Neural Science (NEUR-SHU)

The concept of free will plays a central role in society, in particular in the criminal justice system. In this course, we will explore the concept of free will and related topics in neuroscience such as intention and self-control. We will cover the evidence from neuroscience that argues that behavior is, under normal conditions, not deterministic, thus providing a material basis for the concept of individual agency. We will then address the neuroscience evidence for cases where individual agency is reduced through external influence via learning and the reward and punishment systems. Finally, we will examine the most extreme cases of this, psychiatric disorders that reduce agency: addiction, compulsive disorders, and anxiety disorders. Prerequisite: Not open to freshman. Fulfillment: CORE STS; Neural Science elective.

This course will provide a broad introduction to basic mathematical and statistical tools for a quantitative analysis in the life sciences. It will cover a broad range of topics, including introduction to linear algebra, probability, linear regression, and statistical tests. We will use the mathematical programming language MATLAB for in-class demonstrations, computer lab during recitations and homework assignments. Prerequisite: Foundations of Biology I or Foundations of Biology II Fulfillment: Biology required; Neural Science required.

The relationship of the brain to behavior, beginning with the basic elements that make up the nervous system and how electrical and chemical signals in the brain work to effect behavior. Using this foundation, we examine how the brain learns and how it creates new behaviors, together with the brain mechanisms that are involved in sensory experience, movement, hunger and thirst, sexual behaviors, the experience of emotions, perception and cognition, memory and the brain's plasticity. Other key topics include whether certain behavioral disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can be accounted for by changes in the function of the brain, and how drugs can alter behavior and brain function. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE ED; Neural Science elective; Social Science Foundational course.

The general aim of the course is to provide an overview on neuronal processing in the central auditory system. The course will take a functional approach by studying what is known about how the auditory system accomplishes the two major jobs that it has to do when it hears a sound: identify what that sound is and where it comes from. Like other sensory systems there is good evidence that these jobs are done by parallel pathways using specialized circuitry. So for example, the largest synapse in our brain is located in the pathway that localizes sound. It seems likely that this highly unusual synapse has evolved from the particular demands of localization, which requires temporal precision on the order of tens of microseconds. The course will consist of a combination of lectures and discussion of primary literature, which will be a rather personal account. Most weeks there will be two papers to read with an average of 15-20 pages. Students will be assigned to present papers each week. There will also be a term paper on a topic in the course that is due at the end of the semester. The final grade will be determined by the oral presentations of papers (30%) and the term paper (70%) The course fills a need to cover a sensory system that is not presently taught at NYU. Pre-requisites: Intro to Neural Science Fulfillment: Neural Science elective.

Introductory lecture course covering the fundamental principles of neuroscience. Topics include principles of brain organization, structure and ultrastrucIntroductory lecture course covering the fundamental principles of neuroscience. Topics include principles of brain organization, structure and ultrastructure of neurons, neurophysiology and biophysics of excitable cells, synaptic transmission, neurotransmitter systems and neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, neuroendocrine relations, molecular biology of neurons, development and plasticity of the brain, aging and diseases of the nervous system, organization of sensory and motor systems, structure and function of the cerebral cortex, and modeling of neural systems. Prerequisite: BIOL-SHU 21 Foundations of Biology I and BIOL-SHU 22 Foundations of Biology II (could be co-req). Fulfillment: Biology Electives; Neural Science Required Courses.

A lecture course that provides students with broad exposure to current questions and experimental approaches in cellular neuroscience. Lectures are organized into three areas: cell structure and organization of the vertebrate central nervous system, mechanisms underlying neural signaling and plasticity, and control of cell form and its developmental determinants. . Prerequisites: BIOL-SHU 22 Foundations of Biology II and NEUR-SHU 201 Introduction to Neural Science. Fulfillment: Neural Science Required Courses.

How do humans and other animals obtain knowledge about the world? It is easy to take perception for granted, but complex processes (only partly understood) underlie our ability to understand the world by seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling it. Perception has fascinated philosophers, physicists, and physiologists for centuries. Currently, perception is a central topic not only in neuroscience, but also in psychology, cognitive science, and computer science. How do scientists approach perception? We seek to discover lawful relations between perceptual experiences and the physical world and to develop models of the processes and mechanisms that produce these connections. To accomplish this, we need accounts of the information, the computational processes, and the neural mechanisms involved in perception. In this course, we will discuss fundamental problems in perception (primarily vision), and learn about techniques that are applied in attempts to solve these problems. The learning outcomes of this course include a better understanding of human perception and critical thinking skills for the analysis and interpretation of the related research reports. Prerequisite: NEUR-SHU 201 Introduction to Neural Science OR PSYC-SHU 101 Introduction to Psychology or AP Psychology: Score of 5 or IB Psychology HL (Higher Level): Score of 7 or A Level Psychology: Score of A. Fulfillment: Biology Electives; Neural Science Approved upper-level Psychology courses; Neural Science Electives; Social Science Focus Courses Psychology - 200 level.

