Cognitive Science Honours (B.A. & Sc.) (60 credits)
Offered by: Science (Faculty of Science)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 60
Program Description
The Honours Cognitive Science, which is restricted to students in the B.A. & Sc., is an extension of the Interfaculty program and offers students an opportunity to undertake a research project in close association with professors in their main Arts and Science focus areas. Prior to selecting the Honours program, students should meet with the Cognitive Science Program Adviser https://www.mcgill.ca/science/undergraduate/advice/sousa and review the B.A. & Sc. academic requirements for Honours and First Class Honours, which can also be found under "University Regulations and Resources," "Graduation," and "Graduation Honours."
To receive an Honours degree, students are required to achieve a minimum overall program GPA of 3.3 at graduation, and attain a grade of B+ (3.3) or better in COGS 444 Honours Research.. Students must complete both the 60-credit Honours program and an approved minor concentration or a minor in the Faculties of Arts or of Science.
Note: B.A. & Sc. students who take interfaculty programs, including the Honours in Cognitive Science, must take at least 21 credits in Arts and 21 credits in Science across their interfaculty program and their minor or minor concentration.
Degree Requirements — B.A. & Sc. students
This program is offered as part of a Bachelor of Arts & Science (B.A. & Sc.) degree.
To graduate, students must satisfy both their program requirements and their degree requirements.
- The program requirements (i.e., the specific courses that make up this program) are listed under the Course Tab (above).
- The degree requirements—including the mandatory Foundation program, appropriate degree structure, and any additional components—are outlined on the Degree Requirements page.
Students are responsible for ensuring that this program fits within the overall structure of their degree and that all degree requirements are met. Consult the Degree Planning Guide on the SOUSA website for additional guidance.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Course (9 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COGS 444 | Honours Research. | 6 |
Honours Research. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Honours research project. | ||
| NSCI 201 | Introduction to Neuroscience 2. | 3 |
Introduction to Neuroscience 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to how the nervous system acquires and integrates information and uses it to produce behaviour. | ||
Core Complementary Courses: (21 credits)
3 credits from the following logic courses:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 230 | Logic and Computability. | 3 |
Logic and Computability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Propositional Logic, predicate calculus, proof systems, computability Turing machines, Church-Turing thesis, unsolvable problems, completeness, incompleteness, Tarski semantics, uses and misuses of Gödel's theorem. | ||
| MATH 318 | Mathematical Logic. | 3 |
Mathematical Logic. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Propositional logic: truth-tables, formal proof systems, completeness and compactness theorems, Boolean algebras; first-order logic: formal proofs, Gödel's completeness theorem; axiomatic theories; set theory; Cantor's theorem, axiom of choice and Zorn's lemma, Peano arithmetic; Gödel's incompleteness theorem. | ||
| PHIL 210 | Introduction to Deductive Logic 1. | 3 |
Introduction to Deductive Logic 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 An introduction to propositional and predicate logic; formalization of arguments, truth tables, systems of deduction, elementary metaresults, and related topics. | ||
3 credits from the following statistics courses:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MATH 203 | Principles of Statistics 1. | 3 |
Principles of Statistics 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Examples of statistical data and the use of graphical means to summarize the data. Basic distributions arising in the natural and behavioural sciences. The logical meaning of a test of significance and a confidence interval. Tests of significance and confidence intervals in the one and two sample setting (means, variances and proportions). | ||
| MATH 323 | Probability. | 3 |
Probability. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Sample space, events, conditional probability, independence of events, Bayes' Theorem. Basic combinatorial probability, random variables, discrete and continuous univariate and multivariate distributions. Independence of random variables. Inequalities, weak law of large numbers, central limit theorem. | ||
| PSYC 204 | Introduction to Psychological Statistics. | 3 |
Introduction to Psychological Statistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The statistical analysis of research data; frequency distributions; graphic representation; measures of central tendency and variability; elementary sampling theory and tests of significance. | ||
3 credits from the following computer science courses:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 202 | Foundations of Programming. | 3 |
Foundations of Programming. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Introduction to computer programming in a high level language: variables, expressions, primitive types, methods, conditionals, loops. Introduction to algorithms, data structures (arrays, strings), modular software design, libraries, file input/output, debugging, exception handling. Selected topics. | ||
| COMP 204 | Computer Programming for Life Sciences. | 3 |
Computer Programming for Life Sciences. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Computer Science (Sci): Computer programming in a high level language: variables, expressions, types, functions, conditionals, loops, objects and classes. Introduction to algorithms, modular software design, libraries, file input/output, debugging. Emphasis on applications in the life sciences. | ||
| COMP 250 | Introduction to Computer Science. | 3 |
Introduction to Computer Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Mathematical tools (binary numbers, induction,recurrence relations, asymptotic complexity,establishing correctness of programs). Datastructures (arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists,trees, binary trees, binary search trees, heaps,hash tables). Recursive and non-recursivealgorithms (searching and sorting, tree andgraph traversal). Abstract data types. Objectoriented programming in Java (classes andobjects, interfaces, inheritance). Selected topics. | ||
3 credits from the following linguistics courses:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| LING 201 | Introduction to Linguistics. | 3 |
Introduction to Linguistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. General introduction to linguistics, the scientific study of human language. Covers the core theoretical subfields of linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Also provides background on other subfields including sociolinguistics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, linguistic variation, and language acquisition. | ||
| LING 210 | Introduction to Speech Science. | 3 |
Introduction to Speech Science. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The course covers key concepts of speech science, including phonetics (acoustics, speech perception and production), fundamentals in the study of speech processing, speech development, and speech disorders, and introduces some basic methodologies of the field. | ||
| LING 260 | Meaning in Language. | 3 |
