- Docente: Giuseppe Di Pellegrino
- Credits: 12
- SSD: M-PSI/02
- Language: Italian
- Moduli: Giuseppe Di Pellegrino (Modulo 1) Elisa Ciaramelli (Modulo 2) Alessio Avenanti (Modulo 3)
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2) Traditional lectures (Modulo 3)
- Campus: Cesena
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Neurosciences and neuro-psychological rehabilitation (cod. 0989)
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, the student knows the state-of-art human and animal research that uses neuroscience techniques to understand the cognitive and emotional aspects of the human mind and human behaviour
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:
Prof. Giuseppe di Pellegrino (Module 1)
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
Prof Avenanti (Module 2)
Research methods in affective and cognitive neuroscience
Prof. Elisa Ciaramelli (Module 3)
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
Role of the frontal lobe in memory
Cognitive neuroscience of false memories
Psychological functions of episodic memory
The course will take place during the first cycle of lectures (from October to December 2015), at the Cesena Campus of the School of Psychology and Education (address: piazza A. Moro, 90, Cesena).
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
Assessment methods
Witten exam with 6 open-ended questions to complete in 1 hour and half.
Teaching tools
Slides (PowerPoint)
Office hours
See the website of Giuseppe Di Pellegrino
See the website of Elisa Ciaramelli
See the website of Alessio Avenanti