PSYCHOLOGY 320 - TOPICAL OUTLINE

A. Some definitions and a brief history

B. The generalized vertebrate brain

i. Simple nervous systems

ii. Complex brains

iii. Major functional systems

C. Nerve cell structure

i. "Typical" neuron

ii. Types of neurons

D. Nerve cell function

i. Axonal excitation

ii. Axonal coding

iii Axonal conduction

iv. Synaptic integration

A. Principles of coding of space, time, quantity, & quality

i. What is a code?

ii. Spatial representation

iii. Receptor psychobiology: dynamics and energetics

B. Interactions

i. Receptor ambiguity

ii. Neural integration and disambiguation

iii. CNS codes

iv. CNS psychobiology

C. Feature extraction and pattern recognition

i. Contrast

ii. Color

iii. Motion

iv. Orientation

v. Form, language, faces, hands

vi. Command elements

vii. A mechanistic model of behavior

D. Cognitive neuroscience

E. Sensory development and infant experience

i. Types of plasticity

ii. Deprivation experiments

iii. Sensitive periods

A. Habituation

i. The engram

ii. Large nervous systems

iii. Small nervous systems

B. Central control

i. Reticular activating systems - then and now

ii. Selective attention demonstrations

iii. Cellular feedback systems

C. Sleep and dreaming

i. Biological rhythms

ii. Phenomenology of sleep and dreaming

iii. Theories of sleep and dreaming