Students may take the course for credit in two consecutive years, as the material covered does not overlap. Topics include types of memory, evidence of memory in single unit responses, computational approaches, habituation, conditioned reflexes, electrophysiologic indices, neuroanatomy of amnesia, interhemispheric relations, and clinical amnesia. Advanced undergraduates may elect this course with approval of course director. This course provides a critical overview of current knowledge of systems neuroscience. The topics include an overview of approaches and techniques, a comprehensive account of functional connectivity, transmitters, neurophysiology, and behavioral measures of sensory and motor systems, the basal ganglia, the limbic and hypothalamic systems, as well as memory, attention, and neurobiology of language.
Students also participate in a gross brain dissection.
This course covers the fundamental principles of the experimental analysis of behavior, including both operant and respondent conditioning. From there it progresses to include stimulus control and stimulus generalization and response generalization and how these processes work in the formation of behavioral chains. It then discusses the formation of more complex operant behaviors, including psychophysics, learning and memory, and language acquisition. The final part of the course relates these principles to applied areas of the human environment, including behavior modification and entities such as legal and religious systems. This experience provides an opportunity for students to acquire and develop skills in teaching and course management in neuroscience.