The Neuroscience of Stress and Reward: Emotions, Behavior, and Neurocircuit Mechanisms

The Neuroscience of Stress and Reward: Emotions, Behavior, and Neurocircuit Mechanisms is a course for undergraduates to learn how core concepts of neurobiology apply to psychiatric disorders. For example- how do our brains translate thoughts and experiences into feelings of pain or pleasure? Why do some people struggle more than others with social isolation, addictive habits, or poor-quality sleep? More importantly, what can we do about it? This course covers classic and contemporary studies from biology, neuroscience, and psychiatry that explain the circuit mechanisms responsible for regulating our emotions, behaviors, and mental health. We will first focus on foundational knowledge of neural systems and then build to connect these aspects with the underlying neural basis of psychiatric conditions. Students will learn about neurotechnologies for manipulating and recording brain activity, and how these tools have been applied to advance science and medicine. Discussion sections will focus on ethical implications of mental health care treatment, experimental research, and the future of brain-computer interface technologies in society.