Psychology 3224B-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 behavior.

                          

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

Unless you have either the prerequisites 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. 

3 lecture/discussion hours, 0.5 course.

2.0    COURSE INFORMATION

Instructor:  Dr. Laura Batterink                                       

Office: Western Interdisciplinary Science Building 5140

Phone Number: 519.661.2111, ext. 85409            

Office Hours: By appointment                             

Email:  lbatter@uwo.ca                                                             

 

Teaching Assistant:  Leah Brainin                        

Office:  Western Interdisciplinary Science Building, hotelling office                     

Office Hours:    By appointment                          

Email: lbrainin@uwo.ca                                                             

 

Time and Location of Classes:   Monday, 1:30 – 4:30 PM

Social Science Centre (SSC) 2036

                                                                                   

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: Michael Gazzaniga, Richard Ivry, & George Mangun. (2018).  Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind, Fifth Edition. Norton Publishing.

 

On most weeks, additional readings will be required and they will be posted on OWL in PDF format (see Lecture Schedule).

 

4.0    COURSE OBJECTIVES

  1. To familiarize students with the human mind as a phenomenon whose biological basis can be studied in scientific research; to explore and appreciate the limits of current scientific knowledge in the field.
  2. To provide a comprehensive overview of the methodology, research findings, theories, and contentious issues in the study of cognitive neuroscience.
  3. To encourage the reading of primary source material on research in cognitive neuroscience; to encourage critical thinking and discussion of contentious issues.

Any course of this sort contains material that must be learned from both lectures and readings. Some material from the text will not be covered in lectures; similarly, some material from the lectures will not be covered in the readings. Therefore, it is necessary that students attend classes and do the readings regularly for successful completion of the course.


   4.1    STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES 

Explain major concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and historical trends in neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience (assessed via quizzes and exams).

 

Describe the basic anatomical/functional systems of the human brain, including sensory, motor, language, executive function, memory systems (assessed via quizzes and exams).

 

Define key concepts that characterize cognitive neuroscience as a field of scientific inquiry (assessed via quizzes and exams).

 

Apply basic research methods in psychology to investigate cognitive neuroscientific questions. Identify relevant neuropsychological mechanisms/issues and apply to real-world contexts.  (assessed via quizzes, exams, review paper, journal club assignments).

 

Critically analyze published research, including methodology, results and conclusions in the field of cognitive neuroscience/neuropsychology (assessed via review paper, journal club assignments).

 

Articulate some of the central questions and issues in contemporary neuropsychology/cognitive neuroscience (assessed via quizzes, exams, review paper, journal club assignments).

 

Clearly communicate cognitive neuroscientific material and principles to a scientifically literate audience (assessed via journal club assignments, data blitz presentation). 

5.0     EVALUATION

Course performance will be evaluated based on the following sources:

  1. Quiz 1 - 15%                                         
  2. Quiz 2 – 17.5%
  3. Mini Review – 20%
  4. Final Exam – 35%
  5. Weekly Journal Club - 10%
  6. Data Blitz Presentation – 2.5%

 

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.

Quizzes and Exam

The quizzes and final exam will cover materials from lectures (including videos) as well as all readings, including journal articles. Both quizzes and the exam will include multiple choice questions, short-to-medium answer questions ((e.g., fill-in-the-blanks, definitions, or questions that require a short- to medium- length written response), and/or label-the-diagram questions. Quizzes will not be cumulative. The final exam will be cumulative but weighted more heavily with material covered since Quiz 2.

 

Mini Review

A written mini-review is due April 5th by midnight. The mini-review 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, or that summarizes and discusses an exciting development in the context of the existing literature. A selection of appropriate topics will be provided, but students may also design their own topic (with the prior agreement of the course instructor).   Further instructions will be posted on OWL. 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 should be submitted electronically to OWL. Turnitin will be used to check for plagiarism. A late penalty of 10% of the assignment’s value per day (2 of the 20-point total value) will be applied to papers submitted after the deadline.

 

Data Blitz Presentations

Also known as “lightning talks,” a datablitz is a series of exciting, fast-paced, very short presentations.  Our final class period will consist of a datablitz event, which will provide an opportunity for you to share something interesting learned over the course of researching and writing your mini-review.  You can focus on a single exciting finding or else provide a very brief summary of your topic.  Your presentation should be no longer than 3 minutes long and contain only a single slide (emailed to the TA prior to class), with an additional 1 minute for questions. 

