BIONB 1120

The Hidden World of the Brain

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2026-2027 Catalog.

From understanding how we remember the past to explaining how we acquire new skills and interpret the world around us, neuroscience has revealed the biological mechanisms that underpin the incredible abilities of the brain. Despite this, many of the most remarkable discoveries in neuroscience remain accessible only to experts or appear in public media in a distorted form. In this course—intended for students interested in neuroscience, but not necessarily majoring in biology—challenging ideas in neuroscience are illuminated through animations, simplified models and historical accounts of our evolving understanding of the brain. Topics in the course will include dopamine, the neural circuits that support movement and navigation, and mechanisms of memory formation and recall. No background in neuroscience or biology is required.

Distribution Requirements (BIO-AG, BSC-AG)

Last 4 Terms Offered (None)

Learning Outcomes

• Upon completion of this course, you will be able to synthesize concepts from psychology with biological mechanisms.
• Upon completion of this course, you will understand how experiments in neuroscience are designed and will be able to design your own experiments.
• Upon completion of this course, you will discover connections between topics in neuroscience and other disciplines.
• Upon completion of this course, you will be able to predict the role of structures in the brain in behavior by exploring how they process and store information and their evolutionary history.
• Upon completion of this course, you will be able to predict the outcome of stimulations of neural systems in simple biophysical models of the brain.

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