Sample Syllabus: 

NEURL GA-2205: Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience PSYCH GA-2221: Cognitive Neuroscience

 

Logistics:

 

Lectures: Mondays and Wednesdays 9:00 am - 10:50 am

As long as you are healthy, attendance is mandatory; please email a request for an excused absence. If you test positive for Covid or have any symptoms please plan to stay home and attend by Zoom.

Location: Meyer 636  
 

Instructor: Clayton Curtis and Roozbeh Kiani

Readings: The required readings will be a combination of review articles and research papers. These will be made available by PDF download from the class website on NYU Classes.

 

Course evaluation:

 

The course is designed to not only familiarize yourself with major cognitive and behavioral neuroscience research and theory, but to prepare you to professionally interact with the cognitive and systems neuroscience community and think critically about research. Two ‘mock’ endeavors are emphasized in the class and form part of the basis for evaluation: you will write a proposal for a research grant, and evaluate other’s research proposals.

 

Final paper (50% of grade)

Your final paper will be in the form of a grant proposal, as if you were applying for a postdoctoral research fellowship (i.e., NRSA) to do research in some area of cognitive neuroscience.

 

Grant panel (30% of grade)

You will serve on a grant panel where you will read and critique other student NRSAs. The critiques will be written and discussed in a mock study section, which will form the basis of the evaluation.

 

Participation and quiz performance (20% of grade)

You will be responsible for reading the assigned papers and attending all lectures and student presentations. You will also be asked to answer a short quiz at the end of some lectures concerning a research question relevant to the discussed lecture topic; answering these quizzes will require a knowledge of the required reading materials and information presented in class.

 

 

Lecture Schedule:

 

Date	Topic	Lecturer
1/23	Introduction: Overview and Common Methods	Kiani
1/25	Grantsmanship: NRSA Preparation 1	Cutis/Kiani
1/30	Visual Development	Kiorpes
2/1	No class
2/6	Information Seeking 1	Gureckis
2/8	Information Seeking 2 (9:30 start)	Gureckis
2/13	Cellular & Molecular Mechanisms of Memory 1	Fenton
2/15	Hippocampal Maps: Navigation and Cognition	Savin
2/20	Presidents Day	No Class
2/22	Grantsmanship: NRSA Preparation 2	Curtis/Kiani
2/27	Cellular & Molecular Mechanisms of Memory 2	Fenton
3/1	Visual System and Object Recognition	Winawer
3/6	Animal Emotion	LeDoux (Zoom)
3/8	Human Emotion	Hartley
3/13	Spring Break	No Class
3/15	Spring Break	No Class

3/20	Value-based Decision Making (Learning and Reward)	Louie
3/22	Rodent Decision Making	Constantinople
3/27	What can we learn from populations of neurons: a statistical approach	Williams
3/29	Hierarchical and probabilistic decisions 1	Kiani
4/3	Hierarchical and probabilistic decisions 2	Kiani
4/5	Working Memory	Curtis
4/10	Attention 1	Carrasco
4/12	Attention 2	Carrasco
4/17	Representational Geometry	Chung
4/19	Language	Poeppel
4/24	Grantsmanship: Reviewing Grants	Kiani/Curtis
4/26	Modeling Decision Making and Working Memory	Wang
5/1	Music	Ripolles
5/3	Study Section 1	Kiani/Curtis
5/8	Study Section 2	Kiani/Curtis

 

* Grant proposals are due by midnight 04/21/23

 

** Grant reviews are due by midnight 04/28/23