Center for Neuroscience, Mind & Behavior

Biology 5120 (Meserve): Endocrinology. Physiological, metabolic actions of endocrine secretions with emphasis on mammals. Three one-hour lectures and one three-hour laboratory

Biology 5200 (Geusz): Neurophysiology. The function of vertebrate and invertebrate nervous systems in relation to biophysical mechanisms. Changes occurring during development, learning, aging, and neurological disorders. Three one-hour lectures. Prerequisites: BIOL 204 and BIOL 205, or consent of instructor.

Biology 5210 (Geusz): Animal Physiology. Principles of general and comparative animal physiology with emphasis on vertebrate systems. Two one-hour lectures and one four-hour laboratory. Prerequisites: BIOL 204 and BIOL 205; Organic Chemistry and BIOL 515 recommended, or consent of instructor. Extra fee.

BIOL 4200/5430 : Animal Behavior This course focuses on the mechanisms and evolution of animal behavior, including neural, hormonal, and genetic substrates of behavior; foraging; anti-predator defenses; mating systems and sexual selection; social behavior; communication; parental care; kin selection and recognition; and territoriality. Laboratory exercises will provide hands-on experience for many of these concepts.

Biology 4190/5800 (Coombs): Neuroethology. Neural mechanisms of natural, unconditioned behaviors in an ecological, evolutionary and life-history context.   This interdisciplinary course covers philosophical, psychological and biological approaches to the neurobiological basis of animal behavior, examining a wide range of natural behaviors in both invertebrate and vertebrate taxa.   Prerequisite: BIOL 204 or BIOL 205; BIOL 330 or PSYC 330 strongly recommended.

CDIS 6110 (Goberman): Motor Speech Disorders. This course is designed to be an introduction and comprehensive review of motor speech disorders. The course starts with neuroanatomy and neurophysiology relevant to speech motor control, then shifts to review of specific disorders leading to dysarthrias and apraxias of speech. A majority of the course will focus on the causes, characteristics, evaluation, and treatment of motor speech disorders, with additional specific information included on non-speech medical and personal aspects of these disorders.

CDIS 7800 (Hewitt): Seminar in Language Science I. This course provides an overview of the major areas of modern linguistic science and relates them to work in language development and disorders.  It is intended to provide students with the vocabulary and knowledge needed to read the literature in the field of communicative disorders and sciences, with special reference to developmental language disorders and developmental psycholinguistics. Much of this literature is based on linguistic theory and language science.  Attention will be given to developing students' awareness of the current state of knowledge regarding human language, the diversity of human language, the nature of linguistic analysis, and its application to research and clinical issues in communication disorders.  Areas to be covered include the five traditional areas of linguistics, as well as some information on language typology and language change. 

CDIS 7800 (Hewitt): Seminar in Language Science II. This seminar is designed to provide an overview of contemporary issues in child language development and disorders of development. Topics to be covered in the first half of the class include modern theories of language acquisition, including nativism, constructivism, social interactionism, and emergentism. In the second half we will discuss developmental problems associated with language disorders, including neonatal brain injury, specific language impairment, autism, and others. The course concludes with a look at the social construction of language disorders, investigating alternative views of disability and how they shape theories of disordered language.

Philosophy 533 (Bradie): Philosophy and Physics of Space and Time. This course is an introduction to the philosophy and history of concepts of space and time. Among the topics to be covered are Zeno's paradoxes, the dispute between Newton and Leibniz on the nature of space and time (Are space and time entities in their own right or not), the relationship between geometry and physics (the structure of space and time and spacetime), and some implications of relativity theory (time dilation, length contraction, the relativity of simultaneity, the possibility of time travel) and the question of the compatibility of relativity theory and quantum mechanics. Among the more philosophical issues, we will examine the relation of models to reality, the role of convention in scientific theory, questions of evidence and testability of scientific models, and questions of determinism and causality. We conclude with some reflections on the nature of scientific theories, in general, and theories of space-time structure, in particular.

