Undergraduate Course: Neurobiology of Cognition (BIME10010)
Course Outline
| School | Deanery of Biomedical Sciences |
College | College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Progress in contemporary neuroscience is beginning to give us a handle on the network, cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie ¿cognition¿. This elective builds on the foundations laid in Neuroscience 3 (Year 3) and introduces final year undergraduates in neuroscience to a topic that is central to the discipline.
It consists of a mixture of lectures and seminars, led by Prof Richard Morris and Prof Tara Spires-Jones with important contributions from colleagues, including Chancellor¿s Fellows, senior postdoctoral staff and guest-lecturers. The course will focus on two themes in cognition:
1. Neurobiological basis of normal cognition including: Organisation of memory, synaptic plasticity, memory persistence and forgetting, the role of sleep in cognition, and cognition throughout the life course (development to ageing).
2. Neurobiology underpinning disorders affecting cognition including developmental disorders and neurodegenerative disorders
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| Course description |
Not entered
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2017/18, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 30 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 38,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 6,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Formative Assessment Hours 3,
Summative Assessment Hours 3,
Revision Session Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
144 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
33 %,
Coursework
67 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
67% in-course assessment and 33% degree examination |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback will be given following quizzes at the end of a teaching theme and also from a 'mid term exam'. Feedback on summative in course assessment (presentation and essay) will be given in semester 1. |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S1 (December) | Neurobiology of Cognition | 1:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- research a particular topic in depth and write a detailed essay with diagrams about it.
- develop an understanding of what cognition is and how it enables us to understand the world around us and to react appropriately.
- develop an appreciation of how new techniques in neuroscience developed in the last 10-15 years are transforming the subject.
- acquire mastery of two or more areas within the domain of cognition as well as a working knowledge of the scope of the subject and develop skills for reading advanced scientific papers, distilling the essence of this work, and presenting it to their student colleagues.
- attend and sit an examination covering the range of material of the course.
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Reading List
General textbooks of neuroscience that include neurobiology of cognition and diseases of cognition:
Kandel, ER, Schwartz J and Jessel T (2012) Principles of Neural Science, Elsevier, 5th Edition.
Gazzaniga, M (2009) The Cognitive Neurosciences III MIT Press.
More specialized books that may be useful:
* Anderson P, Morris R, Amaral D, Bliss T and O¿Keefe J (2007). The Hippocampus Book. Oxford Uni. Press.
* Blakemore, S-J and Frith, U. (2005) The Learning Brain: lessons for education. Blackwell Publishing.
* Squire LR et al (2014) Fundamental Neuroscience. Academic Press.
* Duyckaerts C and Litvan I (2008) Handbook of Clinical Neurology vol 89: Dementias. Elsevier (this is available electronically through the library website).
Specific Reading
For each lecture, a one-page handout will give an overview of the content and a list of articles that you may wish to read to get a more detailed understanding of the content. Reading lists are prioritized with the top two on each handout being most relevant/important. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | NoC |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Tara Spires-Jones
Tel: (0131 6)51 1895
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Rachel Allan
Tel: (0131 6)51 1514
Email: |
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