Wundt's Role In Psychodynamic Research

Mind and Matter; each substance has a defining attribute. For Mind it is thought and for Matter it is spatial extension, both interacting within the brain - the question is how do these two domains interact with each other? Psychobiology comprehends this space between the psychical aspects of the mind that we can see and touch and the just as real immaterial realm where our thoughts and feeling are held. The philosopher Wundt’s importance lays with his separation of psychology from philosophy by analysing the workings of the mind in a more structured way, with the emphasis being on objective measurement and control. Wundt's aim was to record thoughts and sensations and to analyze them into their constituent elements (in much the same way as

Modern tools show how different regions of the brain connect and communicate, and psychologists employ these tools across the range of the discipline. At its simplest level, the advantage of using a biological perspective is that organic data is gathered and used to support the reality of how humans experience life. Equipment as EEG and fMRI can be used across a many of areas including abnormal changes in the body’s chemistry, psychological diseases, head injuries and tumours. Separately they can be effective but recently research has meant that EEG – fMRIS have been being used in conjunction. The technique combines the EEG’s well documented ability to characterise certain brain states with high temporal resolution and to reveal pathological patterns with fMRI’s ability to image blood dynamics through the entire brain with high spatial resolution to enable professionals to create a more detailed picture of a patient’s

Psychobiology has aided in our comprehension of the nervous system, the division of its two main subsystems and in its communication with the rest of the body. For example, we now know about neurotransmitters; these are chemicals which are used to communicate information throughout the body by relaying signals between neurons. Knowing this brought to light that some drugs such as alcohol are connected to the reticence or activity of a neurotransmitter; once alcohol is consumed, some people encounter a sense of relaxation and reduced anxiety which may be due to the increased quantities of GABA and levels of dopamine which create these enjoyable experiences (Rosenzweig, Breedlove & Leiman 2002). Furthermore, research shows that an excess of neurotransmitter dopamine is connected to Schizophrenia, which allows us to use antipsychotic drugs to block the dopamine receptors in order to reduce the