OVERVIEW

After a first educational part on underlying mechanisms, the course will outline how learning development and maintenance takes place. In order to  further complete this content part of the course will deal with principal pathologies in developmental age concerning attention, memory and learning disabilities. Consequently, instruments of investigations and prevention for children in pre-school age  as well as diagnosis and treatment for patients in school age and after will be illustrated.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. To provide the notions of neuro-functional architectures of cognitive and emotional processes. 2. To distinguish anatomical description level over the hierarchical one of its explanation through functional neuro-anatomy and architectural models of normal and pathological brain processes. 3. To acknowledge how these models can affect clinical evaluation and rehabilitation protocols.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course students will be able :

1. to possess the basic knowledge of the main areas of interest of physiological psychology and cognitive neuroscience ;
2. to know the notions of neuro-functional architectures of cognitive and emotional processes ;
3. to know the main methodological principles and instruments of investigations and prevention used in neuropsychological practice.

TEACHING METHODS

The course is based on lectures and presentation of slides illustrating several aspects of the programme; students are expected to take an interactive role in the discussion of more complex arguments.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course will be organized in two modules, consisting of  both frontal lessons and the presentation and discussion of a series of scientific (research) papers.

Module 1:  

Methods in Cognitive Neurosciences

The hierarchical Theory of Attention

Attention in learning processes

Attentive-Executive Control Systems.

Emotion

Attention Deficit Disorder

Neuropsychological tests used in assessment

Module 2:

Memory: types and mechanisms

Declarative (Explicit?) Memory

Decisional processes

Neural bases of written and spoken language

Types of dyslexia

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Purves D., Brannon E.M., Cabeza R., Huettel S.A., LaBar K.S., Platt M. L., Woldorff M.G. (2015). Neuroscienze Cognitive. Zanichelli.

- Loprete, S. (2021). Storia e sviluppo delle neuroscienze cognitive. Dalla teoria cardiocentrica alle tecniche di neuroimaging. Zanichelli.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ANDREA BRUGNOLO (President)

NICOLA GIOVANNI GIRTLER (President Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

from Monday, September 20.

Class schedule

PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam consists in a compulsory written test, with possibility of an oral integration.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Cloze test, multiple choice test and a  test with two open-response questions. Students who pass the written exam will have the possibility to integrate it with an oral exam or with the evaluation of a short dissertation on a scientific subject.

The compulsory written exam lets students have a convenient time to verify all programme content.

In-depth examination is substantial for those students who will practise as both  clinical and experimental psychologists.

Open-response questions will deal with general subjects and will be aimed to evaluate the importance of experimental approach, the transition from descriptive to functional anatomy, the use and application of theoretical aspects to clinical neuro-psychology.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Non attending students will not be required to face any other activities, given their disadvantage of not attending the lessons of such a complex subject, which should need the explanation and the contextualization of every single argument.

To sit examinations students are asked to register online at least five days before test on the following “Portale studenti”: https://servizionline.unige.it/studenti/esami/. Registration will be closed five days before exam date.

Students are requested to regularly refer to the following web page on “Portale studenti”: https://servizionline.unige.it/studenti/esami/.  All information and materials for the course are posted exclusively on this web site.