Brain in Action

Description

Content: This module introduces students to the psychological and neurological processes that generate human actions, and action decisions. The module covers the neural circuits and mechanisms of decision-making, metacognition, and neural control of action. The module will introduce students to recent research literature using a wide range of research methods: behavioural, computational, neuroimaging, neurostimulation, electrophysiological and patient studies. It will therefore suit students who feel comfortable with somewhat technical material. Teaching delivery: This module is taught in 15 hours of in-person lectures spread over 10 teaching weeks (usually 5 2-hour sessions in one half of term and 5 1-hour lectures in the other half of term). Indicative Topics: Indicative lecture topics – based on module content in 2024/25, subject to possible changes: Neural mechanisms for simple decisions, Computational accounts of decision-making, Error Monitoring, Conflict Monitoring and Cognitive Control, Decision confidence, Metacognition, Principles of Action Neuroscience, The voluntary motor pathway and primary motor cortex, SMA/PreSMA and voluntary action, Thoughts into actions: executive functions, The Basal Ganglia and Reading, evaluating and writing research.  Module Aims: By the end of the module students should be able: To critically read and evaluate cognitive neuroscience research; To use data describing brain processes to tackle questions about the human mind; To integrate and compare experimental results obtained by multiple scientific methods.