This lecture and laboratory course addresses the physiological and anatomical bases of behavior. Lectures and laboratory experiments will emphasize mammalian sensory, motor, regulatory, and motivational mechanisms involved in the control of behavior, and higher mental processes such as those involved in language and memory. Co-requisite/ Pre-requisite: NEUR-SHU 201. Fulfillment: Neural Science required.

This special topics course will review recent research that combines psychological, economic, and neurobiological approaches to study human and animal decision-making. The course will focus on our current understanding regarding the neural underpinnings of decision-making, and how evidence concerning the neural processes associated with choices might be used to advance economic and psychological theories of decision-making. Topics covered include valuation, value learning, perceptual and value-based decisions. Prerequisite: Introduction to Neural Science or with permission of the instructor. Fulfillment: Neural Science elective.

How does our brain work to enable us to speak and understand language? Are there special parts of the brain dedicated to speech and language? What is it like to be abnormal at speech or lose language? This course provides an introduction of the neuroscience research of speech and language, and interdisciplinary field at the heart of human cognitive neuroscience. Lectures cover basic aspects of language processing in the healthy brain, ranging from early sensory perception to higher level semantic interpretation, as well as a range of neurological and development language disorders, including aphasias, dyslexia, and other speech and language impairment. Functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques will be introduced. The goal of this course is to let students acquire basic knowledge of neurolinguistics, as well as familiarise the ideas of interdisciplinary research in the intersection of cognitive science and neuroscience. Prereqs: None. Fulfillment: CORE STS; Neural Science Approved upper-level Psychology courses; Neural Science Electives; Social Science Focus Courses Psychology - 200 level.

This course introduces students in neuroscience and mathematics to theoretical studies of neural systems. The course material is models of the nervous system at many different levels, including the biophysical, the circuit and the systems levels for biological sensing, motor control, perception, and learning. We will follow the classic textbook, “Theoretical neuroscience” by Dayan and Abbott. This broad introduction of topics in computational neuroscience aims to provide initial guidance for students to choose the computational approach to describe and analyze the data. The students will be encouraged to read the references and utilize the online materials before the lectures so that the students can participate in the discussion during the class. Mathematical tools in probability and differential equations and programming in Matlab will be introduced as needed within the course. Prerequisite: Undergraduates: Mathematical Tools for Life Sciences (NEUR-SHU 100) or permission by the instructor. Graduates: Mathematical Tools for Neural and Cognitive Science (NEURL-GA.2201), or permission by the instructor. Fulfillment: Neural Science Electives.

We need to interact with people and the environment efficiently to survive, evolve, and create a better future. Action is a crucial process in this fundamental interaction. Recent advances in cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience emphasize the functions of action and its relations to cognition. The aims of the course are to provide students with a broad understanding of the foundations as well as cutting-edge advances on the topic of the relation between action and cognition. We will focus on the research that has led to those theories, as well as experimental approaches that derive and support these hypotheses. In doing so, students will also learn about the goals as well as the scientific procedures of behavioral and cognitive neuroscience research and the methods that are being employed to reach these goals. Prerequisite: Introduction to Neuroscience AND Behavioral and Integrative Neuroscience Fulfillment: Neural Science Electives.

Prerequisite: BIOL-SHU 21 Foundations of Biology I.

This course introduces students in neuroscience, and mathematics to the use of mathematical methods in modeling and computer simulation to investigate phenomena in neuroscience. The course material to be covered is models of electrophysiology of neurons and synapses, neural networks and examples, synaptic plasticity for memory and learning together with computer simulations. Mathematical tools in linear algebra and differential equations, and programming in Matlab is introduced as needed within the course. Prerequisites: MATH-SHU 131 Calculus, NEUR-SHU 100 Math Tools for Life Sciences or MATH-SHU 160 Network and Dynamics, or permission by the instructor. Familiarity with linear algebra, ordinary differential equation, and programming are recommended but not required. Fulfillment: Neural Science elective.