Philosophy 780 (Worley): Philosophy of Mind. This course serves as an introduction to the philosophy of mind. Issues covered include the relationship between mind and body (and, in particular, the problem of consciousness), the nature and individuation of intentional states (beliefs and desires and the like), the problem of meaning or intentionality, mental causation, and the nature and existence of the self. Particular questions we might ask include: whether a neurobiological reduction of consciousness will ever be possible (and what the constraints are on such reduction), whether computers will ever be able to think, and what selves are and whether they must come "one to a customer" or whether there can be persons without selves or with multiple selves. Readings will include the "standard" philosophical voices on these topics (e.g., Putnam, Fodor, Searle, Nagel, Levine, Jackson, Chalmers, Dennett, Searle, Kim, the Churchlands). However, there has also been quite a bit of recent work based on the assumption that we can learn something about these questions if we look at real but unusual or pathological cases. Autism, for instance, has been thought to teach us something about the 'theory theory' of folk psychology as well, as perhaps, provide some evidence for a particular view of belief and meaning. Similarly, disturbances of identity like those found in DID (dissociative identity disorder) and schizophrenia may tell us something about the self. So we may also look at some of the literature in philosophical psychopathology.

Psychology 710 (Bingman): Basic Neuroscience and Cognition. This course is a composite of two emphases: one in neurophysiology (an introduction to molecular, cellular and systems neuroscience), the other in cognitive neuroscience and clinical implications. The first part of the course examines the physical and chemical properties of nerve cells, nerve cell communication and ends with an exploration of sensory (visual) system organization. This section may not appeal to all, but it is fundamental for understanding brain functioning, which is the origin of all thoughts, actions and experiences. The second part of the course examines how (or at least how we think) the brain regulates cognitive processes such as learning and memory, spatial maps, language, and if we are feeling particularly courageous, consciousness (in addition to discussion relevant to neurology and neuropsychiatry).

Psychology 7140 (Cromwell): Psychobiology. What makes an animal eat at one point in time but groom or sleep or explore at another point in time when during the entire period food has been available, the spatial context has not changed and the animal has not been significantly perturbed in any manner. Still the animal shows variety of acts in the face of stability and consistency. In other cases, we can change the environment considerably yet the animal's set of behaviors remain similar. Certain typical actions are still observed and regular rhythms produced. What controls behavior in these situations? You will be exposed to the world of behavioral neuroscience, animal research and the concept(s) related to motivation related to these important questions. It's a large and very active research area in experimental psychology that has implications for human studies of mental health and behavioral performance.

Psychology 7170: Sensation and Perception. This course addresses the question of how brains are able to make sense of the physical environment, including the perception of objects, size, motion, events, and their relationships. An emphasis of this course is on evaluation and comparison of theories of visual and auditory perception and supporting empirical work.

Psychology 5810 or 7800/7810 (Bingman): The Psychology of Space and Time. The nature of space and time has been a rich source of vigorous discussion among philosophers, physicists, psychologists, and biologists. What is clear is that space and time for animals, including humans, are phenomena strongly influenced by how the world is perceived, how the world is understood, and the underlying brain machinery that creates these psychological experiences. This course, which combines lectures with student presentations, explores the psychology of space and time by examining how the psychological processes of space and time perception and cognition are regulated by underlying brain mechanisms.

Psychology 5810 or 7800/7810: Animal Intelligence. From Aristotle to Descartes to Romanes to Macphail, the historical debate over animal intelligence continues to polarize philosophers, natural historians and scientists. This course, which combines lectures with student presentations, builds from that debate by examining scientific and observational reports of problem solving ability, category formation, episodic memory, spatial cognition, social cognition and language in a range of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Both behavior and underlying neural bases are sources of discussion.

Psychology 7800/7810: Current Topics in Affective Neuroscience. This course focuses on new and exciting topics in the field of affective neuroscience. The general theme is on emotion and on the most current topic of emotion/affect research. Additionally, our themes usually take a neuroscience approach, an approach that uses experimental techniques to uncover how the brain is involved in emotional response and in feeling states of organisms. Themes in the past have been " The Good, the bad and the ugly: The brain substrates for positive and negative emotion " and " Affective consciousness " as revealed by Antonio Damasio and his work " The feeling of what happens ". Future ideas include 1) Socio-Emotional Neuroscience and Animal models, 2) Development of emotion, 3) Brain, Emotion and Developmental Disorders, 3) New arguments in the emotion/cognition debate and 4) Any interesting topic that graduate students can come up with related to the general theme. 

Psychology 7800/7810 (Sharp): Psychopharmacology. This course covers basic receptor anatomy and physiology for several of the major neurotransmitter systems, with an emphasis on those systems thought to be involved in disease processes. In addition, the course includes special topics on certain of these psychiatric diseases.