Meaning in Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A hands-on introduction to the strategies that natural languages use to convey meaning. Requiring no previous background in linguistics, the course surveys fundamental properties of word and sentence meaning and their interdependence with context. It provides an overview of the grammatical mechanisms that languages employ to construct the literal meanings of sentences from word meanings, explores how meanings are anchored to real life situations, and analyzes how meanings are routinely enriched in context by language users to convey more than what is literally expressed. | ||
3 credits from the following philosophy courses:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PHIL 200 | Introduction to Philosophy 1. | 3 |
Introduction to Philosophy 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A course treating some of the central problems of philosophy: the mind-body problem, freedom, scepticism and certainty, fate, time, and the existence of God. | ||
| PHIL 201 | Introduction to Philosophy 2. | 3 |
Introduction to Philosophy 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to some of the major problems of philosophy. This course does not duplicate PHIL 200. | ||
| PHIL 221 | Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science 2. | 3 |
Introduction to History and Philosophy of Science 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of the development of modern science since the Eighteenth Century. | ||
3 credits from the following neuroscience courses:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| NSCI 200 | Introduction to Neuroscience 1. | 3 |
Introduction to Neuroscience 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to how nerve cells generate action potentials, communicate with one another at synapses, develop synaptic connections, early brain development, and the construction of specific neural circuits. | ||
| PSYC 211 | Introductory Behavioural Neuroscience. | 3 |
Introductory Behavioural Neuroscience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to contemporary research on the relationship between brain and behaviour. Topics include learning, memory and cognition, brain damage and neuroplasticity, emotion and motivation, and drug addiction and brain reward circuits. Much of the evidence will be drawn from the experimental literature on research with animals. | ||
3 credits from the following psychology courses:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PSYC 212 | Perception. | 3 |
Perception. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Perception is the organization of sensory input into a representation of the environment. Topics include: survey of sensory coding mechanisms (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory), object recognition, spatial localization, perceptual constancies and higher level influences. | ||
| PSYC 213 | Cognition. | 3 |
Cognition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Where do thoughts come from? What is the nature of thought, and how does it arise in the mind and the brain? Cognition is the study of human information processing, and we will explore topics such as memory, attention, categorization, decision making, intelligence, philosophy of mind, and the mind-as computer metaphor. | ||
Complementary Courses (30 credits)
30 credits selected as follows:
18 credits from one of the following lists: Computer Science, Linguistics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, or Psychology.
12 credits from any of the five lists.
Of the 30 credits Complementary Course credits, 15 credits taken must be at the 400 level or higher.
Computer Science
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMP 206 | Introduction to Software Systems. | 3 |
Introduction to Software Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Comprehensive overview of programming in C, use of system calls and libraries, debugging and testing of code; use of developmental tools like make, version control systems. | ||
| COMP 250 | Introduction to Computer Science. | 3 |
Introduction to Computer Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Mathematical tools (binary numbers, induction,recurrence relations, asymptotic complexity,establishing correctness of programs). Datastructures (arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists,trees, binary trees, binary search trees, heaps,hash tables). Recursive and non-recursivealgorithms (searching and sorting, tree andgraph traversal). Abstract data types. Objectoriented programming in Java (classes andobjects, interfaces, inheritance). Selected topics. | ||
| COMP 251 | Algorithms and Data Structures. | 3 |
Algorithms and Data Structures. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Data Structures: priority queues, balanced binary search trees, hash tables, graphs. Algorithms: topological sort, connected components, shortest paths, minimum spanning trees, bipartite matching, network flows. Algorithm design: greedy, divide and conquer, dynamic programming, randomization. Mathematicaltools: proofs of asymptotic complexity and program correctness, Master theorem. | ||
| COMP 280 | History and Philosophy of Computing. | 3 |
History and Philosophy of Computing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A history of early mathematical computation. Symbolic logic and computation. Modern computer systems and networks. The rise of the internet. | ||
| COMP 302 | Programming Languages and Paradigms. | 3 |
Programming Languages and Paradigms. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Programming language design issues and programming paradigms. Binding and scoping, parameter passing, lambda abstraction, data abstraction, type checking. Functional and logic programming. | ||
| COMP 330 | Theory of Computation. | 3 |
Theory of Computation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Finite automata, regular languages, context-free languages, push-down automata, models of computation, computability theory, undecidability, reduction techniques. | ||
| COMP 345 | From Natural Language to Data Science. | 3 |
From Natural Language to Data Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to language data science, including theoretical approaches and practical skills. Processing, searching, and querying text data; making sense of large corpora; modelling and interpreting psycholinguistic and historical language data; building models of sequences of words; computing similarity between languages; information retrieval and extraction; question answering; and ethics. | ||
| COMP 360 | Algorithm Design. | 3 |
Algorithm Design. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced algorithm design and analysis. Linear programming, complexity and NP-completeness, advanced algorithmic techniques. | ||
| COMP 400 | Project in Computer Science | 4 |
Project in Computer Science Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A research project in any area of computer science, involving a programming effort and/or a theoretical investigation, and supervised by a faculty member in the School of Computer Science. Final written report required. | ||
| COMP 409 | Concurrent Programming. | 3 |
Concurrent Programming. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Characteristics and utility of concurrent programs; formal methods for specification, verification and development of concurrent programs; communications, synchronization, resource allocation and management, coherency and integrity. | ||
| COMP 417 | Introduction Robotics and Intelligent Systems. | 3 |
Introduction Robotics and Intelligent Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course considers issues relevant to the design of robotic and of intelligent systems. How can robots move and interact. Robotic hardware systems. Kinematics and inverse kinematics. Sensors, sensor data interpretation and sensor fusion. Path planning. Configuration spaces. Position estimation. Intelligent systems. Spatial mapping. Multi-agent systems. Applications. | ||
