PSYCH 785Attention and the Brain

This course will take students through the dominant theories of attention over the past century before exploring what various brain imaging techniques have added to these theories. For the latter portion of the course students will present key contributions to our understanding of attention from neuroimaging techniques covering the full range of dominant techniques and used in the field (ERP, fMRI, TMS, tDCS). In groups, students will then devise changes to the experimental designs as presented with an eye to improving the study. These 'brainstorming' sessions will then be shared with the rest of the class. The aims of the course are threefold: first, to expose students to the dominant theories of attention, second, to expose students to the pros and cons of a wide variety of neuroimaging techniques and third to develop their skills in experimental design within the constraints of those techniques.