 

 

 

Journal Club Participation

Each week a scientific journal article will be assigned in addition to reading from the textbook.  The second portion of each class period will be devoted to understanding and dissecting the assigned journal article via a series of structured journal club activities.

For each journal club, students will be expected to come to class prepared by having read the selected article and written three discussion questions. At the beginning of each journal-club class period, the instructor will give a brief introduction to the paper, specifically focusing on the results, to ensure that all students have a working knowledge of the main points of the article. Students will then break into small groups (3-4 students) for discussion. To help facilitate discussion, students will complete a worksheet with their groups.  Each group will then be asked to select one discussion question that they would like to discuss further with the class.  Following the large group discussion an exit question will be asked, designed to encourage students to connect the content from the scientific article to the concepts learned from the lecture and textbook.  The requirements for full credit include: in-class participation, turning in the three required discussion questions, answering the exit-ticket question, and turning in the group-discussion worksheet.  Partial credit will be awarded if any of these elements are missing.  

If you miss a day of class, you can receive partial credit for that day’s journal club by turning in the three discussion questions to the TA via email, before midnight on the day of class.  Your lowest weekly journal club score will be dropped from your overall grade.  No other make-up opportunities will be provided (no exceptions). 

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 Western's grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/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 1                  February 4                       

       Quiz 2                  March 18                          

       Mini-Review         April 5                              

       Final Exam            TBA – scheduled by Office of the Registrar (April 11-30)

7.0   CLASS SCHEDULE

PowerPoint Notes will be posted on OWL, either before or after each day's lecture.  Textbook readings refer to the course textbook, Cognitive Neuroscience (5th ed.).  Additional required readings not found in the course textbook and journal articles will be posted on the OWL website.

 

Week

Date

Topic

Readings

# of

textbook

pages

Journal Article for Journal Club Discussion

(Posted on OWL)

1

Jan 7

Course Introduction

Review of brain anatomy

Chapter 2: Sections 2.1 – 2.6 (pp. 23-63)

40

No article assigned this week

2

Jan 14

Methods of Understanding the Brain

Chapter 3:

Section 3.2-3.7 (pp. 79-116)

37

Gazzaniga, 1967, Scientific American

3

Jan 21

Neuroplasticity

Chapter 5.9 (pp. 210-219)

 

Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology, 7th edition (Kolb) Chapter 23.5-23.7 (pp. 651-665)

Posted on OWL

 

Bavelier et al., 2006, Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Posted on OWL

 

29

Bedny et al., 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

4

Jan 28

Object recognition

Chapter 6 (pp. 223-271)

48

Quian Quiroga et al., 2005, Nature

5

Feb 4

Quiz 1

No assigned readings

 

 

6

Feb 11

Attention

Chapter 7.1-7.4 (pp. 275-308)

33

Friedman Hill et al., 1995, Science

 

Feb 18

No class. Family Day/Reading Week

 

 

 

7

Feb 25

Long-term Memory

Amnesia and Memory Disorders

Chapter 9.1 – 9.5 (pp.380-413)

33

Bayley et al., 2005, Nature

8

March 4

Language acquisition, bilingualism, critical period effects, effects of language deprivation

 

 

No readings from course textbook.

 

Kuhl, 2010, Neuron (review paper, posted on OWL)

12

Kuhl et al., 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

9

March 11

Speech and language processing, Aphasia, Language disorders

Chapter 19.1-19.5 (pp. 515-541)

26

Chang et al., 2010, Nature Neuroscience

10

March 18

Quiz 2

 

 

 

11

March 25

Sleep, Dreaming, Memory Consolidation

No readings from course textbook.

 

Fundamentals of cognitive neuroscience, 2nd ed (Gage & Baars), Chapter 12 -- Sleep and levels of consciousness (posted on OWL)

 

Wagner et al., 2004, Nature

Rudoy et al., 2009, Science

 

12

April 1

Consciousness

 

Mini Review Due Friday

This Week - April 5

Chapter 14 (pp. 618-655)

37

Owens et al., 2006, Science

Monti et al., 2010, The New England Journal of Medicine

13

April 8

Data Blitz Presentations

 

No assigned readings

 

 

 

TBA

April

11-30

Final Exam

 

 

 

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

Western’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://westerncalendar.uwo.ca/PolicyPages.cfm?Command=showCategory&PolicyCategoryID=1&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12 

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
- 2018 Calendar References

No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.