PSYC 319
Neurofiction Fall 2012
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

Increasingly, neuroscience is not only a topic of interest to academics and clinicians, but also to the general public. Cover stories in the major news magazines over the past year include Alzheimer’s disease, autism, depression, memory, traumatic brain injury in athletes, and schizophrenia. Television news and newspapers cover studies related to neuroscience on a daily basis. Increasingly, novels and movies focus on neuroscience topics. This tutorial will use movies and popular press fiction as a starting point for analysis and discussion of contemporary topics in neuroscience. We will use these movies and novels as “case histories” to provide a foundation for discussing contemporary and controversial topics in neuroscience. Students will begin each topic by viewing a film or reading a book that portrays a topic in neuroscience. Each film/book will serve as a launching point for in depth discussion and debate of the neuroscientific issues raised in the film/book. For example, the film A Beautiful Mind raises issues regarding the neurobiological basis and treatment of schizophrenia and the film Memento raises many controversial issues surrounding the neurobiology of memory.