Psychobiologist

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A researcher who investigates how brain structure, chemistry, and genetics influence behavior, emotions, and cognition
2. A scientist who examines the relationship between biological systems and psychological phenomena such as learning, memory, and personality
3. A specialist who explores how physiological mechanisms and neural activity underlie mental processes and behavioral patterns

Etymology: "Psychobiologist" is a plain compound, built from "psycho-" placed in front of "biologist." The combining form "psycho-" comes from Greek "psykhē," meaning breath, soul or mind, and it appears in English words such as psychology and psychiatry. "Biologist" in turn combines "bio-," from Greek "bios," meaning life, with the agent suffix "-logist," from "logos," meaning study or discourse. Put together, a psychobiologist is someone who studies the biological basis of mind and behaviour. The compound follows the pattern of many scientific words coined in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when researchers combined classical elements to name new fields and specialists. The result is a transparent word: once the two halves are known, its meaning can be read straight off the page.

Synonyms: psychobiologist