| COMP 421 | Database Systems. | 3 |
Database Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Database Design: conceptual design of databases (e.g., entity-relationship model), relational data model, functional dependencies. Database Manipulation: relational algebra, SQL, database application programming, triggers, access control. Database Implementation: transactions, concurrency control, recovery, query execution and query optimization. | ||
| COMP 424 | Artificial Intelligence. | 3 |
Artificial Intelligence. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to search methods. Knowledge representation using logic and probability. Planning and decision making under uncertainty. Introduction to machine learning. | ||
| COMP 445 | Computational Linguistics. | 3 |
Computational Linguistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to foundational ideas in computational linguistics and natural language processing. Topics include formal language theory, probability theory, estimation and inference, and recursively defined models of language structure. Emphasis on both the mathematical foundations of the field as well as how to use these tools to understand human language. | ||
| COMP 451 | Fundamentals of Machine Learning. | 3 |
Fundamentals of Machine Learning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to the computational, statistical and mathematical foundations of machine learning. Algorithms for both supervised learning and unsupervised learning. Maximum likelihood estimation, neural networks, and regularization. | ||
| COMP 523 | Language-based Security. | 3 |
Language-based Security. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. State-of-the-art language-based techniques for enforcing security policies in distributed computing environments. Static techniques (such as type- and proof-checking technology), verification of security policies and applications such as proof-carrying code, certifying compilers, and proof-carrying authentication. | ||
| COMP 527 | Logic and Computation. | 3 |
Logic and Computation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to modern constructive logic, its mathematical properties, and its numerous applications in computer science. | ||
| COMP 531 | Advanced Theory of Computation. | 3 |
Advanced Theory of Computation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Models for sequential and parallel computations: Turing machines, boolean circuits. The equivalence of various models and the Church-Turing thesis. Unsolvable problems. Model dependent measures of computational complexity. Abstract complexity theory. Exponentially and super-exponentially difficult problems. Complete problems. | ||
| COMP 546 | Computational Perception. | 4 |
Computational Perception. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Computational models of visual perception and audition. Vision problems include stereopsis, motion, focus, perspective, color. Audition problems include source localization and recognition. Emphasis on physics of image formation, sensory signal processing, neural pathways and computation, psychophysical methods. | ||
| COMP 549 | Brain-Inspired Artificial Intelligence. | 3 |
Brain-Inspired Artificial Intelligence. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Overview of the influence of neuroscience and psychology on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Historical topics: perceptrons, the PDP framework, Hopfield nets, Boltzmann and Helmholtz machines, and the behaviourist origins of reinforcement learning. Modern topics: deep learning, attention, memory and consciousness. Emphasis on understanding the interdisciplinary foundations of modern AI. | ||
| COMP 550 | Natural Language Processing. | 3 |
Natural Language Processing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the computational modelling of natural language, including algorithms, formalisms, and applications. Computational morphology, language modelling, syntactic parsing, lexical and compositional semantics, and discourse analysis. Selected applications such as automatic summarization, machine translation, and speech processing. Machine learning techniques for natural language processing. | ||
| COMP 551 | Applied Machine Learning. | 4 |
Applied Machine Learning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Selected topics in machine learning and data mining, including clustering, neural networks, support vector machines, decision trees. Methods include feature selection and dimensionality reduction, error estimation and empirical validation, algorithm design and parallelization, and handling of large data sets. Emphasis on good methods and practices for deployment of real systems. | ||
| COMP 558 | Fundamentals of Computer Vision. | 4 |
Fundamentals of Computer Vision. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Image filtering, edge detection, image features and histograms, image segmentation, image motion and tracking, projective geometry, camera calibration, homographies, epipolar geometry and stereo, point clouds and 3D registration. Applications in computer graphics and robotics. | ||
| COMP 562 | Theory of Machine Learning. | 4 |
Theory of Machine Learning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Concentration inequalities, PAC model, VC dimension, Rademacher complexity, convex optimization, gradient descent, boosting, kernels, support vector machines, regression and learning bounds. Further topics selected from: Gaussian processes, online learning, regret bounds, basic neural network theory. | ||
| COMP 579 | Reinforcement Learning. | 4 |
Reinforcement Learning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Bandit algorithms, finite Markov decision processes, dynamic programming, Monte-Carlo Methods, temporal-difference learning, bootstrapping, planning, approximation methods, on versus off policy learning, policy gradient methods temporal abstraction and inverse reinforcement learning. | ||
| MATH 222 | Calculus 3. | 3 |
Calculus 3. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Taylor series, Taylor's theorem in one and several variables. Review of vector geometry. Partial differentiation, directional derivative. Extreme of functions of 2 or 3 variables. Parametric curves and arc length. Polar and spherical coordinates. Multiple integrals. | ||
| MATH 223 | Linear Algebra. | 3 |
Linear Algebra. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Review of matrix algebra, determinants and systems of linear equations. Vector spaces, linear operators and their matrix representations, orthogonality. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors, diagonalization of Hermitian matrices. Applications. | ||
| MATH 240 | Discrete Structures. | 3 |
Discrete Structures. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to discrete mathematics and applications. Logical reasoning and methods of proof. Elementary number theory and cryptography: prime numbers, modular equations, RSA encryption. Combinatorics: basic enumeration, combinatorial methods, recurrence equations. Graph theory: trees, cycles, planar graphs. | ||
Linguistics
Any course at the 300, 400 or 500 level from the department of Linguistics, or from the following list:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| LING 201 | Introduction to Linguistics. | 3 |
Introduction to Linguistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. General introduction to linguistics, the scientific study of human language. Covers the core theoretical subfields of linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Also provides background on other subfields including sociolinguistics, pragmatics, historical linguistics, linguistic variation, and language acquisition. | ||
| LING 210 | Introduction to Speech Science. | 3 |
