Psychology 3224A-001
Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.
1.0 CALENDAR DESCRIPTION
Neural mechanisms in human perception, spatial orientation, memory, language and motor behaviour.Antirequisite: Psychology 3227A/B
Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. So if you take a course that is an antirequisite to a course previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in the most recent course.
Prerequisites: Psychology 2820E or both Psychology 2800E and 2810, and one of Psychology 2220A/B, 2221A/B or Neuroscience 2000
3 lecture/discussion hours, 0.5 course.
Unless you have either the requisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth HampsonOffice and Phone Number: SSC 9218
519-661-2111 Ext. 84675
Office Hours: By appointment
Email: ehampson@uwo.ca
Teaching Assistant: Evan Houldin
Office: NSC
Office Hours: by appointment*
Email: ehouldin@uwo.ca
Time and Location of Lectures: Tuesdays, 2:30 – 5:30 PM
Room 11, Arthur & Sonia Labatt Health Sciences Bldg
If you or someone you know is experiencing distress, there are several resources here at Western to assist you. Please visit: http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for more information on these resources and on mental health.
Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 519-661-2111 ext 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
Required:Cognitive Neuroscience (3rd ed.), by Marie T. Banich & Rebecca J. Compton (2011). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Occasionally extra readings or diagrams will be required and they will be posted on OWL in PDF format (see Lecture Schedule).
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
The objective of this course is to familiarize students with some of the symptoms that follow acquired brain damage in human beings, with an aim toward understanding what these symptoms can tell us about the normal functional organization of the human brain.1. To provide an introductory overview of the principal methods, research findings, theories, and contentious issues in the field of cognitive neuroscience.
2. To encourage the reading of primary source material; to encourage critical thinking and logical scientific or clinical inference.
5.0 EVALUATION
All students should be familiar with the basic neuroanatomy of the central nervous system upon entering the course. However, the lectures will review basic terminology and major features of the brain and associated tissues.There will be a quiz on October 6 (Quiz 1), worth 15% of the final grade, and a second quiz on November 3 (Quiz 2), worth 20%. The final exam in December will be worth 55%. It will be written during the final exam period, and the timing will be scheduled by the Office of the Registrar. The final exam will be 3 hrs in length. All quizzes and exams will include multiple choice and short-answer questions (e.g., fill-in-the-blanks, definitions, or questions that require a brief written response). Quizzes may also include label-the-diagram questions. No diagrams will appear on the final exam, but the final will include a written short-to-medium answer section and a long-answer essay question. Quizzes will not be cumulative. The final exam will be cumulative.
Quizzes and exams will be based on the lecture material and assigned readings. Extra readings or diagrams that are posted on OWL will be included in the quizzes and exams.
The remaining 10% of the final grade will be based on a written mini-review, due on December 1. This should take the form of a written scholarly essay of ~ 1200-1400 words (not counting References), which critically analyzes and discusses a topic of current controversy within cognitive neuroscience. A selection of appropriate topics will be provided, but students may also design their own topic (with the prior agreement of the course instructor). You will be required to independently research your topic and synthesize the material into a scholarly critique, citing references to support your arguments. Your mini-review is due December 1 and must be submitted in hardcopy and by electronic submission to Turnitin. A late penalty of 10% per day will be applied to papers submitted after the deadline.
Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:
70% 1000-level and 2000-level courses
72% 2190-2990 level courses
75% 3000-level courses
80% 4000-level courses
The Psychology Department follows the University of Western Ontario grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/general/grades_undergrad.pdf):
A+ 90-100 One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A 80-89 Superior work that is clearly above average
B 70-79 Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C 60-69 Competent work, meeting requirements
D 50-59 Fair work, minimally acceptable
F below 50 Fail
6.0 TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE
Quiz 2 November 3 20%
Mini-Review December 1 10%
Final Exam TBA 55%
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
PowerPoint Notes will be posted on OWL, either before or after each day's lecture. All weekly readings described below can be found in the textbook, Cognitive Neuroscience (3rd ed.). You should check the OWL website regularly for additional required readings or diagrams posted in PDF format:
September 15: Course organization and evaluation scheme
Review of brain anatomy and vascular system
Reading: Chapter 1: Introduction to the Nervous System, pp. 1-16 only (stop at the heading “Primary Sensory and Motor Cortices”)
September 22: Neurological disorders
Diagnostic and imaging techniques
Reading: Chapter 3: Methods (read whole chapter)
September 29: Hemispheric specialization in the normal brain
Sex and handedness
Reading: Chapter 4: Hemispheric Specialization (read whole chapter)
October 6: Quiz #1
Video, guest lecture, or demos
Reading: No textbook reading assigned for this week
October 13: The modular organization of the visual system
Visual field defects in clinical neurology
Blindsight
Cortical lesions and the extraction of object features
Reading: Chapter 6: Early Perceptual Processing
(read pp. 145-165 only, stop at the heading "Auditory
Processing" )
October 20: The “Two Visual Systems” model
Visual agnosias
Balint’s syndrome, contralateral neglect
Visuomotor areas in the parietal cortex
Reading: Chapter 7: Object Recognition, pp. 178-201
(stop at pp. 202-205, “Agnosias in Other Modalities”)
October 27: Deficits in spatial synthesis or orientation; processing of visuospatial information
Reading: Chapter 8: Spatial Cognition (whole chapter)
Also read: Chapter 11: pp. 321-333 only (section on "Hemineglect: Clinical Aspects")
November 3: Quiz #2, Video
Reading: No readings assigned for this week
November 10: The programming and execution of movement
Parkinson’s disease
Reading: Chapter 5: Motor Control (whole chapter)
November 17: Neural mechanisms involved in speech
Aphasias; acquired impairments in reading
Limb apraxia, relations between speech and praxis
Reading: See PDF on OWL site: Chapter 19 "Language" from Fundamentals of Human Neuro-psychology (7th Ed.), 2015. Note: We will be using
this PDF chapter instead of our textbook as the only assigned reading for the November 17 lecture.
November 24: Memory and the temporal lobes
Disorders of memory, amnesias
The role of the hippocampus in memory
Diencephalic amnesia
A neural model of explicit memory
Reading: Chapter 10: Memory (whole chapter)
December 1: The frontal lobes and disorders of emotional and behavioural regulation
Mini-Reviews Due
Reading: Chapter 12: Executive Function (whole chapter)
December 8: Alzheimer’s disease, other forms of dementia
Review
Reading: Chapter 16: Generalized Cognitive Disorders, read pp. 471-489 only (section on "Dementing Diseases")
8.0 STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES
Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf
As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com
Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.
9.0 POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS
The University of Western Ontario’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2015/pg117.html
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
10.0 OTHER INFORMATION
Office of the Registrar web site: http://registrar.uwo.ca
Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca
Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:
http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html
- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences
- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2015 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.
