Daniel Weissman, Psychology | 2016-2017
PSYCH 302: How does the brain enable the mind? Answering this question is the goal of cognitive neuroscience, a relatively new field of study that represents the union of human neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and neurophysiology. The goal of this course is to train students in the methods of cognitive neuroscience, with a particular focus on cognitive psychology and functional MRI. Students will learn to read and interpret real scientific articles from the field, design cognitive psychology experiments, analyze data from a real cognitive psychology experiment conducted during the laboratory section using Excel and SPSS, design functional MRI experiments, analyze data from real functional MRI experiments in laboratory section, and to write/present research effectively in the discipline. By the end of the course, students will have a detailed understanding of how cognitive neuroscientists using functional MRI discover which brain regions are “activated” when people perform cognitive tasks. They will also understand how images of such activations, which abound in the popular media, are created and should (or should not) be interpreted.
PSYCH 841: Functional MRI has become one of the leading methods in cognitive neuroscience for exploring brain-behavior relationships. Through a combination of lectures and lab exercises involving real functional MRI data, this course will provide students with the conceptual and hands-on experience they need to independently design and analyze functional MRI studies.Moreover, students will learn to use popular software for analyzing functional MRI data, such as SPM and Marsbar.