Neural circuits and behaviour PSYCH5109

  • Academic Session: 2025-26
  • School: School of Psychology and Neuroscience
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
  • Typically Offered: Semester 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: No
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No
  • Curriculum For Life: No

Short Description

This course addresses the profoundly important question of how the brain makes the mind. Drawing on research using both animals and humans, it builds on the foundational material in semester 1 to explore more deeply how complex behaviours arise from neural activity. It focuses at the level of neural circuits: the pathways in the brain that connect specialised regions together so that they can coordinate perception, thinking, memory, emotions and action. Our main model system is the hippocampus: a spatial navigation system that the brain uses as a framework for organising its life-event memories. Using data from both historical studies and cutting-edge new research, we will explore at the neural and behavioural levels how the hippocampus links together perceptions, emotions and memories to enable adaptive action-planning.

Timetable

20 hours of teaching.

Requirements of Entry

None.

Excluded Courses

None.

Co-requisites

None.

Assessment

75% component: A single written exam comprising, for example, essays or short-answer questions (ILOs 1, 2, 4)

25% component: A piece of work involving critical assessment of research (ILOs 2, 3, 4). 

Main Assessment In: April/May

Course Aims

The course aims to educate students in state-of-the-art knowledge on the neural bases of perception, emotion, cognition and action (collectively "behavior"), using the hippocampal spatial/memory system as a model system. By the end of the course students will have up-to-date knowledge about the core findings in this area, together with knowledge about current new developments. They will also have an ability to critically interrogate the literature in order to answer questions relating to the subject matter, being able to assess data quality (experimental design, statistical power etc) as well as experimental logic.

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

 

1. Evaluate the evolution of core findings relating to neural circuits and behaviour over the past century.

2. Critically appraise contemporary cutting-edge findings and their contribution to the field

3. Critically interrogate the literature in order to answer specific questions relating to the subject matter. This includes current challenges, for example, a responsible use of AI and an ability to recognise both its uses and its limitations.

4. Propose experimental tests of novel hypotheses about the system

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.