PSY277 - Looking Inside the Disordered Brain

What brain circuits give rise to the dazzling diversity of human behavior, and how do even subtle disturbances within these circuits lead to abnormal behavior or psychopathology?  This course provides students with a working knowledge of our rapidly evolving understanding of brain circuits that create order in our social, emotional and cognitive worlds, and how disorder within these circuits leads to a broad range of psychopathology including depression, anxiety, phobias, PTSD, OCD, addiction, autism, schizophrenia, psychopathy and violence.

Expected background: Biological Bases of Behavior (101RE) or consent of instructor.

PSY500S – The Cinema of Psychopathology

Critically explore depictions of mental illness in modern cinema and television, and the extent to which they capture our emerging understanding of dysfunction in core neural circuits supporting normal behavior.