Admission requirements
MSc Psychology (research) students
Description
Developmental cognitive neuroscience investigates the relations between brain development and cognitive, affective and social development. This class will cover the biological bases of cognitive and affective functioning from a developmental perspective, focusing on childhood and adolescence. Fundamental questions that will be covered include: How does brain development, including changes in function, morphology, and connectivity, relate to typical and atypical development of cognitive and affective functions, such as learning, attention, memory, motivation and decision-making? How do genetic and environmental questions interact during the course of development to shape the brain, mind and behavior?
Course objectives
Explore relevant theoretical debates in developmental science and neuroscience methods used to address the relevant questions in this field.
Consideration of the major methods of developmental cognitive neuroscience including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), recordings of evoked response potentials (ERPs), and behavioral marker tasks. We will devote particular attention to the unique challenges of applying these methods to the study of children.
Give group presentations on relevant articles and write a research proposal.
Timetable
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (2014-2015):
Registration
Course
Students need to enroll for lectures and work group sessions. Please consult the Instructions registration
Examination
Students are not automatically enrolled for an examination. They can register via uSis from 100 to 10 calendar days before the date; students who are not registered will not be permitted to take the examination. Registering for exams
Mode of instruction
Class sessions will usually consist of a short lecture period followed by a student led group presentation and discussion of the week’s readings. Students will be responsible for each week’s assigned readings. The class will revolve around discussion of these readings. To facilitate discussion, students should prepare questions that arose for them while reading the week’s material.
Student groups will be arranged, and each group will be responsible for co-leading one or more class discussions. Groups may reserve topics. In addition to weekly discussion questions, a major research proposal will be due on the last day of class. Also, students will give a presentation on the literature and/or their proposal.
Assessment method
The assessment for this course is based on
Class Participation and Discussion (10%): (1) Come to class having done all of the readings, and prepared to discuss them; (2) Write 3 discussion questions each week for distribution to the class.
Presenting (30%): Take a turn in leading the discussion and give a presentation on that week’s readings.
Paper (60%): Write an ~5 page research proposal on the topic of your choice in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.
The Faculty of Social Sciences has instituted that instructors use a software programme for the systematic detection of plagiarism in students’ written work. In case of fraud disciplinary actions will be taken. Please see the information concerning fraud
Blackboard
Information on blackboard.leidenuniv.nl
Reading list
- All readings (journal articles) will be made available for download on the course blackboard website in pdf format.
Exemplary literature list Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Crone EA, Ridderinkhof KR. (2011). The developing brain: from theory to neuroimaging and back. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 1, 101-109.
Scherf KS, Behrmann M, Dahl RE. (2012). Facing changes and changing faces in adolescence: a new model for investigating adolescent-specific interactions between pubertal, brain and behavioral development. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 2, 1999-219.
Galvan A. (2010). Adolescent development of the reward system. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 4:6.
Blakemore SJ & Robbins, TW (2012). Decision-making in the adolescent brain. Nature Neuroscience, 9, 1184-1191.
Contact information
Dr. A.C.K. van Duijvenvoorde
Room 3B41
Tel.: +31 (0)71 527 3853
E-mail: a.c.k.van.duijvenvoorde@fsw.leidenuniv.nl