Psychobiology is the study of the biological basis of behavior, with emphasis on how knowledge from neuroscience is related to motivation, memory, and consciousness. The Hamilton College concentration in psychobiology was begun in 1976 and was one of the first undergraduate concentrations in that area of study. It is currently administered by the Department of Psychology with participation by the Department of Biology. The requirements for the concentration include General Biology, General Chemistry, Introductory Psychology, Introduction to Brain and Behavior, Statistics in Psychological Research, Psychophysics and Sensory Physiology, Principles of Neuroscience, and one of several courses offered in the Department of Biology. Electives in recent years have included courses in psychopharmacology, neuroanatomy, and hearing.

Student Research

Every concentrator undertakes a senior research project that culminates in a thesis and an oral presentation. Human studies have ranged from the tactile sensitivity in women as a function of stage of the menstrual cycle to psychophysiological studies of autonomic nervous system correlates of personality characteristics. Other studies with animal subjects have addressed behavioral effects of adenosine receptor stimulation in the midbrain, effects of electrical stimulation of the frontal cortex on neuronal activity in other areas of the brain, immunocytochemical studies of neuropeptide localization, and psychopharmacological studies of learning and memory in neonates. Students are often coauthors of published research, either from their senior project work or from summer research with faculty members. Articles have appeared in journals including Behavioral Neuroscience, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Perception and Psychophysics, Journal of Experimental Zoology, and Brain and Language, Behavioral and Neural Biology, and Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

Senior Fellowship

Some of the best students in psychobiology participate in the Senior Fellowship Program, in which up to seven students at the College are selected to undertake a major research project for their senior year under the supervision of at least two members of the faculty. Senior Fellows have studied integration of sensory information by single neurons, evoked potential correlates of cognitive processing, brain mechanisms of reward, and tactile psychophysics.

Facilities

The Department of Psychology contains laboratory facilities for neuroanatomical research, intracellular and extracellular single neuron recording, voltage and patch clamping, eye movement tracking, evoked potential recording, and tactile psychophysics. Many experiments are controlled by laboratory computers, which are networked with our statistics laboratory and the rest of the campus. The Department of Biology contains facilities for environmental chambers, scanning and transmission electron microscopes, and cellular and molecular biology. Both departments share a 1000 square foot vivarium that contains species ranging from alligators to rats.

Faculty

The members of the faculty at Hamilton that have some interest and experience in psychobiology or neuroscience are listed on the next page, along with information about their educational background and research interests.

For additional information regarding the Concentration in Psychobiology, please contact Douglas Weldon (315-859-4165).