

• Biological Sciences: anatomy,

physiology, cellular biology,
electrophysiology, molecular
biology, biochemistry

• Mathematics: statistics,
computational methods

• Engineering: computer science,

bioengineering

• Medicine: psychiatry, neurology,

& neurosurgery

• Others: philosophy, physics, &

more!
 Levels of Organization
• Levels of organization
• Behavioral
• Systems
• Cellular
• Molecular
Questions???