In 26W at 10A, Arjen Stolk

A deep understanding of any social species requires a neurobiological understanding of how and why brains interact. In this culminating seminar, we will critically examine the social contexts that forged and continue to shape human intelligence. We will be considering evolutionary, comparative, game-theoretic, computational, developmental, and pathological aspects of our social intelligence from a neurobiological perspective. The goal is to gain insight into how humans became such big-brained other-regarding apes, and how our brains developmentally construct and pathologically lose socio-cognitive faculties, as seems to be the case in certain psychiatric and neurological disorders. Students will be expected to read and critically assess the neuroscientific literature and explore empirical opportunities for new insights into the neurobiology of human social intelligence.

Approved course for the Neuroscience major/minor.
Prerequisites: PSYC 1 or PSYC 6, and instructor permission via the department website.

In 26W at 6B, Thalia Wheatley

Psychology and neuroscience are ever evolving. Textbooks, with their hundreds of pages, are continually edited, making way for new areas of research previously unstudied. What is on the horizon for these fields? In this culminating seminar, we will look at the ways these fields are breaking new ground in deepening our knowledge of the human mind, the research that foreshadowed those changes, and the role of interdisciplinarity. We will also discuss the implications of these new directions in terms of how we grapple with the deepest psychological questions – What does it mean to be human? How should we treat others? How do minds connect? And how should science, itself, change to become more robust, open and objective? Throughout the class, we will discuss the important and challenging ethical implications of these new frontiers.

Prerequisites: PSYC 1 and instructor permission via the department website