78193 - Affective and Cognitive Neurosciences

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student knows state-of-art human and animal research that uses neuroscience techniques to understand the cognitive and emotional aspects of the human mind and behavior. The student should be able to critically read experimental and theoretical studies of cognitive and affective neuroscience, to evaluate their methods and results, and explain their significance.    

Course contents

The course is designed to provide advanced knowledge of  the neural basis and functional mechanisms of human behaviour, and affective and cognitive processes, and the alteration of these processes in patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders, drawing on both theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions of current literature, and integrating different methodological approaches, including behavioural, neurophysiological, psychopharmacological, computational and neuroimaging.

The course involves 3 modules, whose specific contents are the following:

 

Module 1 (6 credits, prof. Giuseppe di Pellegrino)

Neural bases and functional mechanisms of cognitive control 

Types of learning and reinforcement learning

Reward, motivation and systems coding value in the brain

Mechanisms and neural basis of classical and instrumental conditioning

Perceptual and value–based decision-making, functional mechanisms and computational models

Dopamine and prediction error

Neuroscience of addiction

Neural bases and functional mechanisms of schizophrenia

 

Module 2 (4 credits, prof. Elisa Ciaramelli)

The role of medial temporal lobe in memory

Non–mnemonic functions of the medial temporal lobe

Role of the parietal lobe in memory

Brain default network and spontaneous cognition

Psychological functions of episodic memory

 

Module 3 (2 credits, prof. Avenanti)

Research methods in affective and cognitive neuroscience

 

The course will take place during the first cycle of lectures (from September to December 2017) at the Cesena Campus of the School of Psychology and Education (address: piazza A. Moro, 90, Cesena).

Contents of Module 1 will be presented first, followed by the contents of Module 3, and finally the contents of Module 2.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Scientific papers and other course materials for this course will be made available at the course website. These readings are mandatory to pass the final exam.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures during which the topic of each module will be interactively discussed, group discussions of neuroscientific papers, works in small groups with class presentation, seminars presented by experts    

Assessment methods

Written exam with 6 open-ended questions (three questions concerning Module 1, two questions concerning module 2, and one question concerning module 3) to complete in 2 hours (approximately 20 minutes per question).

There will be 5/30 points maximum for correctly answering each of the six open-ended questions. The final mark is calculated as the sum of the points obtained at each of the 6 questions. 

During the exam students are not allowed to consult any materials, such as textbooks, notes, electronic devices.

It is necessary to sign up for the examination through the dedicated website, and within the deadline. Any problem in registering through the website should be promptly communicated to the administrative staff.

Teaching tools

Slides (PowerPoint) and video clips

Office hours

See the website of Giuseppe Di Pellegrino

See the website of Elisa Ciaramelli

See the website of Alessio Avenanti