Introduction to Speech Science. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The course covers key concepts of speech science, including phonetics (acoustics, speech perception and production), fundamentals in the study of speech processing, speech development, and speech disorders, and introduces some basic methodologies of the field. | ||
| LING 260 | Meaning in Language. | 3 |
Meaning in Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A hands-on introduction to the strategies that natural languages use to convey meaning. Requiring no previous background in linguistics, the course surveys fundamental properties of word and sentence meaning and their interdependence with context. It provides an overview of the grammatical mechanisms that languages employ to construct the literal meanings of sentences from word meanings, explores how meanings are anchored to real life situations, and analyzes how meanings are routinely enriched in context by language users to convey more than what is literally expressed. | ||
Philosophy
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| NSCI 300 | Neuroethics. | 3 |
Neuroethics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to ethical issues arising from basic and clinical neuroscience. Overview of therapeutic, diagnostic, and research interventions in mental and neurological disorders, and their implications on society. | ||
| PHIL 306 | Philosophy of Mind. | 3 |
Philosophy of Mind. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of major positions of the mind-body problem, focusing on such questions as: Do we have minds and bodies? Can minds affect bodies? Is mind identical to body? If so, in what sense "identical"? Can physical bodies be conscious. | ||
| PHIL 310 | Intermediate Logic. | 3 |
Intermediate Logic. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A second course in Logic. NB. The course will be technical in nature, and some mathematical aptitude is essential. The emphasis is on the expressive properties of standard logical systems, including implications for the philosophy of mathematics. We will study the Completeness of First-Order Logic, then the 'limitative' theorems of Tarski and Gödel. | ||
| PHIL 311 | Philosophy of Mathematics. | 3 |
Philosophy of Mathematics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course provides an historically informed introduction to philosophy of mathematics. It gives the student an overview of prominent issues and arguments, to enable her to follow and discuss contemporary research in philosophy of mathematics. | ||
| PHIL 341 | Philosophy of Science 1. | 3 |
Philosophy of Science 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A discussion of philosophical problems as they arise in the context of scientific practice and enquiry. Such issues as the philosophical presuppositions of the physical and social sciences, the nature of scientific method and its epistemological implications will be addressed. | ||
| PHIL 354 | Plato. | 3 |
Plato. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of some of the philosophical problems (those in logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, e.g.) found in a selection of Plato's dialogues. | ||
| PHIL 355 | Aristotle. | 3 |
Aristotle. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of selected works by Aristotle. The course considers issues in moral philosophy as well as those found in the logical treatises, the Physics and Metaphysics, and in the philosophy of mind. | ||
| PHIL 360 | 17th Century Philosophy. | 3 |
17th Century Philosophy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the work of such seventeenth-century philosophers as Descartes, Hobbes, Gassendi, Malebranche, Leibniz, and the Cambridge Platonists. | ||
| PHIL 361 | 18th Century Philosophy. | 3 |
18th Century Philosophy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of eighteenth century philosophy, especially British philosophy. Attention is given to fundamental metaphysical, epistemological, and moral issues as reflected in the work of such philosophers as Locke, Shaftesbury, Berkeley, Hutcheson, Butler, Hume and Reid. | ||
| PHIL 367 | 19th Century Philosophy. | 3 |
19th Century Philosophy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the works of such 19th century philosophers as Mach, Helmholtz, Dedekind, Frege, Marx, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Mill and Bradley. | ||
| PHIL 411 | Topics in Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics. | 3 |
Topics in Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A course focusing on some philosophical issue (e.g., the nature of numbers or the relation of truth to provability) as it arises in the study of mathematics and logic. | ||
| PHIL 415 | Philosophy of Language. | 3 |
Philosophy of Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of central notions in the philosophy of language (reference, meaning, and truth, e.g.), the puzzles these notions give rise to, and the relevance of these notions to such questions as: What is language? How is communication possible? What is understanding? Is language rule-governed. | ||
| PHIL 419 | Epistemology. | 3 |
Epistemology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A discussion of central topics in the theory of knowledge. The questions addressed in the course may include: What is knowledge? Do we have any knowledge? What is the relation between knowledge and belief? When is belief justified? Is all knowledge conscious knowledge. | ||
| PHIL 421 | Metaphysics. | 3 |
Metaphysics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of central questions in metaphysics in their historical and contemporary forms. Topics may be chosen from such issues as: personal identity, the nature of space and time, the nature of events and properties, possible worlds, and the problem of realism. | ||
| PHIL 441 | Philosophy of Science 2. | 3 |
Philosophy of Science 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An analysis of some key philosophical ideas in science and technology, e.g. problem, explanation, forecast, testability and truth. | ||
| PHIL 470 | Topics in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy. | 3 |
Topics in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An advanced discussion of major themes in the analytic tradition. | ||
| PHIL 474 | Phenomenology. | 3 |
Phenomenology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of phenomenology from a historical and thematic perspective. The course will typically involve the study of central thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, or Merleau-Ponty, with an examination of the nature and development of the phenomenological movement. | ||
Psychology
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH 440 | Cognitive Anthropology. | 3 |
Cognitive Anthropology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The problem of knowledge; the nature of perception; the concept of mind; the relation between thought and language. The concept of meaning: communication, interpretation and symbolism. Social aspects of cognition; ideology. | ||
| MUMT 250 | Music Perception and Cognition. | 3 |
Music Perception and Cognition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Basic processes by which the brain transforms sound waves into musical events, dimensions, systems and structures and the processes by which musicians imagine new musical sounds and structures and plan movements that produce music on instruments. | ||
| PSYC 204 | Introduction to Psychological Statistics. | 3 |
Introduction to Psychological Statistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The statistical analysis of research data; frequency distributions; graphic representation; measures of central tendency and variability; elementary sampling theory and tests of significance. | ||
| PSYC 211 | Introductory Behavioural Neuroscience. | 3 |
