PSYC 399
Fall 2016 not offered
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| This course may be repeated for credit. |
| Crosslisting:
NS&B 399 |
| Course Cluster: Health Studies |
This intensive laboratory course provides in-depth training on the experimental methods of behavioral neuroscience of motivation and reward and provides students with HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE WITH ANIMAL RESEARCH USING RODENT MODELS. We will review contemporary studies with a particular focus on gambling, diet-induced obesity, and drug addiction. Some of the models examined in more detail will focus on the role of reward uncertainty and the concept of loss in gambling, the individual differences in the attraction to reward cues in subjects prone to obesity versus those that are resistant (with a particular emphasis on prenatal and developmental exposure to high-fat diets), and, finally, the individual differences in the resistance to adverse consequences in models of intense desire and addiction. Students will learn how to handle and inject rats in a behavioral neuroscience research setting and how to measure reward and motivation using diverse apparatuses such as operant (Skinner) boxes or conditioned place preference chambers. More important, students will get to be directly involved with an animal research project in the lab either individually or as a group that may require a heavier time commitment for the duration of the experiment (including some research over the weekends). |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
NSM PSYC |
| Course Format: Laboratory Course | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (NS&B) |
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