INTRODUCTION TO NEUROSCIENCE
This course is required for all the other courses offered in Neuroscience and Behavior. The course introduces students to the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. The topics include the biological structure of the nervous system and its different cell types, the basis of the action potential, principles of neurotransmission, neuronal basis of behavior, sleep/wake cycles, and basic aspects of clinical neuroscience.
- TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
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Instructor:
Alex White
h-index: 13 Info - 3 points
LABORATORY IN NEUROSCIENCE
NEUROSCIENCE LAB
This course provides a hands-on introduction to techniques commonly used in current neurobiological research. Topics covered will include neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and invertebrate animal behavioral genetics. Participation in this course involves dissection of sheep brains and experimentation with invertebrate animals.
- T 1:40 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
- W 1:40 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
- R 9:10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- R 1:40 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
- F 9:10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- 3 points
STATISTICS AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
STATISTICS & EXPERIMTL DE
This course is for students interested in learning how to conduct scientific research. They will learn how to (i) design well-controlled experiments and identify “quack” science; (ii) organize, summarize and illustrate data, (iii) analyze different types of data; and (iv) interpret the results of statistical tests.
- R 4:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Anamaria Alexandrescu
Info - 4 points
DISORDERS OF THE MIND AND THE BRAIN
MIND/BRAIN DISORDERS
Mental disorders have historically been distinguished from other medical illnesses because they affect the higher cognitive processes that are referred to as the “mind”. Neuroscience offers one way for understanding mental disorders, asserting that the mind is a manifestation of brain activity, thereby categorizing these disorders as essentially brain disorders. This course explores the ongoing search for the brain correlates of mental disorders and the significant impact this search has had on our contemporary understanding of mental health. Engaging with review and research papers on schizophrenia, autism spectrum, and mood disorders, students will learn to interpret experimental evidence in Neuroscience and to evaluate known theories through both supporting and non-supporting evidence. While the course acknowledges neuroscience's progress in understanding mental disorders, it also considers some of the problems encountered in viewing them as essentially biological phenomena: Can brain-based explanations capture the lived experience of mental disorders? Could these disorders also originate from outside the brain? How should they be treated, and should they be always treated?
NOTE: The course desctiption is the same for the fall/spring course and the summer course.
HORMONES AND BEHAVIOR
Prerequisites: BC1001 or BIOL BC1101, BC1102, or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 45 students. This class explores the complex interactions among genetics, hormones, environment, experience, and behavior. Topics covered include the endocrine system, sexual development, reproductive behavior, and social interactions such as affiliation, aggression, parenting, as well as homeostasis, biological rhythms, stress, memory, and mood.
SYSTEMS AND BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
This course provides an in-depth examination of the physiological bases of behavior and the development, organization, and function of the nervous system. Specific topics include methods used in behavioral neuroscience, development of the nervous system, sensory and motor systems, homeostasis, sexual differentiation, biological rhythms, stress, learning and memory, psychopathology, and neurological disorders.
- TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Russell D Romeo
CULPA: 9
Info
- 3 points
INDEPENDENT STUDY
This course can be worth 1 to 4 credits (each credit is equivalent to approximately three hours of work per week) and requires a Barnard faculty as a mentor who has to provide written approval. The course entails a scholarly component; for this, a research report is required by the end of the term. The research report can take the form that best suits the nature of the project. The course will be taken for a letter grade, regardless of whether the student chooses 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits.