Introductory Behavioural Neuroscience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to contemporary research on the relationship between brain and behaviour. Topics include learning, memory and cognition, brain damage and neuroplasticity, emotion and motivation, and drug addiction and brain reward circuits. Much of the evidence will be drawn from the experimental literature on research with animals. | ||
| PSYC 212 | Perception. | 3 |
Perception. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Perception is the organization of sensory input into a representation of the environment. Topics include: survey of sensory coding mechanisms (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory), object recognition, spatial localization, perceptual constancies and higher level influences. | ||
| PSYC 213 | Cognition. | 3 |
Cognition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Where do thoughts come from? What is the nature of thought, and how does it arise in the mind and the brain? Cognition is the study of human information processing, and we will explore topics such as memory, attention, categorization, decision making, intelligence, philosophy of mind, and the mind-as computer metaphor. | ||
| PSYC 301 | Animal Learning and Theory. | 3 |
Animal Learning and Theory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Contemporary and historical research and theory on animal learning approached from a behavioural, cognitive and biological perspective. Classical and instrumental conditioning, cognitive learning, and biological constraints. The status and history of North American behaviourism will be discussed and compared with cognitive and other approaches. | ||
| PSYC 302 | Pain. | 3 |
Pain. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to pain research and theory, with emphasis on the interactions of psychological, cultural and physiological factors in pain perception. The role of these factors in clinical pain and its management by pharmacological and non-pharmacological means will be discussed. | ||
| PSYC 304 | Child Development. | 3 |
Child Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Psychology of children, covering critical issues, theories, biological underpinnings, experimental methods, and findings in perceptual, cognitive, language, emotional, and social development. | ||
| PSYC 305 | Statistics for Experimental Design. | 3 |
Statistics for Experimental Design. Terms offered: Summer 2025 An introduction to the design and analysis of experiments, including analysis of variance, planned and post hoc tests and a comparison of anova to correlational analysis. | ||
| PSYC 310 | Intelligence. | 3 |
Intelligence. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to the evolution and assessment of intelligence. Emphasizes measurement and correlates of the human intellect and the role of environment and heredity in social and race differences in intellectual and adaptive functioning. Evolution of intelligence in vertebrates and other intelligences including practical and emotional intelligence will be covered. | ||
| PSYC 311 | Human Cognition and the Brain. | 3 |
Human Cognition and the Brain. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course is an introduction to the field studying how human cognitive processes, such as perception, attention, language, learning and memory, planning and organization, are related to brain processes. The material covered is primarily based on studies of the effects of different brain lesions on cognition and studies of brain activity in relation to cognitive processes with modern functional neuroimaging methods. | ||
| PSYC 315 | Computational Psychology. | 3 |
Computational Psychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Application of computational methods to the simulation of psychological phenomena. Comparison of natural and artificial intelligence. Symbolic and neural network techniques. Methods for evaluating simulations. | ||
| PSYC 317 | Genes and Behaviour. | 3 |
Genes and Behaviour. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Focuses on current techniques employed to study which genes influence behaviour, and how they do so. | ||
| PSYC 318 | Behavioural Neuroscience 2. | 3 |
Behavioural Neuroscience 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The physiological bases of motivational states, with respect to feeding, drinking, sexual behaviour, drug use, and aggression. Physiological bases of learning and memory. | ||
| PSYC 319 | Computational Models - Cognition. | 3 |
Computational Models - Cognition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to the purpose, design, and role of computational modeling in the cognitive sciences. Domains examined will include memory, categorization, and language. Focus will be on computational models to attain a better theoretical understanding of human behaviour. New trends, including the use of big data and machine learning. | ||
| PSYC 340 | Psychology of Language. | 3 |
Psychology of Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of issues in psycholinguistics, focusing on the nature and processing of language (e.g., how we understand speech sounds, words, sentences, and discourse). Also surveyed: language and thought, the biological foundations of language, and first language acquisition. | ||
| PSYC 341 | The Psychology of Bilingualism. | 3 |
The Psychology of Bilingualism. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will examine issues in bilingualism, including second language acquisition in children and adults, critical period hypothesis, cognitive consequences and correlates of bilingualism, social psychological aspects of bilingualism, and bilingual education. | ||
| PSYC 342 | Hormones and Behaviour. | 3 |
Hormones and Behaviour. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The role of hormones in organization of CNS function, as effectors of behaviour, in expression of behaviours and in mental illness. | ||
| PSYC 352 | Research Methods and Laboratory in Cognitive Psychology. | 3 |
Research Methods and Laboratory in Cognitive Psychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to research methods and experimental techniques in cognitive psychology for exploring topics such as attention, memory, categorization, reasoning, and language processing. | ||
| PSYC 406 | Psychological Tests. | 3 |
Psychological Tests. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the theory and practice of psychological measurement in health, educational, clinical and industrial/organizational settings. Attention to procedures for developing and validating tests and questionnaires. Techniques include: intelligence tests, projective tests, questionnaires, structured interviews, rating scales, and behavioural/performance tests. | ||
| PSYC 410 | Special Topics in Neuropsychology. | 3 |
Special Topics in Neuropsychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Developments in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neuropsychiatry via readings from primary sources. Topics include the neural bases of memory, emotion, social cognition and neuropsychiatric diseases. Integrating knowledge from studies in clinical populations and functional neuroimaging studies. | ||
| PSYC 413 | Cognitive Development. | 3 |
Cognitive Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. In-depth exploration of cognitive development in infants and children including knowledge representation and processing, conceptual development, language development, and theories and principles of cognitive development. | ||
| PSYC 427 | Sensorimotor Neuroscience. | 3 |
Sensorimotor Neuroscience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A systematic examination of the sensorimotor system, drawing on models and data from both behavioural and physiological studies. Topics include: cortical motor areas, cerebellum, basal ganglia, spinal mechanisms, motor unit properties and force production, prioception, muscle properties. | ||
