McGill University
Department of Psychology
Psychology PSYC410
Fall Semester, 2010 - 2011
Professor Amir Raz
Instructor:
Office:
Office hours:
Professor Amir Raz
3773 University Ave.
Duff Medical Building (room A11)
Email: amir.raz@mcgill.ca
By appointment only
Teaching Assistants (TAs) *:
Mary Sutherland (mary.e.sutherland@mail.mcgill.ca)
Office hours: Wednesdays, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Location: TBA
Selma Hamdani (selma.hamdani@mail.mcgill.ca).
Office hours: Thursdays, 12:00 -1:00 pm
Location: Stewart Biology Building N 8/7
*Mary will be responsible for the material from the beginning of the course until
the first midterm (October 7th). This entails that she will be available for office
hours and monitoring WebCt during this period of time.
*Selma will be responsible for the material covered between the first and the
second midterm. Her tasks will be the same.
Lecture Time: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 4:05 pm – 5:25 pm
Location: McGill Campus, Stewart Biology Building S1/3
SYLLABUS
Prerequisites and Organization
This higher-level course assumes a seasoned audience with some exposure to
neuroscience, brain function and organization, and the cognitive sciences. As
such, this advanced course assumes at least some familiarity with basic topics
covered in introductory cognition, neuroscience, and human behaviour (e.g.,
Any of McGill’s PSYC211, 213, 308, 311 or with instructor’s permission). If
you do not have any of these courses as background, you can still register for
PSYC410, but you may possess suboptimal background. The decision is
ultimately your own.
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The present course focuses on select topics in human neuropsychology with a
concentration on functional brain organization, and an emphasis on typical
and atypical attention, neuropsychiatry, and neurological disorders. We will
read and discuss original studies, drawing on a large variety of
methodologies, with both normal and pathological populations. Much of the
course will include discussions of brain imaging techniques to study both
cognitive function and dysfunction.
This course uses no textbook. Instead, we will draw on scientific articles
addressing the relevant topics. These readings will largely span original
experimental reports alongside some reviews and thought pieces. The goal is
to have you develop an ability to read primary sources in a critical fashion.
The assigned articles are obtainable from the original sources in one or all of
the following three libraries: McLennan Library (Main campus), Health
Sciences Library (McIntyre Medical Building), or Montreal Neurological
Institute Library (3801 University, 2nd floor). Most materials should be
available through the McGill Library website
(http://www.mcgill.ca/library). For the few readings that will be more
difficult to obtain, we will provide them through the course’s website.
To participate in this course each student must obtain a personalized nontransferable clicker, register it online with MyCourses, and use it throughout
the course. It is your responsibility to make sure that your clicker is both
registered and working properly. If you're having trouble registering your
clicker for the course, please contact Information Technology Customer
Service (ICS) at 398-3398.
Course Administration/WebCT/Questions/Registration Problems
WebCT is the official medium for all course announcements and
administrative communications. Please check WebCT frequently.
If you're having trouble registering for the course, contact the psychology
undergraduate secretary, Ms. Julia Marussi.
If you have questions about course content, please post them to the WebCT
discussion board so that everyone can benefit from the answer. If you are still
confused, or unsatisfied with the answer you get on WebCT, kindly ask the
TA.
Lecture and Readings Schedule
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Many of the readings by Raz can be found on the Raz Lab website at www.jgh.ca/razlab
(click on “Select Publications”). Please explore this site for other relevant information.
Date
Thursday, September 2nd – Household Items
Introduction to Top-down and Bottom-up processes.
No readings
Tuesday, September 7th – How skeptical should you be?
Note: Readings 1 and 2 will be provided on MyCourses in one PDF document
1. Raz A. Anomalous Cognition: A Meeting of Minds? (2008). Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 32, Issue 4,
pp.36-39.
2. Hyman R. Anomalous Cognition? A Second Perspective (2008). Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 32,
Issue 4, pp.40-43.
Thursday, September 9th - Typical and Atypical Attention
Note: Reading 3 will be provided on MyCourses
3. Raz A. Atypical attention: Hypnosis and conflict reduction. In: Posner MI. Ed. Cognitive
Neuroscience of Attention. New York: Guilford Press. pp. 420-429. (2004).
4. Raz, A., & Buhle, J. (2006). Typologies of attentional networks. Nature Reviews Neuroscience,
7(5), 367-379.
*Tuesday, September 14th – Hypnosis in Neuroscience
Note: An optional screening session after class (5:30 PM) for more hypnosis clips in S1/3 (1 hour)
5. Raz A, Shapiro T, (2002). Hypnosis and Neuroscience: A Crosstalk Between Clinical and
Cognitive Research. Archives of General Psychiatry; 59:85-90.
6. Oakley, D, Halligan, P (2009). Hypnotic suggestion and cognitive neuroscience. Trends in
Cognitive Sciences, 13(6) 264-270.
* = add/drop deadline – from this point onward you MUST have a functional and registered clicker.
