Cognitive neuroscience

Activity type

Psicologia sociale e del lavoro

SSD

PSIC-03/A

Year

1st year

Semester

2nd semester

CFU

3

Hours distribution

24 classroom hours

Lecturers

ILARIA BUFALARI

Activity type

Psicologia generale, fisiologica e psicometria

SSD

PSIC-01/B

Year

1st year

Semester

2nd semester

CFU

6

Hours distribution

24 classroom hours, 36 laboratory hours

Lecturers

MATTEO CANDIDI

General aims
This course aims at providing an up-to date overview of the theories and research areas in the field of Social Neuroscience and offering a comprehensive view of the methods used in the field. The course has two main teaching goals. The first one is to promote an understaning of the social, clinical and technological potentiality of studies concerning social functions in neurotypical individuals, along the typical and atypical development as well as in psychiatric patients or patients with brain lesions. The second teaching goal is to strengthen the student ability to search, understand, report, and utilize information offered by scientific papers from the field of social neuroscience. Part of the course aims at presenting and let the students acquire knowledge concerning methods of social psychology (experimental designs, experimental manipulations, statistical approaches) through the study and discussion of scientific papers on social decisions and the influence of social variables, personality traits, emotions on decision processes.

Specific aims
- Understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting social functions (knowledge and under-standing).
- Understanding the relevance of social functions for the development of higher order cognitive functions, in clinical settings and for technological purposes (applying knowledge and understanding).
- Critically evaluate the methodological approach and theoretical impact of papers from the field of Social Neuroscience (making judgements).
- Ability to report and comment the content of scientific papers from social neuroscience field (communication skills).
- Development of general skills in deepening studies in fields related to social neuroscience such as neuropsychology, psychophysiology, behavioral neuroscience (learning skills).

General aims
This course aims at providing an up-to date overview of the theories and research areas in the field of Social Neuroscience and offering a comprehensive view of the methods used in the field. The course has two main teaching goals. The first one is to promote an understaning of the social, clinical and technological potentiality of studies concerning social functions in neurotypical individuals, along the typical and atypical development as well as in psychiatric patients or patients with brain lesions. The second teaching goal is to strengthen the student ability to search, understand, report, and utilize information offered by scientific papers from the field of social neuroscience.

Specific aims
- Understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting social functions (knowledge and under-standing).
- Understanding the relevance of social functions for the development of higher order cognitive functions, in clinical settings and for technological purposes (applying knowledge and understanding).
- Critically evaluate the methodological approach and theoretical impact of papers from the field of Social Neuroscience (making judgements).
- Ability to report and comment the content of scientific papers from social neuroscience field (communication skills).
- Development of general skills in deepening studies in fields related to social neuroscience such as neuropsychology, psychophysiology, behavioral neuroscience (learning skills).

Preconditions for successful outcome of the course is bachelor level knowledge of theories and methods of Be-havioral Neuroscience, Psychophysiology and/or Neuropsychology.

1 Insegnamento
1.1 Denominazione: Experimental Methods in Social Neuroscience
1.2 Codice: 1055041
1.3 SSD: M-PSI/02
1.4 CDL: Neuroscienze Cognitive
2 Obiettivi formativi
2.1 Obiettivi generali

ENGLISH
This course aims at providing an up-to date overview of the theories and research areas in the field of Social Neuroscience and offering a comprehensive view of the methods used in the field. The course has two main teaching goals. The first one is to promote an understaning of the social, clinical and technological potentiality of studies concerning social functions in neurotypical individuals, along the typical and atypical development as well as in psychiatric patients or patients with brain lesions. The second teaching goal is to strengthen the stu-dent ability to search, understand, report, and utilize information offered by scientific papers from the field of so-cial neuroscience.
ITALIANO
Il corso mira a fornire una panoramica aggiornata delle teorie e delle aree di ricerca nell'ambito delle Neuro-scienze Sociali a ad offrire una conoscenza omnicomprensiva dei metodi di ricerca utilizzati in tale ambito. Il cor-so ha due obiettivi. Il primo obiettivo è di promuovere la comprensione delle potenzialità sociali, cliniche e tecno-logiche degli studi sulle funzioni sociali in individui neurotipici, durante lo sviluppo atipico e atipico e in pazienti psichiatrici e neurologici. Il secondo obiettivo è di rafforzare le abilità dello studente di reperire, comprendere, di-scutere e utilizzare le informazioni offerte dalle pubblicazioni scientifiche nell'ambito delle neuroscienze sociali.

