Undergraduate Course: Neurobiology of Cognition (BIME10010)
Course Outline
| School | School of Biomedical Sciences |
College | College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Biomedical Sciences |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | Progress in contemporary neuroscience is beginning to give us a handle on the network, cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie ¿cognition¿. This course is intended to complement the Learning and Memory course of Neuroscience 4, and will cover related but different material.
It will consist of a mixture of lectures and seminars, led by RM with occasional contributions from colleagues, including Chancellor¿s Fellows, senior postdoctoral staff and guest-lecturers.
Research using both humans and animals will be covered. Key ideas to be covered include, in Section 1: identifying cognition as a fundamental aspect of brain function; the importance of innovative new techniques for novel analyses of neural circuits and neural plasticity; Section 2: the concepts of attention, working-memory and executive function ¿ with a digression into mirror neurons; Section 3: scientific hypotheses such as the idea that activity-dependent synaptic plasticity (such as LTP and LTD) may play a role in memory, the synaptic tagging and capture hypothesis of memory persistence, systems consolidation and schemas, and the possibility of active processes of forgetting; Section 4: social cognition and its disorders, notably neurodevelopmental disorders, and the need for ¿effective¿ new animal models of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer¿s. Thus, the course will cover both normal cognitive function, and how cognition can suffer and might be ameliorated in genetic abnormalities of a neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative nature.
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Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2014/15 Semester 1, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
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Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
15/09/2014 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 40,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
156 )
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| Additional Notes |
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| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Written Exam
33 %,
Coursework
67 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
The students completing this course will:
* develop an understanding of what ¿cognition¿ is and how it enables us to understand the world around us and to react appropriately.
* develop an appreciation of how new techniques in neuroscience developed in the last 10-15 years are transforming the subject.
* acquire mastery of two or more areas within the domain of cognition as well as a working knowledge of the scope of the subject.
* develop skills for reading advanced scientific papers, distilling the essence of this work, and presenting it to their student colleagues.
* research a particular topic in depth and write a detailed essay with diagrams about it.
* attend and sit an examination covering the range of material of the course.
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Assessment Information
| 67% in-course assessment and 33% degree examination |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Course Contributors: Tomonori Takeuchi, Oliver Hardt, Tara Spires-Jones, Sally Till |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Brain, cognition, attention, decision-making, working-memory, long-term memory, synaptic plasticity, |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Richard Morris
Tel: (0131 6)50 3518
Email: r.g.m.morris@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Lisa Ketchion
Tel: (0131 6)51 1629
Email: Lisa.Ketchion@ed.ac.uk |
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