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Biopsychology cover

Psychology

Psychology

Biopsychology

John P. J. Pinel; Steven J. Barnes

A biopsychology textbook that explains how the brain and nervous system produce behaviour and mental experience. It moves from neuroanatomy, neural conduction and research methods through sensory and motor systems to sleep, eating, sex, memory, emotion and psychiatric disorders, and uses clinical cases and recurring themes to link the science to everyday life.

Prerequisites: Introductory psychology; some school biology is helpful, but no neuroscience background is assumed.

Difficulty Level
Intermediate
Academic Level
Undergraduate
biological psychologybiopsychologyneurosciencebrain and behaviourneuroplasticityTextbook

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

Pinel, J. P. J., & Barnes, S. J. (2026). Biopsychology (12th ed.). Pearson.

Chapter Summary

The 12th edition has 18 chapters. Pearson describes the book as introducing the discipline through a combination of biopsychological science and reader-oriented discourse, with the scientific method emphasised throughout and clear language, storytelling and metaphors used to bring out social and personal implications. The edition is described as taking a fresh approach to neurodevelopment, with updated content throughout, and as including comics in eight chapters, created by Steven Barnes with the artist Kim Nipp, that highlight personal or social implications of behavioural neuroscience research. The chapter list falls into several clear blocks.

Chapters 1–6: Biopsychology as a Neuroscience; Evolution, Genetics and Experience; Anatomy of the Nervous System; Neural Conduction and Synaptic Transmission; Neurodevelopment, Neuroplasticity and Neurodiversity; Research Methods of Neuroscience

The first six chapters lay the groundwork. They place the field within neuroscience, introduce evolution, genetics and experience, then give the anatomy of the nervous system and the way neurons conduct and transmit signals. The fifth chapter combines neurodevelopment, neuroplasticity and neurodiversity, which fits the publisher's note about the new approach to neurodevelopment. Research methods come last in this block rather than first, so the reader meets the anatomy and the cellular processes before the techniques used to study them.

Chapters 7–9: Neuroscience of the Visual System; Sensory Systems, Perception and Attention; The Sensorimotor System

Vision receives a chapter of its own. The next chapter covers the other sensory systems together with perception and attention, and a third turns to the sensorimotor system.

Chapters 10–12: Brain Injury and Brain Disease; Learning, Memory and Amnesia; Lateralization, Language and the Split Brain

These chapters turn to what happens when the brain is damaged and to higher functions: a chapter on brain injury and disease, one on learning, memory and amnesia, and one on lateralisation, language and the split brain.

Chapters 13–17: Neuroscience of Emotion, Stress and Health; Hunger, Eating and Health; Hormones, Sex and Behavior; Sleep, Dreaming and Circadian Rhythms; The Neuroscience of Drugs and Addiction

Five chapters on motivated and regulated behaviour. Emotion, stress and health are combined in one chapter, and eating, hormones and sex, sleep and circadian rhythms, and drugs and addiction each have a chapter.

Chapter 18: The Neuroscience of Psychiatric Conditions

The book closes with the neuroscience of psychiatric conditions.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–6: Foundations

  • Biopsychology as neuroscience: the framing of the field as part of neuroscience.
  • Neural conduction and synaptic transmission: how neurons carry and pass on signals.
  • Neuroplasticity and neurodiversity: change in the nervous system and variation among individuals, taught together with neurodevelopment.
  • Research methods of neuroscience: the techniques for studying the brain.

Chapters 7–12: Senses, Brain Damage and Higher Functions

  • The visual system, perception and attention, and sensorimotor control.
  • Brain injury and disease: what damage reveals about function.
  • Learning, memory and amnesia; lateralisation, language and the split brain.

Chapters 13–18: Regulated Behaviour and Disorder

  • Emotion, stress and health; hunger, eating and health; hormones, sex and behaviour.
  • Sleep, dreaming and circadian rhythms; drugs and addiction.
  • Psychiatric conditions: the neuroscience of disorder.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • Broad chapter coverage by title. With 18 chapters, the book gives separate chapters to brain injury and disease, to lateralisation, language and the split brain, and to drugs and addiction, so each of these topics has its own space.
  • A stated teaching approach. The publisher says the authors emphasise the scientific method throughout and use storytelling and metaphors to draw out social and personal implications, a choice aimed at students who are new to neuroscience.
  • A current framing of development. The publisher highlights the new approach to neurodevelopment, and the chapter title names neurodiversity alongside neuroplasticity.
  • Visual storytelling. Pearson calls the comics in eight chapters, by Barnes and the artist Kim Nipp, exclusive to this book; they are meant to show the personal and social implications of the research.

Limitations

  • Length and scope. Eighteen chapters are more than most one-semester courses can cover, so an instructor or student has to choose a path through them.
  • Little detail available before purchase. Beyond the table of contents and a short description, the publisher's page does not give section headings or learning features for this edition, so a reader choosing between texts cannot judge the depth of individual chapters from that source alone.

Where It Fits in the Course

Pinel and Barnes is a full undergraduate textbook, and its closest peer on this list is Kalat's Biological Psychology, which covers the same ground in fourteen chapters with a module structure. Pinel and Barnes has more chapters, and its titles name brain injury, lateralisation and drugs as chapters of their own, which Kalat's chapter titles do not. A student can use either as the main text and the other for a second explanation of a difficult topic.

Winn and Grealy's Biopsychology: The Basics is a concise introduction for newcomers and works as a lighter first pass. Passingham's Cognitive Neuroscience: A Very Short Introduction is a short account of how mental functions are linked to brain activity and pairs well with Chapters 9 to 12. Nelson and Kriegsfeld's An Introduction to Behavioral Endocrinology goes deeper into hormones than Chapter 15, and Kandel and colleagues' Principles of Neural Science is the far longer reference to consult for detail beyond an undergraduate text.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at undergraduates taking a biopsychology or behavioural neuroscience course, and for readers new to the field. The publisher presents it as an introduction to the discipline in clear language; it does not state prerequisites.

A practical plan is to read the first six chapters in order, because they supply the anatomy, the cellular processes and the methods that the rest depends on. After that, the chapters are largely self-contained blocks: the sensory and motor chapters (7 to 9), the chapters on brain damage and higher functions (10 to 12) and the chapters on regulated behaviour (13 to 17). Chapter 18 on psychiatric conditions works best last, after the foundations and the chapters on emotion, stress and drugs.

For a shorter course, choose the blocks that match the syllabus. Read the comic-illustrated chapters for the personal and social side of the topics. Because the publisher's page does not list chapter-level study features, look at a sample chapter before deciding how to assign the book.