Summer Term Undergraduate Courses

This course examines both the evolution and mechanisms of hormonal effects on behavior across animals, including humans. Topics will include the effects of hormones on sexual differentiation, reproductive behavior, parental behavior, stress, and social behavior. Additionally, this course emphasizes developing skills in hypothesis testing and critically assessing the scientific literature. Cross-listed with Behavioral Biology and Neuroscience.

Prerequisite: AS.200.141 (Foundations of Brain, Behavior and Cognition) or AS.080.306 (Neuroscience: Cellular & Systems II) or AS.020.152 (General Biology II) or instructor's permission.

Recent scientific evidence shows that our brain has a great deal of malleability at any age and that our lifestyle choices play an important role in shrinking or growing different parts of our brain. Factors such as poor sleep, obesity, anxiety, and poor diet lead to accumulating shrinkage in the brain while even three months of exercise, brain training, meditation, and optimal sleep can grow the brain. You can learn to apply these new discoveries into your day-to-day life in order to improve your memory, attention, organizational skills, and overall brain vitality. Much of your learning in this course will happen during classes. Each lecture is followed by a 10-minute engaging and fun discussion session to make sure you have grasped the main concepts for that presentation.

This course will provide a fundamental understanding of the mammalian nervous system, with an emphasis on how molecules, cells, circuits, and systems in the brain work to promote behavior and cognition. Topics covered in this course include the function of nerve cells, signaling between brain networks, basic neuroanatomy, and the neural bases of movement, sensation, and memory. This course is designed for any student who has an interest in the range of disciplines we call neuroscience.

Is the mind identical to the brain? Is the mind (or brain) a computer? Could a computer reason, have emotions, or be morally responsible? This course examines such questions philosophically and historically. Topics include the history of AI research from 1940s to present; debates in cognitive science related to AI (computationalism, connectionism, and 4E cognition); and AI ethics.

This course will provide an overview of neuroaesthetics: the study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the body, brain, and behavior and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing. The course will provide students with the foundations and theories of neuroaesthetics including the history of neuroaesthetics, the basic neurobiology of the senses, neuroanatomy and mechanisms of brain structure involved in the arts and aesthetics. The course will also take a deep dive into the book, Your Brain on Art, highlighting interactive case studies, immersive creative activities, and discussions with experts from the field.

Prequisite: AS.080.306 (Nueroscience: Cellular & Systems II) OR AS.200.141 (Foundations of Brain, Behavior and Cognition).

Students will develop a working knowledge of the characteristics that have been identified through research as being important in effective college transitions. Using practical and theoretical objectives, the course will explore the relevance of developmental and positive psychological processes as they apply in academic and social settings and provide theory-based research approaches for thriving in college and beyond. The developmental period of emerging adulthood (ages 18-25) will be discussed with a primary focus on cognitive, moral, and identity development theories. Students also will gain an understanding of what contributes to thriving and how to build the enabling conditions of a life worth living. The developmental theories and central concepts in positive psychology will provide students with a foundation to navigate college academic expectations and equip them with the attitudes, skills, and resources needed to function optimally and excel in college.