3.0

Average Course Rating

What does a rat exploring its environment tell us about memory? How can a mouse help us better understand schizophrenia? This course will focus on procedures that are routinely used to study behavior in animal models of cognition and neuropsychiatric disorders, with a focus on rodent models. Topics will include motor function, emotional and motivational states, cognition, and disorders such as dementia and schizophrenia, among others. Throughout the course, we will read and discuss original research articles to illustrate and compare some of the measures and results from the various procedures. Through this process students learn to assess animal models, to critique results presented in original research articles, and learn about the various techniques used in neuroscience to generate and evaluate various animal models.