2.2 Obiettivi specifici
ENGLISH
2.2.1 Understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting social functions (knowledge and under-standing).
2.2.2 Understanding the relevance of social functions for the development of higher order cognitive functions, in clinical settings and for technological purposes (applying knowledge and understanding).
2.2.3 Critically evaluate the methodological approach and theoretical impact of papers from the field of Social Neuroscience (making judgements).
2.2.4 Ability to report and comment the content of scientific papers from social neuroscience field (communica-tion skills).
2.2.5 Development of general skills in deepening studies in fields related to social neuroscience such as neu-ropsychology, psychophysiology, behavioral neuroscience (learning skills).
ITALIANO
2.2.1 Comprendere i meccanismi cognitivi e neurali sottesi alle funzioni sociali (conoscenza e comprensione).
2.2.2 Comprendere la rilevanza delle funzioni sociali per lo sviluppo delle funzioni cognitive di alto livello, in am-biti clinici e per finalità tecnologiche (applicare conoscenze e compresnsione).
2.2.3 Valutare criticamente gli approcci metodologici e l'impatto teorico di pubblicazioni scientifiche nell'ambito dellel Neuroscienze Sociali (effettuare valutazioni).
2.2.4 Abilità di descrivere e commentare il contenuto di pubblicazioni scientifiche nell'ambito delle neuroscienze sociali (abilità di comunicazione).
2.2.5 Sviluppo delle abilità generali di approfondire gli studi in ambiti relati alle neuroscienze sociali quali la neu-ropsicologia, psicofisiologia, neuroscienze comportamentali (abilità di apprendimento).

2.3 Prerequisiti
ENGLISH
Preconditions for successful outcome of the course is bachelor level knowledge of theories and methods of Be-havioral Neuroscience, Psychophysiology and/or Neuropsychology.
ITALIANO
Precondizioni per un esito positivo del corso è una conoscenza delle teorie e dei metodi delle Neuroscienze Comportamentali, Psicofisiologia e/o Neuropsicologia a livello della laurea di primo livello.

3 Programmi
3.1 Contenuto dell’insegnamento
ENGLISH
The course is structured in theoretical lectures (48 hours) and supervised practical activities (laboratory, 36 hours). The theoretical lectures will provide an overview of theoretical issues concerning the birth and develop-ment of Social Neuroscience field (12 hours). A second group of lectures will focus on the presentation of the different functions and neural mechanisms relevant for the field of social neuroscience: 1) social perception, 2) social emotions, 3) empathy, 4) theory of mind, 5) action understanding and motor function in social contexts, 6) decision making in social contexts, 7) stereotyping and intergroup processes (18 hours). A third section of the course will focus on the research methods applied in the field of social neuroscience: 1) behavioral indexes, 2) electrophysiology (EEG, MEG), 3) brain imaging (fMRI, NIRS, DTI), 4) brain stimulation (TMS, tDCS), lesion anal-yses (VBLSM), 5) autonomic and thermal imaging (18 hours).
During the lectures focusing on practical activities, students will be engaged in activities directly focusing on re-search methods (36 hours). These activities will be broken down in different types of lectures. Some of these (12 hours) will focus on reading and commenting the methods and theoretical value of 4 scientific papers. Students will be divided in small groups and will be asked to design experiments to test hypotheses on social functions in healthy subjects as well as in clinical samples (9 hours). Students will be asked to present to the class the de-signed experiment, proving a short introduction about the literature on the chosen topic, research hypothesis, methods, expected results and translational potential (9 hours). In a different set of lectures, students will be given the chance to get into laboratories where they will directly see how some of the main experimental meth-ods are used in the field (brain stimulation, EEG, psychophysiological recordings, behavioral measures, motion kinematics, thermal imaging) (6 hours).

1. Jamie Ward (2012) The Student's Guide to Social Neuroscience. New York. Psychology Press
2. Further relevant papers for the course will be provided on-line on the e-learning site.

Further relevant papers for the course will be provided on-line on the e-learning site.

The course will first introduce current theoretical models of social functions and their neural underpinnings (12 hours). Secondly, the course will start presenting up-date evidence in the field of social neuroscience in different emotional, cognitive and behavioral domains (18 hours) and methodological approaches (18 hours). During this second section, students will be engaged in practical activities (36 hours). During the course, students will re-ceive grades on their assignments concerning the practical activities of laboratory (i.e., answering to questions concerning the 4 papers studied in class, presenting the experiment that they have designed in small groups) so that they will be able to change their approach to the course and modify their study method if needed.

Class attendance and participation to laboratory activity are strongly suggested.

Two main types of activities will be evaluated during the entire course: 1) designing and presenting an experiment; 2) written exam on the course materials.
The two main factors that will be evaluated in these two activities are:
1) Evaluating communication, making judgements, learning skills: quality and clarity of the slides and of oral presentation of the designed experiment; pertinence and clarity of answers to question and criticisms during discussion; quality of the background support to the aims of the proposed project.
2) Explaining theories of social neuroscience linking them to empirical evidence concerning the adult and the developing human, neurotypical or neurodivergent, with or without neurological diseases or lesions.

Describe the theories regarding empathy in humans.
Describe the main non-invasive techniques of neuroscientific investigation.
Describe the brain systems involved in decision-making processes in the social domain.

• Theoretical bases of Social Neuroscience
  • Books: 1. Jamie Ward (2012) The Student's Guide to Social Neuroscience. New York. Psychology Press2. Further relevant papers for the course will be provided on-line on the e-learning site.


• Methodological approaches to Social Neuroscience
  • Books: 1. Jamie Ward (2012) The Student's Guide to Social Neuroscience. New York. Psychology Press2. Further relevant papers for the course will be provided on-line on the e-learning site.


• Experimental methods in Social Neuroscience
  • Books: 1. Jamie Ward (2012) The Student's Guide to Social Neuroscience. New York. Psychology Press2. Further relevant papers for the course will be provided on-line on the e-learning site.