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Instructor:
Peter D Balsam
CULPA: 25 Info -
Instructor:
Elizabeth P Bauer
CULPA: 3 h-index: 21 Info -
Instructor:
Bj Casey
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Instructor:
Maria de la Paz Fernandez
h-index: 11 Info -
Instructor:
Gabrielle J Gutierrez
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Instructor:
Kara Pham
CULPA: 9
Info
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Instructor:
Russell D Romeo
CULPA: 9
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Instructor:
Rae Silver
Wikipedia h-index: 69 Info -
Instructor:
Alex White
h-index: 13 Info -
Instructor:
E'Mett McCaskill
CULPA: 38
Info
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Instructor:
Anamaria Alexandrescu
Info - 1-4 points
TOPICS IN NEUROETHICS
Prerequisites: BC1001 and one of the following: Neurobiology, Behavioral Neuroscience, Fundamentals of Neuropsychology, or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 20 students. Recent advancements in neuroscience raise profound ethical questions. Neuroethics integrates neuroscience, philosophy, and ethics in an attempt to address these issues. Reviews current debated topics relevant to the brain, cognition, and behavior. Bioethical and philosophical principles will be applied allowing students to develop skill in ethical analysis.
- R 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
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Instructor:
E'Mett McCaskill
CULPA: 38
Info
- 4 points
Hallucinations, illusions, dreaming and
HALLUCINATNS,ILLUSNS, DRE
Perception is often taken as the most striking proof of something factual: when we perceive something, we interpret it as real. In this seminar we will challenge this assumption by taking into consideration states of altered perception, wherein the brain creates perceptual experiences that do not correspond to sensory input. Specifically, we will review a number of experiments showing changes in brain activity accompanying illusions, hallucinations, and dreaming across sensory modalities (i.e., vision, hearing, touch), and in both clinical and non-clinical populations. We will examine the similarities and differences between these states of altered perception both at the level of phenomenology and underlying biological mechanisms, specifically focusing on neural oscillations. Using the latest research findings in clinical, cognitive, and computational neuroscience, this seminar offers a great opportunity to learn more about how the brain creates perceptual experiences and why sometimes we perceive something that isn’t real.
NEURONAL CIRCUITS: NEUROGENETICS AND PRI
This course introduces students to state-of-the art genetic and computational tools to study connectivity in neuronal circuits that control behavior. The focus will be on the
Drosophila
Circadian Clock Neuron Network (CCNN), a well-characterized neuronal circuit that controls sleep/wake cycles among other rhythms in physiology and behavior. Students will learn about genetic tools for neuronal circuit mapping and connectomics analysis, and will perform behavioral experiments with transgenic animals in which specific neuronal subpopulations within the CCNN were genetically manipulated.
- F 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
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Instructor:
Maria de la Paz Fernandez
h-index: 11 Info - 4 points
PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF STRESS
- T 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
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Instructor:
Russell D Romeo
CULPA: 9
Info
- 4 points
PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF SLEEP
This seminar will explore sleep and circadian rhythms, emphasizing how these factors and their disruption influence human health, disease, function, and well-being. Topics will include the physiologic and neurobiological generation of sleep and circadian rhythms, and the interaction between these systems with cognitive, behavioral, endocrine, metabolic, and mood/psychiatric variables in humans, as well as sleep disorders and their treatment.
NOTE: The course description is the same for the fall/spring course and the summer course.
- M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
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Instructor:
Ari Shechter
CULPA: 2 h-index: 23 Info - 4 points
NEUROSCIENCE GUIDED RESEARCH
Neuroscience research commonly generates datasets that are increasingly complex and large. Open science and data sharing platforms have emerged across a wide range of neuroscience disciplines, laying the foundation for a transformation in the way scientists share, analyze, and reuse immense amounts of data collected in laboratories around the world. This class is designed to introduce students to several open source databases that span multiple investigative levels of neuroscience research. Students will utilize the datasets to conduct individual research projects.
RSRCH/SEM-NEUROSCNC&BEHAVIOR
Prerequisites: Open to senior Neuroscience and Behavior majors. Permission of the instructor. This is a year-long course. By the end of the spring semester program planning period during junior year, majors should identify the lab they will be working in during their senior year. Discussion and conferences on a research project culminate in a written and oral senior thesis. Each project must be supervised by a scientist working at Barnard or at another local institution. Successful completion of the seminar substitutes for the major examination.
- R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
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Instructor:
Peter D Balsam
CULPA: 25 Info -
Instructor:
Bj Casey
Info -
Instructor:
Alex White
h-index: 13 Info - 4 points