| PSYC 433 | Cognitive Science. | 3 |
Cognitive Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The multi-disciplinary study of cognitive science, exploring the computer metaphor of the mind as an information-processing system. Focus on levels of analysis, symbolic modeling, Turing machines, neural networks, as applied to topics such as reasoning, vision, decision-making, and consciousness. | ||
| PSYC 439 | Correlational Techniques. | 3 |
Correlational Techniques. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The statistical analysis of relations among a number of variables in situations common in psychology. Methods include regression analysis, principal components analysis, and other techniques for modelling the structure of correlation matrices. | ||
| PSYC 443 | Affective Neuroscience. | 0-3 |
Affective Neuroscience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Focus on the neurobiology of emotion, the links between emotion and cognition, and the role of experience and individual differences in emotional states associated with psychopathology. | ||
| PSYC 470 | Memory and Brain. | 3 |
Memory and Brain. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Memory systems are studied with an emphasis on the neural computations that occur at various stages of the processing stream, focusing on the hippocampus, amygdala, basal ganglia, cerebellum and cortex. The data reviewed is obtained from human, non-human primates and rodents, with single unit recording, neuroimaging and brain damaged subjects. | ||
| PSYC 506 | Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention. | 3 |
Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to cognitive properties and neural mechanisms of human attention. The material will include an overview of the history of attention research, contemporary theories of attention, the varieties of attention, behavioral and neuroimaging experimental methods, the nature of attentional dysfunctions, and the links between attention and other cognitive functions including memory and consciousness. | ||
| PSYC 513 | Human Decision-Making. | 3 |
Human Decision-Making. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Interdisciplinary study of decision-making, covering contemporary approaches to understanding how humans compute values and make choices. Measurement of and techniques for assessing variables such as risk and uncertainty, utilities and preferences, reinforcement learning, heuristics and biases, and self-control. Emphasis on quantitative models of decision-making. | ||
| PSYC 514 | Neurobiology of Memory. | 3 |
Neurobiology of Memory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advances in the understanding of the neurobiological bases of fundamental memory processes, such as memory consolidation maintenance, retrieval, and forgetting. The contribution of their dysregulation to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. Consideration of findings from a variety of species, spanning insects to humans. | ||
| PSYC 522 | Neurochemistry and Behaviour. | 3 |
Neurochemistry and Behaviour. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Anatomical, biochemical and physiological aspects of neurotransmitter systems in the brain, current theories of the function of these systems in normal and abnormal behaviour, and the actions of psychotropic drugs. | ||
| PSYC 526 | Advances in Visual Perception. | 3 |
Advances in Visual Perception. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. We examine in detail the structure of the visual system, and its function as reflected in the perceptual abilities and behaviour of the organism. Parallels are also drawn with other sensory systems to demonstrate general principles of sensory coding. | ||
| PSYC 529 | Music Cognition. | 3 |
Music Cognition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Interdisciplinary study of music cognition, with an emphasis on psychological, computational, and neuroscientific approaches. Focuses on listeners' response to sound, including perception, attention, memory, motor control, skilled performance, and emotional response. | ||
| PSYC 531 | Structural Equation Models. | 3 |
Structural Equation Models. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course introduces basic concepts underlying structural equation models (SEM). SEM, which combine regression analysis and factor analysis, are quite useful and are currently very popular in analyzing data that arise in social, developmental and clinical psychology. The students are expected to get first-hand experiences in fitting SEM, and learn how to interpret and report the results from SEM. | ||
| PSYC 537 | Advanced Seminar in Psychology of Language. | 3 |
Advanced Seminar in Psychology of Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics may include: the neural basis of language, evolutionary approaches to language, pragmatics and figurative language processing, disordered language processing, models of spoken word recognition. | ||
| PSYC 538 | Categorization, Communication and Consciousness. | 3 |
Categorization, Communication and Consciousness. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The main challenges that cognitive science faces today, focusing on the capacity to learn sensorimotor categories, to name and describe them verbally, and to transmit them to others, concluding with cognition distributed on the Web. | ||
| PSYC 541 | Multilevel Modelling. | 3 |
Multilevel Modelling. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Basic concepts of multilevel linear and nonlinear models and applying these methods to empirical data. | ||
| PSYC 545 | Topics in Language Acquisition. | 3 |
Topics in Language Acquisition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Psychological mechanisms and theories of first language acquisition in infancy and early childhood. Topics such as: infant speech perception, acquisition of grammar, word learning, pidgin and Creole languages, critical and sensitive periods, genetic and evolutionary bases of language. | ||
Neuroscience
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ANAT 321 | Circuitry of the Human Brain. | 3 |
Circuitry of the Human Brain. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course explores the functional organization of the human brain and spinal cord. The course focuses on how neuronal systems are designed to subserve specific motor, sensory, and cognitive operations. | ||
| BIOL 200 | Molecular Biology. | 3 |
Molecular Biology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The physical and chemical properties of the cell and its components in relation to their structure and function. Topics include: protein structure, enzymes and enzyme kinetics; nucleic acid replication, transcription and translation; the genetic code, mutation, recombination, and regulation of gene expression. | ||
| BIOL 201 | Cell Biology and Metabolism. | 3 |
Cell Biology and Metabolism. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course introduces the student to our modern understanding of cells and how they work. Major topics to be covered include: photosynthesis, energy metabolism and metabolic integration; plasma membrane including secretion, endocytosis and contact mediated interactions between cells; cytoskeleton including cell and organelle movement; the nervous system; hormone signaling; the cell cycle. | ||
| BIOL 306 | Neural Basis of Behaviour. | 3 |
Neural Basis of Behaviour. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Neural mechanisms of animal behaviour; neuroethology; cellular neurophysiology, integrative networks within nervous systems; neural control of movement; processing of sensory information. | ||
| BIOL 307 | Behavioural Ecology. | 3 |
