This course is aimed at providing an overview of emotional/motivated behavior in animals and humans, including the concepts of reward, aversion, motivation, learning, and decision making, focused on understanding the brain circuits and molecules that support these processes that are shared across species. To achieve this, we will have a combination of lectures, readings, and discussions on our current scientific understanding of emotion and motivation in animals and in humans, and compare this to pop culture depictions of the brain (for instance, memes about dopamine) and motivated behavior (for instance, viral videos of cute and surprising antics of animals). The goal for students is to have a better understanding of how their own brains work, to provide perspective on decision making and motivation challenges, and to use this knowledge to improve popular understanding of the brain, one meme at a time.
prereq: 3061, 3011, or Psy doctoral student
Gopher Grades is maintained by Social Coding with data from Summer 2017 to Fall 2025 provided by the University in response to a public records request