A basic knowledge of psychobiology and cognitive neuroscience is needed.
The course aims to provide students with a knowledge of the anatomical and functional bases of social and affective mental processes and their disorders.
Students will gain a through understanding of the intellectual issues that drive this rapidly growing field, as well as expertise in the major methods for research in social cognitive neuroscience. Students will also learn to apply the acquired knowledge to design and carry out empirical studies in the field of social cognitive neuroscience.
- Foundational principles and methods of social cognitive neuroscience
- Evolutionary origins of social intelligence and culture
- Emotion and motivation
- Neural bases of face and body processing
- Social neuroscience of empathy and the mirror neuron system
- Social decision making and neural bases of altruism
- The neuroscience of morality and antisocial behavior
Teaching will be conducted through lectures with the help of video / web resources. Non-attending students must adhere to published online program.
In case of a mixed or remote teaching mode, changes may be introduced with respect to what is stated in the Syllabus to allow the course and the exams to be attended also in these modalities.
The exam includes a written test consisting of 30 multiple choices questions and an open question. The questions aim at ascertaining the effective acquisition of both theoretical knowledge and the ability to connect different aspects of social cognitive neuroscience. The answer to the open question will be evaluated in terms of correctness of the answer, argumentative capacity, and analytical discussion of the topics of the course (maximum score: 30; the laude will be added depending on clarity and mastery of argumentations).
Scientific articles published in international journals and other useful material will be made available on the e-learning page of the course. Non-attending students must follow the program described above. The final exam is th same for attending and not-attending students. For any particular need, students can contact the course teacher.