Behavioural Ecology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. How an organism’s behaviour relates to its physical, biological, and social environment, using evolutionary and ecological perspectives. Emphasis is on general principles, covering topics such feeding, predator avoidance, aggression, reproduction, social behaviour, communication and cognition. | ||
| BIOL 320 | Evolution of Brain and Behaviour. | 3 |
Evolution of Brain and Behaviour. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Functional and comparative approach to neuroanatomy, examining how species changes in brain organization contribute to evolutionary changes in behaviour. | ||
| BIOL 414 | Invertebrate Brain Circuits and Behaviours . | 3 |
Invertebrate Brain Circuits and Behaviours . Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploration of the neural and molecular mechanisms that drive animal behaviour, with a focus on invertebrates, including the principles of neural circuits and behaviour. | ||
| BIOL 506 | Neurobiology of Learning. | 3 |
Neurobiology of Learning. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploration of the neurobiological basis of learning, from molecules to circuits, focusing on the synaptic, cellular and circuit-level processes that support learning, in the context of different brain regions and forms of learning. | ||
| BIOL 507 | Animal Communication. | 3 |
Animal Communication. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to communication between animals, including humans. Physical and phylogenetic constraints on the evolution of communication systems will be discussed. The approach to communication will draw from behavioural ecology, psychology, physiology and physics. | ||
| BIOL 517 | Cognitive Ecology. | 3 |
Cognitive Ecology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Cognition refers to the processes of acquiring, retaining, and using information. In the wild, an organism relies on a wide variety of information to interact with its environment and these interactions affect its survival and reproduction. Focus on the ecology and evolution of cognition and its underlying neural mechanisms. Examines links between cognition, behaviour in the wild, and the brain. Builds upon the principles of behavioural ecology and behavioural neuroscience. | ||
| BIOL 530 | Advances in Neuroethology. | 3 |
Advances in Neuroethology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Neural mechanisms underlying behaviour in vertebrate and invertebrate organisms. | ||
| BIOL 532 | Developmental Neurobiology Seminar. | 3 |
Developmental Neurobiology Seminar. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Discussions of all aspects of nervous system development including pattern formation, cell lineage, pathfinding and targeting by growing axons, and neural regeneration. The basis for these discussions will be recent research papers and other assigned readings. | ||
| BIOL 580 | Genetic Approaches to Neural Systems. | 3 |
Genetic Approaches to Neural Systems. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will focus on recent research employing genetic-based methods to examine the functional and structural properties of the nervous system. The focus will be on approaches for studying neural circuits and behavior in a range of model organisms. Topics will include recent technological advances, such as optogenetics for modifying and controlling neuronal activity, and animal models of neurological diseases. Students will critically analyze the application of these methods to current research through in-class discussion of primary literature, student presentations, and written assignments. | ||
| BIOL 588 | Advances in Molecular/Cellular Neurobiology. | 3 |
Advances in Molecular/Cellular Neurobiology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Discussion of fundamental molecular mechanisms underlying the general features of cellular neurobiology. An advanced course based on lectures and on a critical review of primary research papers. | ||
| CHEM 212 | Introductory Organic Chemistry 1. | 4 |
Introductory Organic Chemistry 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 A fundamental study of aliphatic compounds and saturated functional groups including modern concepts of bonding, reaction mechanisms, conformational analysis, spectroscopy, and stereochemistry. | ||
| NEUR 503 | Computational Neuroscience. | 3 |
Computational Neuroscience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of computational methods commonly used to model brain function, including mathematical modeling to describe the relationship between neuronal activity and perception, action, and cognition. Mathematical basis for vision, motor control and attention. Data relevant to brain processes and models explaining these data, using engineering, statistics and artificial intelligence. | ||
| NEUR 507 | Topics in Radionuclide Imaging. | 3 |
Topics in Radionuclide Imaging. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course deals with neuroreceptor and oncologic imaging and imaging of cerebral bloodflow and metabolism. The role of radiochemistry and physics will be demonstrated in the context of clinical and research applications. Understanding how radiochemistry and physics intermingle with the medical aspects of radiotracer development will result in a deeper insight into the complex pathways of tracer design and the methods necessary to properly interpret the data obtained. | ||
| NSCI 200 | Introduction to Neuroscience 1. 1 | 3 |
Introduction to Neuroscience 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to how nerve cells generate action potentials, communicate with one another at synapses, develop synaptic connections, early brain development, and the construction of specific neural circuits. | ||
| NSCI 300 | Neuroethics. | 3 |
Neuroethics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to ethical issues arising from basic and clinical neuroscience. Overview of therapeutic, diagnostic, and research interventions in mental and neurological disorders, and their implications on society. | ||
| PHGY 209 | Mammalian Physiology 1. 1 | 3 |
Mammalian Physiology 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Physiology of body fluids, blood, body defense mechanisms, muscle, peripheral, central, and autonomic nervous systems. | ||
| PHGY 311 | Channels, Synapses and Hormones. | 3 |
Channels, Synapses and Hormones. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. In-depth presentation of experimental results and hypotheses on cellular communication in the nervous system and the endocrine system. | ||
| PHGY 314 | Integrative Neuroscience. | 3 |
Integrative Neuroscience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. In depth presentation of experimental results and hypotheses underlying our current understanding of how single neurons and ensembles of neurons encode sensory information, generate movement, and control cognitive functions such as emotion, learning, and memory, during voluntary behaviours. | ||
| PHGY 556 | Topics in Systems Neuroscience. | 3 |
Topics in Systems Neuroscience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics of current interest in systems neurophysiology and behavioural neuroscience including: the neural representation of sensory information and motor behaviours, models of sensory motor integration, and the computational analysis of problems in motor control and perception. Students will be expected to present and critically discuss journal articles in class. | ||
| PSYC 211 | Introductory Behavioural Neuroscience. | 3 |
Introductory Behavioural Neuroscience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to contemporary research on the relationship between brain and behaviour. Topics include learning, memory and cognition, brain damage and neuroplasticity, emotion and motivation, and drug addiction and brain reward circuits. Much of the evidence will be drawn from the experimental literature on research with animals. | ||
| PSYC 302 | Pain. | 3 |
