Cognitive Neuroscience (Psyc 3031)
T/Th 11:00 - 12:50, Fall 1998
http://kore.psy.du.edu/munakata/cogneuro98.html
Frontier Hall 45, Department of Psychology
University of Denver

Course Goals The primary goal of this course is to understand the relationship between brain and behavior. As we go through the course, you should keep in mind the following question: How are complex behaviors mediated by the brain? You will come away from this course with answers to this question for a range of mental functions, including object recognition, spatial processing, attention, language, memory, planning, and emotions. You will learn how these answers were discovered using a collection of techniques in cognitive neuroscience. These techniques include behavioral tasks, brain imaging, and electrical recording methods applied to neurologically intact humans, patients with brain damage, and nonhuman animals. By understanding both current findings and techniques in cognitive neuroscience, you will be in a position to evaluate new developments in the field and to design experiments that can further enhance our knowledge of the relationship between brain and behavior.

Required Text

Gazzaniga, M.S., Ivry, R.B., and Mangun, G.R. (1998). Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind. New York, W.W. Norton & Company.

Evaluation Your grade will consist of the following:

Let's consider each of these in turn.

Quiz The 40 question, fill-in-the-blank style quiz covers the basics of neural communication and anatomy (Chapter 2). This is the only test that requires rote memorization of terminology. But, learning these terms early in the course will help you to understand the more substantive issues covered later. And, the answers to the quiz will be provided during the class preceding the quiz. No tricks here: the quiz is about learning the basics you'll need to get the most out of the course.

Exams Exam 1 comprises 5 short answer/essay questions covering methods, perception, attention, and cerebral lateralization (Chapters 3-6, 9). Exam 2 comprises 4 short answer/essay questions covering memory, language, executive function, and emotion (Chapters 7, 8, 11, and 13). These tests require you to understand the fundamental issues involved in each of these topics. We will cover this material in the text or the lectures. And, we will provide a pool of potential questions (from which some of the midterm questions will be selected) prior to each exam. Again, no tricks: the midterms are about thinking through the fundamental issues in the brain-behavior relationship.

NOTE: Make-up quizzes and exams will be available to students providing documented explanation of their absence in class on test day. Make-ups will NOT share the considerable advantage of the actual quiz/exams of answers or questions provided in advance. That is, no answers will be provided for the make-up quiz, and no pool of potential questions will be provided for the make-up exams.

Final Paper The final paper (8-12 double-spaced pages) requires a discussion of the following:

How can new data further advance our understanding of the relationship between brain and behavior? That is, if you could design a new study that could make contributions to cognitive neuroscience, what measure(s)/method(s) would you use and with what population(s)? What could the results tell us about the brain-behavior relationship?

You should be in a good position to answer these questions in your final paper because the course focuses on understanding both current findings in cognitive neuroscience and the ways in which researchers discovered these findings using available methods. In your paper, you may build on experiments and research questions covered in class or you may explore other areas of cognitive neuroscience that interest you. In either case, your paper should - in a concise, scientific style: 1) provide background on the area, 2) describe your proposal for collecting new data, and 3) explain the potential implications of such data for our understanding of the brain-behavior relationship.

This assignment will require careful preparation and thought. We will devote time across several class sessions to providing additional paper guidelines and helping you to hone your papers. The following timeline is designed to ensure that you make progress on your paper (5 of the 35 points for the paper will come from simply making each of the 5 deadlines before the final due date) and that you receive multiple forms of feedback on it before turning in the final version.

Attendance and Participation You are expected to come to class prepared by reading the assigned readings and thinking carefully about them. The material covered in class is designed to complement the textbook, not duplicate it, so you should find both reading the text and attending class beneficial. Your active participation in the course will help you to get the most out of it.

Grading Policy Grades are not curved; they are based on percentages:

Class Schedule

Assignment #1:
Help us learn your names!

Due 9/17/98 in class

To help us learn everyone's names quickly, please photocopy your DU picture ID (or other recent picture ID like a driver's license), cut it out and tape or glue it to the 3 x 5" card that you received in class today. On the SAME side of the card that you attached the copy of your ID, please print the following information:

a. your name as it appears on our class registration list

b. the name you use if different from your first name (such as middle name or nickname)

c. your email address

d. your phone number

e. whether you know how to access the World Wide Web

f. your year and major

g. where you are from (city, state/province, country if outside of North America)

h. your hobbies or interests

Additional Materials of Interest Journals

Books

Anderson, J. R. (1995). Cognitive psychology and its implications. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, fourth edition.

Calvin, W. H., & Ojemann, George, A. (1994). Conversation's with Neil's brain. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Ellis, A., & Young, A. (1988). Human cognitive neuropsychology. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Gazzaniga, M. S. (Ed.). (1994). The cognitive neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Johnson, M. H. (Ed.). (1993). Brain development and cognition: A reader. Oxford: Blackwell.

Kosslyn, S., & Andersen, R. (Eds.). (1992). Frontiers in cognitive neuroscience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

LaPlante, E. (1993). Seized: Temporal lobe epilepsy as a medical, historical, and artistic phenomenon. New York: Harper Collins.

McClelland, J. L., Rumelhart, D. E., & PDP Research Group (Eds.). (1986). Parallel distributed processing. Volume 2: Psychological and biological models. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Ogden, J. (1996). Fractured minds: A case-study approach to cognitive neuropsychology. New York: Oxford Press.

Posner, M. (Ed.). (1989). Foundations of cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Reisburg, D. (1997). Cognition: Exploring the science of the mind. New York: Norton.

Rumelhart, D. E., McClelland, J. L., & PDP Research Group (Eds.). (1986). Parallel distributed processing. Volume 1: Foundations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Schacter, D. L. (1996). Searching for memory: The brain, the mind, and the past. New York: Basic Books.