Neuroscience

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 5
• Convenor: Professor Angelica Ronald
• Prerequisite: Introduction to Neuroscience
• Assessment: a two-hour written examination (100%)

On this module, you will:

• explore in more depth (following on from the Psychobiology I course) the structure and function of the central nervous system and sensory systems in the body
• study the biological basis of emotion and social cognition
• understand the way in which genes and environment influence brain development and are responsible for individual differences in brain development and behaviour
• investigate the contribution of evolutionary approaches and primate research to understanding the biological basis of human brain development and behaviour.

Indicative module content

• The central nervous system
• Sensory processing
• Biological aspects of emotion and sleep
• The neural basis of social cognition
• Behaviour genetics
• Evolutionary explanations of animal behaviour

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• describe the structure of the central nervous system and the process of information transmission in the nervous system
• understand how sensory systems function and how they cooperate
• understand and present evidence on the biological basis of emotion and social cognition in the brain
• discuss how behavioural genetics has advanced our understanding of the causes of learning abilities and psychological disorders such as autism and ADHD
• understand the interplay between genetics and environmental influences in causing variation in human behaviour
• describe examples of evolutionary explantations of animal behaviour
• understand the major methods applied in neuroscience and behaviour genetics.