Thursday, September 16th – Hypnotizability demonstration
Note: Reading 7 will be provided on MyCourses as of September 10th
7. Woody, E., Szechtman, H (In press). Using Hypnosis to Develop and Test Models of
Psychopathology. Mind Body Regulation.
Tuesday, September 21st – Neuroimaging and fMRI
Note: Reading 8 will be provided on MyCourses
8. Raz, A. Wolfson, J.B., From Dynamic Lesions to Brain Imaging of Behavioral Lesions:
Alloying the Gold of Psychoanalysis with the Copper of Suggestion (2010).
Neuropsychoanalysis, 12(1), 5-18
9. Raz A, Lieber B, Soliman F, Buhle J, Posner J, Peterson, BS, Posner MI (2005). Ecological
nuances in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): Psychological stressors, posture, and
hydrostatics. Neuroimage, 25:1-7.
Thursday, September 23rd – Hypnosis & Attention 1
10. Raz, A., Shapiro, T., Fan, J., & Posner, M. I. (2002). Hypnotic Suggestion and the Modulation
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of Stroop Interference. Archives of Gen Psychiatry, 59(12), 1155-1161.
11. Raz A, Fan J, Posner MI (2005). Posthypnotic Suggestion Reduces Conflict in the Human
Brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(28):9978-9983.
Tuesday, September 28th – Hypnosis & Attention 2
12. Raz, A., Kirsch, I., Pollard, J., & Nitkin-Kaner, Y. (2006). Suggestion reduces the stroop effect.
Psychological Science, 17(2), 91-95.
13. Raz, A., Moreno-Iniguez, M., Martin, L., & Zhu, H. (2007). Suggestion overrides the Stroop
effect in highly hypnotizable individuals. Consciousness and Cognition, 16(2), 331-338.
Thursday, September 30th – Intro to TMS (with Mr. Benjamin Whatley)
14. Jahanshahi, M., & Rothwell, J. (2000). Transcranial magnetic stimulation studies of cognition:
an emerging field. Exp Brain Res, 131(1), 1-9.
Tuesday, October 5th – Advanced TMS (with Dr. Lisa Koski)
15. Di Lazzaro, V., Pilato, F., Dileone, M., Profice, P., Capone, F., Ranieri, F., et al. (2008).
Modulating cortical excitability in acute stroke: A repetitive TMS study. Clinical
Neurophysiology, 119(3), 715-723
16. Thompson, B., Mansouri, B., Koski, L., & Hess, R. F. (2008). Brain plasticity in the adult:
Modulation of function in amblyopia with rTMS. Current Biology, 18(14), 1067-1071.
Thursday, October 7th – Midterm 1 (20%)
Includes all lectures and readings to date
Tuesday, October 12th – Neurophysiology (with Dr. Karsten Steinhauer)
Note: Readings 16 and 17 will be provided on MyCourses
17. Speckmann E, Elger C. Introduction to the neurophysiological basis of the EEG and DC
potentials. Electroencephalography: Basic Principles, Clinical Applications, and Related Fields.
E. Niedermeyer and F. Lopes da Silva. Edited by Niedermeyer E, Lopez da Silva F. Baltimore.
Urban & Schwarzenberg. 1987:1-13.
18. Steinhauer, K., Connolly, J.F. (2008). Event-related potentials in the study of language.
Handbook of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language.
Thursday, October 14th – Converging Imaging Modalities
19. Gore, J. C., Horovitz, S. G., Cannistraci, C. J., & Skudlarski, P. (2006). Integration of fMRI,
NIROT and ERP for studies of human brain function. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 24(4),
507- 513.
20. Logothetis, N. K. (2008). What we can do and what we cannot do with fMRI. Nature, 453, 869878.
Tuesday, October 19th - Neural Correlates of fMRI (with Dr. Amir Shmuel)
21. Logothetis, N. K., Pauls, J., Augath, M., Trinath, T., & Oeltermann, A. (2001).
Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signal. Nature, 412(6843), 150-157.
Thursday, October 21st – Optical Imaging (with Dr. Amir Shmuel)
22. Shmuel, A., Augath, M., Oeltermann, A., & Logothetis, N. K. (2006). Negative functional MRI
response correlates with decreases in neuronal activity in monkey visual area V1. Nature
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Neuroscience, 9(4), 569-577.
Tuesday, October 26th – Attention Training 1
23. Rueda, M. R., Rothbart, M. K., McCandliss, B. D., Saccomanno, L. & Posner, M. I. (2005).
Training, maturation, and genetic influences on the development of executive attention.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 102(41), 14931-14936.
24. Thorell, L. B., Lindqvist, S., Bergman Nutley, S., Bohlin, G., & Klingberg, T. (2009). Training
and transfer effects of executive functions in preschool children. Dev Sci, 12(1), 106-113.
25. Tang, Y. Y., & Posner, M. I. (2009). Attention Training and Attention State Training. Trends
in Cognitive Sciences, 13(5):222-7.
