Why do neuroscientists believe...?

Question

believe neurons, neurotransmitter, and the brain/nervous systems are important to the study of psychology?

Answer 1

Reductionist. If you can understand what is happening, you can understand why. It's not *beleive* anyway - it *is*. It's another level of explaination (functional, computational etc) - each level is important but can be independant. For example, we can explain learning and recognition at the neuronal level. So we can explain human behavour at the neuronal level, which is what psychology is looking at. Neurotransmitters are the cause of various psychological disorders, which is, you know, slightly important on a much larger scale. The embodiment of processes has an effect on the limitations and efficiency of processes, or explain why they go wrong.

Answer 2

Because its the chemical basis of all behavior. When you study something, you always want to break it down to its smallest parts so that you really know whats happening. Plus, by studying these parts, we can one day replicate them. We could use synthesized neurons to fix some mental disorders. And we could also build true artificial intelligence.