Psychology

Course description: This advanced seminar course will review current and classic literature on attentional control mechanisms. A cognitive neuroscience approach will be taken. Evidence from work in humans and animals will be considered.

Topics to be covered: Cognitive and neural mechanisms of attention. Attentional theories. Neuropsychology of attention.

Course format (lecture, discussion, etc.): Seminar course. Intensive readings. Review of current and classic literature. Student presentations and group discussion.

Grading: Pass/Fail

Textbook(s) and Sample Readings:

Supplementary text:

Gazzaniga et al., Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of Mind. (2nd Edition) W.W. Norton Publishers: New York (2002).

Sample literature readings:

Corbetta, M., Kincade, J.M., Ollinger, J.M., McAvoy, M.P., and Shulman, G.L. (2000). Voluntary orienting is dissociated from target detection in human posterior parietal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 3, 292-297.

Kastner, S. and Ungerleider, L. (2000). Mechanisms of visual attention in the human cortex . Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23:315'341.

Nobre, A., Coull, J., Frith, C. and Mesulam, M.M. (1999).Orbitofrontal cortex is activated during breeches of expectation in tasks of visual attention. Nature, 2, 11-12.