This course focuses on the current state of our knowledge about the neurobiological basis of learning and memory. A combination of lectures and student seminars will explore the molecular and cellular basis of learning in invertebrates and vertebrates from a behavioral and neural perspective.

The course will begin with a review of basic concepts in pharmacology including: routes of drug administration, drug metabolism, the dose response curve, tolerance and sensitization. Following a brief overview of cellular foundations of neuropharmacology (neuronal biology, synaptic and receptor function), the course will focus on several neurotransmitter systems and the molecular and behavioral mechanisms mediating the mind-altering, additive and neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia and anxiety with an emphasis on their underlying neurobiological causes, as well as the pharmacological approaches for treatment.

This course will focus on the molecular basis of neurological diseases, exploring in detail key papers that cover topics including defining the disease genes, development of animal models that provide mechanistic insight, and seminal findings that reveal molecular understanding. Diseases covered will include neurological diseases of great focus today such as Alzheimer's, Fragile-X and autism, dementia, motor neuron degeneration, and microsatellite repeat expansion disorders. The course will provide a perspective from initial molecular determination through current status. Students will gain an understanding of how the molecular basis of a disease is discovered (from classical genetics to modern genomics) and how such diseases can be modeled in simple genetic systems for mechanistic insight. The course will be comprised of lectures with detailed analysis of primary literature and in-class activities. Grading will be based on class participation, exams, and written papers. Biology 2210 is a pre-requisite. Seniors are prioritized for the course

This seminar will focus on the neural basis of auditory perception and cognition. We will examine auditory processing in animal ‘specialists’ to understand how sounds are processed in parallel pathways for identification and localization. We will also examine auditory cortical mechanisms for cognitive functions including attention, decision making, speech comprehension, and working memory. Emphasis will be placed on the analysis of primary literature. Students will be required to orally present journal articles from the primary literature, participate in the article discussions, write peer-reviews, and write a final “News and Views”-style paper.

What motivates us to eat? Why do many of us eat even in the absence of hunger? How do our food preferences and habits form? And how can eating transition from regulated to dysregulated? This seminar class investigates these questions and many others, with a focus on how our brains regulate food intake. We will explore the neuroscience behind eating, as well as the genetic, psychological, social, cultural, and societal influences that shape our behavior. Through readings, assignments, and class discussions, we will navigate the biological forces behind normal eating, as well as how eating becomes disordered in diseases like obesity and eating disorders. Through this course, students will learn about behavioral neuroscience research from human and animal studies and will develop critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. There are no prerequisites except for a love of food.

The evolution of behavior in animals will be explored using basic genetic and evolutionary principles. Lectures will highlight behavioral principles using a wide range of animal species, both vertebrate and invertebrate. Examples of behavior include the complex economic decisions related to foraging, migratory birds using geomagnetic fields to find breeding grounds, and the decision individuals make to live in groups. Group living has led to the evolution of social behavior and much of the course will focus on group formation, cooperation among kin, mating systems, territoriality and communication.

The evolution of behavior in animals will be explored using basic genetic and evolutionary principles. Lectures will highlight behavioral principles using a wide range of animal species, both vertebrate and invertebrate. Examples of behavior include the complex economic decisions related to foraging, migratory birds using geomagnetic fields to find breeding grounds, and the decision individuals make to live in groups. Group living has led to the evolution of social behavior and much of the course will focus on group formation, cooperation among kin, mating systems, territoriality and communication.

The evolution of behavior in animals will be explored using basic genetic and evolutionary principles. Lectures will highlight behavioral principles using a wide range of animal species, both vertebrate and invertebrate. Examples of behavior include the complex economic decisions related to foraging, migratory birds using geomagnetic fields to find breeding grounds, and the decision individuals make to live in groups. Group living has led to the evolution of social behavior and much of the course will focus on group formation, cooperation among kin, mating systems, territoriality and communication.

This discussion-based seminar will focus on the neural bases of cognitive development.
Each week the class will discuss a selection of papers that consider the roles of genes and environment on topics including the development of perceptual abilities, language, and cognition. The course will cover several aspects of pre- and postnatal brain and behavioral development with particular emphasis on animal models. This course is intended for students interested in neurobiology, cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology and development.

In a world where humans can't seem to agree on much of anything, there is one thing that still unites us: we love music. Why should abstract sequences of sounds give us such strong emotional reactions? Why indeed should they give us any emotional reaction at all? On every continent, today and throughout history, there is not a single human culture that has ever been described that does not make music. Within cultures, music is so ubiquitous that we actually have clinical terms (amusia and musical anhedonia) to describe people who don't understand or don't enjoy music. And yet, despite this ubiquity, the evolutionary origin and purpose of music remains unknown. Not only do people everywhere make music - they do so in fundamentally similar ways. All over the world people divide rhythm into twos and threes; all over the world people divide the frequency spectrum logarithmically, in octaves; with a very few exceptions, we divide octaves into no more than 12 steps, and we use subsets of 5-7 of these tones at a time. Not only that, but many cultures seem to have independently arrived at the same sets of 5-7 notes. These are probably not coincidences. If not coincidence, then what? In this course we look for explanations to these and other questions about music by looking at something that humans all over the globe have in common: the brain. Using readings from the primary literature and classic texts, supplemented with software exercises and analysis, we will see how many of the age-old mysteries and questions of music can be either answered or in some cases amplified by a consideration of brain mechanisms. Thinking about music in the context of brain function also provides a biological and evolutionary rationale not just for why music is the way it is, but why it should exist at all. More broadly, this course is an example of what can (and cannot) be accomplished by addressing aesthetic and philosophical questions as scientific and empirical ones. Prerequisite: NRSC 1110 and prior musical instruction, any instrument.