Pain. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to pain research and theory, with emphasis on the interactions of psychological, cultural and physiological factors in pain perception. The role of these factors in clinical pain and its management by pharmacological and non-pharmacological means will be discussed. | ||
| PSYC 311 | Human Cognition and the Brain. | 3 |
Human Cognition and the Brain. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course is an introduction to the field studying how human cognitive processes, such as perception, attention, language, learning and memory, planning and organization, are related to brain processes. The material covered is primarily based on studies of the effects of different brain lesions on cognition and studies of brain activity in relation to cognitive processes with modern functional neuroimaging methods. | ||
| PSYC 317 | Genes and Behaviour. | 3 |
Genes and Behaviour. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Focuses on current techniques employed to study which genes influence behaviour, and how they do so. | ||
| PSYC 318 | Behavioural Neuroscience 2. | 3 |
Behavioural Neuroscience 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The physiological bases of motivational states, with respect to feeding, drinking, sexual behaviour, drug use, and aggression. Physiological bases of learning and memory. | ||
| PSYC 342 | Hormones and Behaviour. | 3 |
Hormones and Behaviour. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The role of hormones in organization of CNS function, as effectors of behaviour, in expression of behaviours and in mental illness. | ||
| PSYC 410 | Special Topics in Neuropsychology. | 3 |
Special Topics in Neuropsychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Developments in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neuropsychiatry via readings from primary sources. Topics include the neural bases of memory, emotion, social cognition and neuropsychiatric diseases. Integrating knowledge from studies in clinical populations and functional neuroimaging studies. | ||
| PSYC 427 | Sensorimotor Neuroscience. | 3 |
Sensorimotor Neuroscience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A systematic examination of the sensorimotor system, drawing on models and data from both behavioural and physiological studies. Topics include: cortical motor areas, cerebellum, basal ganglia, spinal mechanisms, motor unit properties and force production, prioception, muscle properties. | ||
| PSYC 433 | Cognitive Science. | 3 |
Cognitive Science. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The multi-disciplinary study of cognitive science, exploring the computer metaphor of the mind as an information-processing system. Focus on levels of analysis, symbolic modeling, Turing machines, neural networks, as applied to topics such as reasoning, vision, decision-making, and consciousness. | ||
| PSYC 443 | Affective Neuroscience. | 0-3 |
Affective Neuroscience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Focus on the neurobiology of emotion, the links between emotion and cognition, and the role of experience and individual differences in emotional states associated with psychopathology. | ||
| PSYC 444 | Sleep Mechanisms and Behaviour. | 3 |
Sleep Mechanisms and Behaviour. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course covers basic biological mechanisms, possible functions and behavioural aspects of sleep. Additional topics include: disorders of sleep, their effects on behaviour and cognition, and treatment approaches; as well as medical, neurological and psychiatric disorders, and drugs, that affect sleep. | ||
| PSYC 502 | Psychoneuroendocrinology. | 3 |
Psychoneuroendocrinology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This advanced seminar course offers an in-depth introduction to current topics in psychoneuroendocrinology. Students will read and discuss original scientific literature from human and animal research interrogating the mechanisms by which hormones act in the brain to influence behaviour in health and disease. Students will gain a refined understanding of key concepts in psychoneuroendocrinology, such as negative feedback control and the key neuroendocrine axes and their role in behavioural control. They will apply this knowledge to critically evaluate original scientific literature and generate hypothesis-driven research questions from the scientific literature. | ||
| PSYC 506 | Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention. | 3 |
Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to cognitive properties and neural mechanisms of human attention. The material will include an overview of the history of attention research, contemporary theories of attention, the varieties of attention, behavioral and neuroimaging experimental methods, the nature of attentional dysfunctions, and the links between attention and other cognitive functions including memory and consciousness. | ||
| PSYC 514 | Neurobiology of Memory. | 3 |
Neurobiology of Memory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advances in the understanding of the neurobiological bases of fundamental memory processes, such as memory consolidation maintenance, retrieval, and forgetting. The contribution of their dysregulation to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. Consideration of findings from a variety of species, spanning insects to humans. | ||
| PSYC 522 | Neurochemistry and Behaviour. | 3 |
Neurochemistry and Behaviour. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Anatomical, biochemical and physiological aspects of neurotransmitter systems in the brain, current theories of the function of these systems in normal and abnormal behaviour, and the actions of psychotropic drugs. | ||
| PSYC 526 | Advances in Visual Perception. | 3 |
Advances in Visual Perception. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. We examine in detail the structure of the visual system, and its function as reflected in the perceptual abilities and behaviour of the organism. Parallels are also drawn with other sensory systems to demonstrate general principles of sensory coding. | ||
| PSYT 301 | Issues in Drug Dependence. | 3 |
Issues in Drug Dependence. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The phenomenology and epidemiology of the use and abuse of alcohol, nicotine, opiates, stimulants, sedatives and psychotomimetic agents are discussed in relation to current theoretical and experimental issues. The perspective is multidisciplinary and the intention is to develop an understanding of the nature of the issues surrounding drug dependence. | ||
| PSYT 500 | Advances: Neurobiology of Mental Disorders. | 3 |
Advances: Neurobiology of Mental Disorders. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Current theories on the neurobiological basis of most well known mental disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, dementia). Methods and strategies in research on genetic, physiological and biochemical factors in mental illness will be discussed. Discussion will also focus on the rationale for present treatment approaches and on promising new approaches. | ||
| PSYT 515 | Advanced Studies in Addiction. | 3 |
Advanced Studies in Addiction. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Critical assessment of research tools, reported data, and theoretical perspectives on drug addiction, with an emphasis on multi-factorial and inter-disciplinary approaches. | ||
- 1
Students select either NSCI 200 Introduction to Neuroscience 1. or PHGY 209 Mammalian Physiology 1., but not both.
Research Course
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COGS 401 | Research Cognitive Science 1. | 6 |
Research Cognitive Science 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Research project supervised by a McGill Faculty member. | ||