Global Arc

The adult human brain is an amazing system: With areas of cognitive specialization that are robustly interconnected and work together in networks to support our quick and adaptive behavior. In contrast, young infants have markedly slower neural responses and few long-range connections between brain regions. We will read the primary literature and discuss pivotal questions in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience: To what extent are infants born with cognitive or neural specialization or does specialization develop? How do babies and children learn? How much does experience matter in neural and cognitive development?

An introduction to the main principles of organization of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC). We will compare monkey and human PPCs, covering topics including encoding of eye movements, number and visual motion representations, processing of object information, and attentional functions. We will emphasize the pathology resulting from damage to PPC by discussing syndromes like optic ataxia and hemispatial neglect. We will present a 'hands on' science experience by drawing on current lab research, focusing on the design and analyses of 'real' experiments on the PPC with opportunities to attend ongoing functional imaging studies.

The phenomenology and underlying neurobiology of the states of sleep and waking are examined. A byproduct of doing so exposes students to a broad range of current research in the field of neurobiology and behavior. Experimental results and theories, ranging from the molecular and genetic to human brain imaging, are critically examined and discussed. Topics include brain mechanisms mediating sleep and waking, diseases of sleep, ontogeny and phylogeny of sleep, theories of functions and uses of sleep, dreams, drugs affecting sleep and waking, circadian rhythms, other states of consciousness, and the issue of consciousness itself.

Cyborgs are created when biological brains are enhanced with technology. This course will explore a wide range of mind-machine interactions. Are search engines changing the structure of human memory? Is your laptop or smartphone part of your mind? Are human brains flexible enough to update motor and sensory systems, expanding the self to include artificial limbs, exoskeletons, remote-control devices, night vision, wearable computing, etc.? How do experiences in virtual reality impact psychology? As technology advances we are all becoming cyborgs. Now is an exciting time to study the interactive interface of technology and mind.

This course focuses on clinical depression as a model topic for scientific discourse. Depression is a subject of growing individual and societal importance, and it is an ideal topic because it intersects such a broad range of issues. Our work will emphasize a neurobiological approach, with topics ranging from the molecular to the clinical. Prerequisites: 208 or 258, or EEB 211, or MOL 214, and instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar.

This course will be an upper level seminar that will attempt to synthesize research from multiple disciplines on how faces are represented in cognitive, computational, and neural systems. The material covered will include work on the role played by face perception in social cognition. The methods used in the research to be discussed include cognitive-behavioral measures, functional brain imaging, electro- and magnetoencephalography, single cell recording, lesion studies, and computer vision. The reading will include review articles and research reports.

In this course, we will examine how the nervous system controls movements, how the brain handles enormous computational complexities of movement, how motor skills are learned and consolidated, and how the motor system influences cognition.

Understanding inter-group conflict is a central topic across the social sciences. What are its antecedents? How does it evolve and becomes intractable? How can it be stopped once triggered? This course is aimed at providing a framework for integrating different approaches to intergroup conflict, from psychology (social-interactionism) to sociology (social network analysis) to political science (nationalism studies). Various inter-group conflicts are discussed (e.g., the Former Yugoslavian Republics, Israel-Palestine, Northern Ireland) with the goal of assessing the validity of the interdisciplinary framework proposed herein.

Seminar designed to expose students to current research on the cellular and molecular bases of learning and memory, providing an up-to-date analysis of what is, and is not, known about the neurobiology of learning and memory. We begin with a review of the model systems used to study learning and memory, including an analysis of the translational validity of certain model systems. We then deal with different forms of plasticity (synaptic and structural) as they pertain to learning and memory during development and adulthood. Finally, we apply some of these findings to evaluate the current status of research on aging and Alzheimer's.

A fundamental property of human action is its orientation toward specific desired outcomes or goals. Understanding the computations and neural mechanisms underlying this goal-directedness stands as a central challenge for both psychology & neuroscience. We will review major theories characterizing the role of goals in behavior, from cognitive, social & developmental psychology, animal behavior research, & artificial intelligence. We'll then review a wide range of neuroscientific data in an effort to sketch out the neural substrates of goal-directed behavior, considering the neural basis of goal evaluation, selection, representation & pursuit.