This course is intended for students interested in the neurobiology of behavior. Additional information about background needed can be obtained from BBB, Biology or Psychology advisors. How an individual acquires and is guided by knowledge about objects and events in their environment. This course seeks to understand what activates and arouses the behavior of animals. Examples from a variety of motivated behaviors will be discussed including feeding, sexual, thirst and sodium appetite, and food aversion and food preference behaviors.
Students consider the specifics of experiments and read original scientific papers.
Because the neural bases of these behaviors are a principal focus, students having had Psychology 109 are well prepared to take this course. The evolution of social behavior in animals, with special emphasis on group formation, cooperation among kin, mating systems, territoriality and communication. This course is designed to examine the various roles played by the nervous and endocrine systems in controlling both physiological processes and behavior. First, the course will build a foundation in the concepts of neural and endocrine system function. Then we will discuss how these mechanisms form the biological underpinnings of various behaviors and their relevant physiological correlates.