This lecture covers the three big questions: What is the universe?, what is life?, and what is consciousness?

This lecture outlines various approaches to studying Mind, Brain, and Behavior. 

This lecture covers the history of behaviorism and the ultimate challenge to behaviorism. 

This lecture covers various learning theories.

An introduction to data management, manipulation, visualization, and analysis for neuroscience. Students will learn scientific programming in Python, and use this to work with example data from areas such as cognitive-behavioral research, single-cell recording, EEG, and structural and functional MRI. Basic signal processing techniques including filtering are covered. The course includes a Jupyter Notebook and video tutorials.

The goal of computational modeling in behavioral and psychological science is using mathematical models to characterize behavioral (or neural) data. Over the past decade, this practice has revolutionized social psychological science (and neuroscience) by allowing researchers to formalize theories as constrained mathematical models and test specific hypotheses to explain unobservable aspects of complex social cognitive processes and behaviors. This course is composed of 4 modules in the format of Jupyter Notebooks. This course comprises lecture-based, discussion-based, and lab-based instruction. At least one-third of class sessions will be hands-on. We will discuss relevant book chapters and journal articles, and work with simulated and real data using the Python programming language (no prior programming experience necessary) as we survey some selected areas of research at the intersection of computational modeling and social behavior. These selected topics will span a broad set of social psychological abilities including (1) learning from and for others, (2) learning about others, and (3) social influence on decision-making and mental states. Rhoads, S. A. & Gan, L. (2022). Computational models of human social behavior and neuroscience - An open educational course and Jupyter Book to advance computational training.  ​​​Journal of Open Source Education, 5(47), 146. https://doi.org/10.21105/jose.00146

This lecture covers visualizing extracellular neurotransmitter dynamics

This lesson goes over the basic mechanisms of neural synapses, the space between neurons where signals may be transmitted. 

This lesson describes spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), a biological process that adjusts the strength of connections between neurons in the brain, and how one can implement or mimic this process in a computational model. You will also find links for practical exercises at the bottom of this page. 

This lesson discusses a gripping neuroscientific question: why have neurons developed the discrete action potential, or spike, as a principle method of communication? 

This lecture consists of the second half of the introduction to signal transduction, here focusing on cell receptors and signalling cascades.

In this lesson, you will learn about GABAergic interneurons and local inhibition on the circuit level.

This lecture provides an introduction to the study of eye-tracking in humans. 

From the retina to the superior colliculus, the lateral geniculate nucleus into primary visual cortex and beyond, this lecture gives a tour of the mammalian visual system highlighting the Nobel-prize winning discoveries of Hubel & Wiesel.

From Universal Turing Machines to McCulloch-Pitts and Hopfield associative memory networks, this lecture explains what is meant by computation.

In an overview of the structure of the mammalian neocortex, this lecture explains how the mammalian cortex is organized in a hierarchy, describing the columnar principle and canonical microcircuits.

The retina has 60 different types of neurons. What are their functions? This lecture explores the definition of cell types and their functions in the mammalian retina.

Optical imaging offers a look inside the working brain. This lecture takes a look at orientation and ocular dominance columns in the visual cortex, and shows how they can be viewed with calcium imaging.

Functional imaging has led to the discovery of a plethora of visual cortical regions. This lecture introduces functional imaging techniques and their teachings about the visual cortex.

This lecture explains these ideas and explores the task of characterizing neuronal response properties using information theory.