Psychological Science: Neurosci of Memory and Emotion

See Schedule of Courses for specific titles. Prerequisites: PSYS 2002; and PSYS 2100 or PSYS 2200 or PSYS 2300 or PSYS 2400 or PSYS 2500.

Prereqs: (PSYS 2000 or PSYS 2002) and (PSYS 2200 or NSCI 2100 or NSCI 2105); Junior and Senior class standing only; PSYS, NEUR majors and minors only; PACE students by permission and override. Special Topics courses cannot carry CC designations

This is a new course that I am developing and teaching for the first time. For Psychological Science B.S. and Neuroscience students, the course will fulfill a Category A requirement. Neuroscience of Memory and Emotion will focus on what we have learned, and continue to learn, about how our brains support our memories and emotions. We will cover topics such as the neural substrates of fear learning and memory, the brain areas that store our long-term memories of events in our lives, and the circuits that support voluntary behavior and decision-making. We will also get into some of neuron-level machinery (e.g., synaptic plasticity) that allows our brains to do all of this. You will especially like the course topics if you enjoyed PSYS 2100 (Learning, Cognition & Behavior) and/or the learning, memory, and emotion sections of PSYS 2200 (Biopsychology) or NSCI 2100 (Exploring Neuroscience).

The format of the course will be a mixture of lectures to strengthen your knowledge base in this field, discussion of journal articles from the literature, and in-class activities. Attendance will be very important and my goal is to get everyone participating. The required textbook is “The Neurobiology of Learning and Memory” (3rd edition) by Jerry W. Rudy. This an e-book and will be available through the UVM bookstore. The content of select chapters will be the focus of lectures, exams, and quizzes.

Evaluation will be mainly a mixture of in-class exams, in-class and out-of-class writing assignments, and online quizzes.