Neuropsychology - Summer 2013 - Professor Claffey

Psyc 170: Neuropsychology

Instructor: Mike Claffey (mclaffey@ucsd.edu)
Location: Warren Lecture Hall 2206
Time: M,T,W,Th 11:00-12:20 PM

Course Overview

This course is about how the brain produces behavior. It includes how neuropsychological disorders disrupt behavior.

It is relevant to:

students that are interested in psychology and behavior, but want to understand what parts of the the nervous system support different behaviors

students that have an understanding in biology and physiology, but want to understand how those biological processes produce behaviors at higher levels

Scroll down for Syllabus

Announcements

None

Calendar

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Aug 4	5 Neuropsychology Organization Beaumont, Chapter 1 Beaumont, Chapter 2	6 Organization cont.	7 Neurons	8 Synapses	9	10
11	12 Vision	13 Test 1 Other senses	14 Damage	15 DUE: Phantoms Ch4	16	17
18	19 CANCELLED	20 DUE: Phantoms Ch 6	21 Research Methods	22 DUE: Phantoms Ch 7 DUE: Article selection	23	24
25	26 Test 2 Lateralization	27 Memory	28 Attention DUE: Phantoms Ch 9	29 DLPFC ACC sample prez DUE: Article miniprez	30	31
Sept 1	2 Labor Day no class	3 Student presentations Face Perception PD Vision Lesion Emotions Serotonin Apnea Capgras	4 Student presentations Language AOA Scopolamine Autism Empathy	5 Final Exam	6	7

Syllabus

Neuropsychology
PSYC 170
Instructor: Michael Claffey
Summer Session II, 2013

Learning Objectives

Explain neurons and the brain function
Be familiar with diseases/disorders/pathologies of the nervous system
Explain several cases of diagnosis and treatment

Course Description

From UCSD Psychology curriculum:
What are the neural mechanisms underlying mental phenomena such as perception, attention, and memory? The two disciplines, neurophysiology and psychology, both have a long history but until recently there has been very little interaction between them. This course will take students to the interface between these two fields and we will discuss a wide range of topics that are of current interest. Restriction: upper-division standing.

Lectures

Time: 11:00 - 12:20
Location: Warren Lecture Hall 2206

Holidays:
Labor Day: September 2

Final Exam

Time: Last day of class, September 5th
Location: Same as class

Instructor

Michael Claffey
mclaffey@ucsd.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday after class, McGill 3340

Grading

Test 1	15%
Test 2	20%
Paper presentation	20%
Classroom participation	20%
Final	25%
Extra Credit	+3%

Your course grade will be assigned based on the number of points as follows:
A+ (97 or more), A (93-97), A- (90-93), B+ (87-90), B (83-87), B- (80-83), C+ (77-80), C (73-77), C- (70-73), D (60-70), and F (below 60).

There is no rounding. For example, a 92.63 is an A-.

Article Presentations

Each student will select a research article and present it to the class.

The article must be from a peer-reviewed journal and address a topic in neuropsychology. Examples include:

a lesion study that compares a group of patients with similar lesions and that quantifies their deficit
an imaging study that localizes a mental function in the brain
an animal study that records from or manipulates part of the brain
case studies are not likely to be approved

Timeline

Weeks 2 & 3 - discuss topics with professor, find candidate articles
Thursday, Week 3 - article approved by professor, article "titles" discussed in class
Thursday, Week 4 - "mini prez"

1-2 minute summary of paper. focus on what inferences/conclusions are made
purpose: for presenter, make sure you understand the article. for others, active learning during other presentations
class is to ask at least 1 question per paper. if there are no volunteers, professor will call on random people.
At end, professor will do a sample presentation to show what is expected next week

Week 5 - Presentations

Oral presentation, target ~10 minutes
Presentation document (i.e. PowerPoint) rules:

include and explain key figures
NO complete sentences or "walls of text"
professionally formatted

Key points, in order of importance but not necessarily order of presentation

what are the inferences/conclusions
what are the data to support the inferences/conclusions
why is this article important to neuropsychology or society at large
details on subjects, which methods, statistics

Grading

were the Key Points (above) clearly communicated
was the content organized effectively
did the presentation document (i.e. PowerPoint) fit the rules (above)
did the presentation finish on time

There will be questions on the final based on the papers, ask questions and hold the presenter accountable for being clear

Extra Credit

You have two options to receive extra credit: experiment participation or a summary paper.

Experiments: You can sign up for experiments at ucsd.sona-systems.com. Experiments vary in length and descriptions are available on that website. One point will be added to your final course grade per hour of participation, up to 3 points total. As course instructor I do not have access to the sona system and will only assign credit based on the final numbers provided to me at the end of the quarter; please address any discrepancies to the help listed on the website.

Paper: Alternatively, individuals not wishing to participate in experiments can write a 3-4 page paper on a topic of their choosing relating to neuropsychology. Paper topics must be cleared with the instructor no later than Friday of the 2nd to last week. Papers must be handed in on Tuesday Nov 30th and emailed or handed in at the beginning of class on Dec 7th. Format: 3-4 pages double spaced, cite your works, can include images but does not count toward length, email or print ok.

Podcasts

After each lecture, podcasts will be automatically available on the ucsd podcast site here.

Lecture Notes

Any materials that are made available will be posted on this page in the calendar.

Textbook

Introduction to Neuropsychology, Second Edition, J. Graham Beaumont
Electronic edition available for free through UCSD library (link)

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, V. S. Ramachandran
Available from Amazon (link)
Required starting the 2nd week (August 12th)

Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty in any form is against University policy and will NOT be tolerated.

Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to:
- Copying answers on tests
- Communicating with other students during a test
- Copying from a friend’s homework
- Misrepresenting a medical or family emergency or other personal contingency in order to delay a scheduled exam or get extra time on an assignment
- Modifying graded material and then resubmitting it to “correct the error in grading”

Acceptable Actions:
- Working with other students on homework assignments but completing the assignment “in your own words”
- Sharing notes with other students outside of exams

Exam Accommodations

Students with disabilities should notify the instructor and contact the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) during Week 1 of the session so that reasonable accommodations may be implemented.