This is an introductory survey course to linguistics – the science of language. During this semester, we will address humans’ language competence (e.g., is our language ability a learned behavior or rather an instinct? What do native speakers of a specific language implicitly know about word structure, sentence structure, sentence meaning, pronunciation? Etc.) and humans language performance in social context (e.g., why and how does language evolve in a society? How does language reflect our identity? Etc.). This course will approach these issues by incorporating theoretical and experimental works from (neuro)psychological, philosophical, mathematical/computational, and sociological/cultural perspectives. The course aims to help students understand multiple facets of language ability (a crucial cognitive function that defines who we are as humans – both in terms of intelligent individuals and a social species) and appreciate linguistic diversity. It will also show how linguists work towards a better scientific understanding of our language ability. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: CORE STS; Neural Science Electives.

This course is about a supreme aspect of the human race: seeking and creating meaning. The central topic of this course is how humans use language to encode meaning, create meaning, interpret meaning, do with meaning, and reflect on meaning, and then how humans’ meaning-related activities go beyond language. We will study how philosophers and linguists approach this topic, introducing influential ideas on language and meaning. We will also study how various kinds of media, from pictures and comics to computer programs, provide new ways of encoding and interpreting meaning as well as new perspectives on studying meaning. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Neural Science elective; Humanities Introductory course.

Perspectives from Linguistics, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Computer Science: Humans are animals of meaning. Among all kinds of interpretive activities – from recognizing bird songs and dog barks to appreciating impressionist artwork, the most human-specific is the use of language: with a limited number of symbols, humans can encode and convey an unlimited number of ideas with varying complexities, from concrete entities as simple as red boat to hypothesized models as intricate as artificial neural networks. How do we describe and analyze natural language meaning? How does our brain support the processing of natural language meaning? How can we make machines understand natural language meaning? This course seeks to provide a general introduction to current research on (the representation and/or processing of) natural language meaning, drawing on and bridging three different disciplines: formal linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and computer science. Lectures cover (i) the modeling of natural language meaning in formal linguistics, (ii) hypothesized brain mechanisms underlying the processing of natural language meaning, (iii) main computational techniques that perform natural language understanding tasks, (iv) and cutting-edge research on bringing together interdisciplinary views. Pre-requisites: Students are expected to have taken core courses in the first two years of NYU shanghai curriculum, including Introduction to Neuroscience. Otherwise, students should first ask for the instructor’s permission. Fulfillment: Neural Science elective.

Provides supervised research activities in laboratories connected with the Center for Neural Science. Undergraduates are matched with a graduate student or faculty member working in an area of interest to the student. Students gain experience in many aspects of research and attend regular meetings to discuss recent advances in neuroscience and research-related issues. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Neural Science elective.

Open only to students qualified and having been recommended by the Director of Neural Science program. Fulfillment: General Elective.

Prerequisite: All Neural Science Major Required Courses (Introduction to Neural Science, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Behavioral and Integrative Neuroscience, Math Tools for Behavioral Science), permission of a neural science faculty member (at NYU-Shanghai, NYU-Abu Dhabi, or NYU-New York) who will act as a sponsor and mentor, and approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Neural Science. The faculty mentor must be selected in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Neural Science. Offered in Fall or Spring. Can be repeated once. 2 to 4 credits per term for a maximum of 8 credits. Minimum 4 credits are required to fulfill the capstone course requirement. This course aims at engaging students in research. Taking the course for 4 credits requires 10-12 hours spent on conducting research per week (2 credits requires 5-6 hours per week). It is designed to offer students an opportunity to observe neuroscience research up close and gain hands-on research experience by working as a member in an active research team. Independent Study I and II can be done with the same supervisor or two different supervisors. No lectures will be given. Student researchers are expected to attend and actively participate in lab/supervision meetings. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Neural Science Required Courses.

Prerequisite: All Neural Science Major Required Courses (Introduction to Neural Science, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Behavioral and Integrative Neuroscience, Math Tools for Behavioral Science), permission of a neural science faculty member (at NYU-Shanghai, NYU-Abu Dhabi, or NYU-New York) who will act as a sponsor and mentor, and approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Neural Science. The faculty mentor must be selected in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Neural Science. Offered in Fall or Spring. Can be repeated once. 2 to 4 credits per term for a maximum of 8 credits. Minimum 4 credits are required to fulfill the capstone course requirement. This course aims at engaging students in research. Taking the course for 4 credits requires 10-12 hours spent on conducting research per week (2 credits requires 5-6 hours per week). It is designed to offer students an opportunity to observe neuroscience research up close and gain hands-on research experience by working as a member in an active research team. Independent Study I and II can be done with the same supervisor or two different supervisors. No lectures will be given. Student researchers are expected to attend and actively participate in lab/supervision meetings. Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Neural Science Required Courses/ Electives.