This course has been designed as a seminar to give students an understanding of how scientists with medical or scientific degrees conduct research in both hospital and academic settings. There will be interactive discussions with research clinicians and scientists about the career opportunities and research challenges in the biomedical field, which an MIT student might prepare for by obtaining an MD, PhD, or combined degrees. The seminar will be held in a case presentation format, with topics chosen from the radiological sciences, including current research in magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography and other nuclear imaging techniques, and advances in radiation therapy. With the lectures as background, we will also examine alternative and related options such as biomedical engineering, medical physics, and medical engineering. We'll use as examples and points of comparisons the curriculum paths available through MIT's Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. In past years we have given very modest assignments such as readings in advance of or after a seminar, and a short term project.

Advances in cognitive science have resolved, clarified, and sometimes complicated some of the great questions of Western philosophy: what is the structure of the world and how do we come to know it; does everyone represent the world the same way; what is the best way for us to act in the world. Specific topics include color, objects, number, categories, similarity, inductive inference, space, time, causality, reasoning, decision-making, morality and consciousness. Readings and discussion include a brief philosophical history of each topic and focus on advances in cognitive and developmental psychology, computation, neuroscience, and related fields. At least one subject in cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, or artificial intelligence is required. An additional project is required for graduate credit.

Stanford University professor Robert Sapolsky presents the course Human Behavioral Biology. He begins by explaining the premise of the course and how he aims to avoid categorical thinking. (March 29, 2010)

Human behavioral biology examines traits such as human sexual behavior, emotions memory, perception, and language from a biological perspective. It seeks to identify how human behavior is influenced by brain, sensory, hormone, fetal development and other biological influences.

The course focuses on the problem of supervised learning within the framework of Statistical Learning Theory. It starts with a review of classical statistical techniques, including Regularization Theory in RKHS for multivariate function approximation from sparse data. Next, VC theory is discussed in detail and used to justify classification and regression techniques such as Regularization Networks and Support Vector Machines. Selected topics such as boosting, feature selection and multiclass classification will complete the theory part of the course. During the course we will examine applications of several learning techniques in areas such as computer vision, computer graphics, database search and time-series analysis and prediction. We will briefly discuss implications of learning theories for how the brain may learn from experience, focusing on the neurobiology of object recognition. We plan to emphasize hands-on applications and exercises, paralleling the rapidly increasing practical uses of the techniques described in the subject.

" The neuropharmacology course will discuss the drug-induced changes in functioning of the nervous system. The specific focus of this course will be to provide a description of the cellular and molecular actions of drugs on synaptic transmission. This course will also refer to specific diseases of the nervous system and their treatment in addition to giving an overview of the techniques used for the study of neuropharmacology. This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month."

" This course provides an introduction to important philosophical questions about the mind, specifically those that are intimately connected with contemporary psychology and neuroscience. Are our concepts innate, or are they acquired by experience? (And what does it even mean to call a concept 'innate'?) Are 'mental images' pictures in the head? Is color in the mind or in the world? Is the mind nothing more than the brain? Can there be a science of consciousness? The course includes guest lectures by Philosophers and Cognitive Scientists."

Psychology is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe.Senior Contributing AuthorsRose M. Spielman, Formerly of Quinnipiac UniversityContributing AuthorsKathryn Dumper, Bainbridge State CollegeWilliam Jenkins, Mercer UniversityArlene Lacombe, Saint Joseph's UniversityMarilyn Lovett, Livingstone CollegeMarion Perlmutter, University of Michigan

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Explain the brain functions involved in memory
Recognize the roles of the hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebellum

In this course we will discover how innovative technologies combined with profound hypotheses have given rise to our current understanding of neuroscience. We will study both new and classical primary research papers with a focus on the plasticity between synapses in a brain structure called the hippocampus, which is believed to underlie the ability to create and retrieve certain classes of memories. We will discuss the basic electrical properties of neurons and how they fire. We will see how firing properties can change with experience, and we will study the biochemical basis of these changes. We will learn how molecular biology can be used to specifically change the biochemical properties of brain circuits, and we will see how these circuits form a representation of space giving rise to complex behaviors in living animals. A special emphasis will be given to understanding why specific experiments were done and how to design experiments that will answer the questions you have about the brain. This course is one of many Advanced Undergraduate Seminars offered by the Biology Department at MIT. These seminars are tailored for students with an interest in using primary research literature to discuss and learn about current biological research in a highly interactive setting. Many instructors of the Advanced Undergraduate Seminars are postdoctoral scientists with a strong interest in teaching.