Mind, Brain, and Behavior

Faculty of the Committee on Mind, Brain, and Behavior

Other Faculty Offering Instruction in Mind, Brain, and Behavior

Primarily for Undergraduates: Foundation Courses

Primarily for Undergraduates

Primarily for Undergraduates: Interdisciplinary Seminars

*Mind, Brain, and Behavior 92 (formerly Psychology 987d). A Systems Neuroscience Approach to Conscious Perceptual Experience
Catalog Number: 7390 Enrollment: Preference to juniors in MBB tracks or MBB secondary field.
Sean D. Kelly and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). M., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Join renowned neuroscientists from Harvard and elsewhere who will lead highly interactive seminars addressing core problems underlying the emergence of conscious visual experience. Topics include the requisite neuronal representations of the content of visual images, their localization within extrapersonal space and the sense of ownership of such images by a self. Subsidiary topics include selective attention, the binding problem, binocular rivalry, change blindness, recursive neuronal networks and distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness.

[*Mind, Brain, and Behavior 93 (formerly Psychology 987f). The Biology of Conscious States: Waking, Sleeping, and Dreaming]
Catalog Number: 5017 Enrollment: Preference to juniors in MBB tracks or MBB secondary field.
Robert A. Stickgold (Medical School)
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Focuses on waking, sleeping, and dreaming as examples of conscious states in both humans and animals. Original papers and books by Allan Hobson (The Dreaming Brain) and Antonio Damasio (The Feeling of What Happens) form the background for discussions of waking, sleeping, and dreaming from the perspectives of neurology, physiology, psychology, and cognitive neurosciences. Discusses various approaches to understanding the functions of sleep and wake (consciousness) and reviews several theories on the topic.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.

*Mind, Brain, and Behavior 94 (formerly Psychology 987g). Theories of Violence
Catalog Number: 3767 Enrollment: Preference to juniors in MBB tracks or MBB secondary field.
Alan A. Stone (Law School, Medical School)
Half course (fall term). Tu., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17
Considers how culture, law, and science construct violence. Reviews clinical examples of violence (videotapes of a serial killer, a sexually violent predator, a case of maternal infanticide, and violence by law enforcement) and the responses of the courts and the criminal justice system. Then critically examines the spectrum of scientific theories and psychiatric diagnoses that seek to delineate and explain human violence.

*Mind, Brain, and Behavior 95 (formerly Psychology 987h). Addiction and Motivation
Catalog Number: 4890 Enrollment: Preference to juniors in MBB tracks or MBB secondary field.
Gene M. Heyman (Medical School)
Half course (fall term). Th., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
Provides understanding of self-destructive behavior, focusing largely on drug addiction. Provides insight into nature of voluntary behavior; requires appreciation of recent advances in understanding relationships among behavior, biology, and experience, e.g., role of experience in gene expression and brain plasticity. Topics include behavioral trait heritability; epidemiology and history of drug use; OCD and addiction; contribution of laboratory research to study of choice and motivation (matching law, hyperbolic discounting, stable but suboptimal choice distributions).

*Mind, Brain, and Behavior 96 (formerly Psychology 987i). The Science of Happiness
Catalog Number: 2517 Enrollment: Preference to juniors in MBB tracks or MBB secondary field.
Nancy Lee Etcoff (Medical School)
Half course (spring term). Th., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Focuses on the science of happiness, integrating findings from positive psychology, psychiatry, behavioral genetics, neuroscience, and behavioral economics. Begins with a brief history of ideas on happiness from Aristotle to Kahneman. Considers the genetics of happiness including the notion of a biologically determined hedonic set point, the brain’s pleasure circuitry, and the mind’s power to frame events positively, a tool used in cognitive therapies. Questions whether pleasure and happiness are our purpose.

*Mind, Brain, and Behavior 99. Why We Love: Seminar - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 58924 Enrollment: Preference to juniors in MBB tracks or MBB secondary field.
Lawrence J. Friedman
Half course (fall term). W., 2–5. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8, 9
Investigates classics on love including Shakespeare poems and plays, Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Gilligan’s The Birth of Pleasure; and classic films including Wild Strawberries and My Big, Fat Greek Wedding. Discusses nature of "love" with authors, film producers, and interdisciplinary scholars. Students prepare position papers using course materials to come to their own formulation on multiple dimensions of "love."

For Undergraduates and Graduates

Additional Interdisciplinary Seminars

Courses for Undergraduates and Graduates

Additional Courses