BCSC 278: Social Neuroscience
Cross-listed: PSYC 248
Prerequisites: PSYC 101 or BCSC 110
Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
Human beings are fundamentally social animals equipped with a brilliant piece of social machinery: the brain. Through the workings of this elegant electrical and biological machine we are able to reason about other people’s unobservable thoughts, emotions, and intentions, make moral judgments, and communicate with others. How does the brain develop the ability to accomplish these tasks? What regions of the brain are involved and what computations do they perform? How is this neural machinery affected by the social environment and psychiatric illness? In this course, we will examine the latest research in human social neuroscience towards answering these and related questions.