Undergraduate

PSY 332D - Human Brain Imaging in Psychology

From electrophysiology to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), studies utilizing brain imaging technologies have become pervasive in the Psychology and Neuroscience literatures. How do the new techniques work and what do they tell us about how the mind works? The course will focus primarily on these questions. After a basic overview of brain imaging techniques and the mental process that can be inferred from these methodologies, the course will explore some of the “seminal” works in functional imaging. Students then branch out into a specific area of interest (i.e. - language, attention, vision, memory, social psychology) and develop an in class presentation and a final research proposal. There are hands-on laboratory sessions in EEG, functional MRI and structural MRI.

Graduate

PSY 387S - Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience

This course aims to introduce graduate students to the principles of cognitive neuroscience. We begin with an overview of the history, experimental approaches and methods used to study human mental activity from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Following this very important foundation, we will move into content sections that focus on specific cognitive domains presented by faculty with expertise in those areas. These sections will cover a broad range of domains from low-level processes like attention and perception to high-level processes like categorization, memory, and decision-making. In addition, there will be sections on cognitive lifespan development, which will include both childhood development of cognition and changes in cognition associated with aging. By the end of the course, the student should have a comprehensive overview of what is unique about approaching the study of cognition and psychology from a cognitive neuroscience perspective, including a solid exposure to how it is currently being applied to study a broad range of human mental activity.

PSY 394U and NEU 394P - Introduction to Psychophysiology

The use of physiological recordings to study psychological processes is extensive. This course will provide an overview of the principles, theory, and applications of using physiological measures to study mental processes. The course will begin by covering the philosophical and theoretical foundations of brain/behavior relations, followed by a short introduction to basic electrical principles and human neurophysiology in order establish an understanding of the sources and characteristics of the physiological signals that are recorded. This will be followed by a selection of 8 topics that will introduce students to major approaches to psychophysiological research, both techniques as well as specific research examples. Included in this presentation will be extensive practical examples of different approaches to signal processing, including newer methods in brain source localization. Finally, students will explore some of these techniques through 4, hands on, lab exercises.