Undergraduate Course

 

 

This class is highly relevant to students minoring or majoring in psychology; those contemplating careers in psychiatry, neurology or neurosurgery (e.g. pre-med students); and those interested in modeling of brain function or cognition (e.g. students majoring in computer science or cognitive science). It is also a useful course for general science students (e.g. those majoring in biology, chemistry or physics) - providing them with a foundation to interpret the world around them in the everyday news. The class covers basic brain anatomy and modern methods for measuring brain function in humans and non-human animals. It then examines the topics of action, attention, memory, learning, emotion, and language in terms of brain regions and networks. Each class ends with a vignette that helps students to consolidate what they have learned in relation to real-world issues and problems around them: drugs for ADHD; environmental toxins leading to Parkinson's disease; brain-machine prosthetic devices for people who have lost limbs, and how to lay down the best memories. 

 

 

Undergraduate Course

 

 

This course explores a rapidly evolving topic in cognitive neuroscience; the most "human" and recently evolved region of the brain -- the frontal lobes. These hold the key to our judgment, our social and ethical behavior, our imagination, indeed, to our "soul." The course provides a background to frontal lobe anatomy and neuroscience methods, along with case histories and descriptions of neuropsychiatric disorders. Students will learn how the frontal lobes enable us to engage in complex mental processes, how vulnerable they are to injury, and how devastating the effects of damage often are -- leading to chaotic, disorganized, asocial, and even criminal behavior.

 

 

Graduate Seminar

Winter 2010

 

Days/Time: TBA