Thursday, October 28th – Attention Training 2
26. Klingberg, T., Fernell, E., Olesen, P. J., Johnson, M., Gustafsson, P., Dahlstrom, K., et al.
(2005). Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD--a randomized,
controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(2),
177-186.
27. Klingberg, T., Forssberg, H., & Westerberg, H. (2002). Training of working memory in children
with ADHD. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 24(6):781-91.
Tuesday, November 2nd– Placebo Demonstration
No readings
Thursday, November 4th – Placebos 1
28. Raz A, Guindi D. Placebos and Medical Education. McGill Journal of Medicine. 2008;11(2):
223–226.
29. Kirsch I, Deacon BJ, Huedo-Medina TB, Scoboria A, Moore TJ, Johnson BT. Initial severity and
antidepressant benefits: a meta-analysis of data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration.
PLoS Med. 2008;5(2):e45.
Tuesday, November 9th – Placebos 2
30. Raz A, (2006). Perspectives on the Efficacy of Antidepressants for Child and Adolescent
Depression. PLoS Medicine, 3(1); e9.
Thursday, November 11th – Suggestion and Visual Acuity
31. Raz A, Marinoff, G.P., Zephrani, Z.R., Schweizer, H.R., Posner, M.I. (2004). See clearly:
Suggestion, Hypnosis, Attention, and Visual Acuity. International Journal of Clinical and
Experimental Hypnosis,52(2),159-187.
Tuesday, November 16th – Perspectives on Hypnosis and Placebo
32. Raz A, (2007). Hypnobo: Perspectives on hypnosis and placebo. American Journal of Clinical
Hypnosis, 50(1), 29-36
33. Raz A, (2007). Suggestibility and Hypnotizability: Mind the Gap. American Journal of Clinical
Hypnosis, 49(3), 205-210.
Thursday, November 18th – Non-Cumulative Midterm 2 (20%)
Includes all lectures and readings since Midterm 1.
Tuesday, November 23rd – Theories of Anterior Cingulate Cortex Function (with Dr. Lesley
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Fellows)
34. (Required) Rushworth, M. F., M. J. Buckley, et al. (2007). Functional organization of the medial
frontal cortex. Curr Opin Neurobiol 17(2): 220-227
35. (Recommended) Posner, M. I., M. K. Rothbart, et al. (2007). The anterior cingulate gyrus and
the mechanism of self-regulation. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 7(4): 391-395.
36. (Recommended) Botvinick, M. M. (2007). "Conflict monitoring and decision making:
reconciling two perspectives on anterior cingulate function." Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 7(4):
356-366.
37. (Recommended) Amodio, D. M. and C. D. Frith (2006). "Meeting of minds: the medial frontal
cortex and social cognition." Nat Rev Neurosci 7(4): 268-277.
38. (Recommended) Modirrousta, M. and L. K. Fellows (2008). "Dorsal medial prefrontal cortex
plays a necessary role in rapid error prediction in humans." J Neurosci 28(51): 14000-14005.
Thursday, November 25th – Magic 1
39. Kuhn, G, Amlani, AA, & Rensink, RA (2008). Towards a science of magic. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 12(9), 349-354.
40. Kuhn, G, & Land, MF (2006). There's more to magic than meets the eye. Current Biology,
16(22), 950-951.
Tuesday, November 30th – Magic 2 (with Dr. Joe Schwarcz)
41. Kuhn, G, Tatler, BW, Findlay, JM, & Cole, GG (2007). Misdirection in magic: Implications for
the relationship between eye gaze and attention. Visual Cognition, 99999(1), 1-15.
Thursday, December 2nd - Magic 3
42. Martinez-Conde, Susana, & Macknik, Stephen L. (2008). Magic and the Brain. Scientific
American, 299(6), 72-79.
43. Macknik, SL, Randi, J, Robbins, A, Thompson, J, & Martinez-Conde, S (2008). Attention and
awareness in stage magic: turning tricks into research. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(11),
871-879
Cumulative final exam to be held sometime during the Dec 6th - 21st period (TBA)
Grading and Administrative Matters
Course requirements: It is your responsibility to obtain a functional clicker
device, register it with the McGill system, and bring it to every class. You should
plan to attend all lectures, do the readings, take two midterms, and the final
exam. As well, it is your responsibility to check WebCT (the course web site)
regularly for updates, new information, and lecture notes; before exams, you
may want to check more frequently.
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Evaluation: We will come up with your mark as a function of 2 midterms (each
worth 20% of your grade and not cumulative), a cumulative final exam (worth
50%), and pass/fail* class participation using the clicker (worth 10%). In line with
Senate decisions (December, 2009), clickers will not be used for graded quizzes
and examinations. Exam questions will be drawn from both the
lecture/discussions and the readings. You must pass the final exam in order to
pass the course. In addition, you will be able to obtain up to 2% of extra credit
points by voluntarily participating in class demonstrations or specific**, clearly
outlined, out-of-class experiments, which would be relevant to the course’s
material. We will also award a discretionary 1% extra credit point to individuals
who demonstrate a strong and meaningful contribution to either in-class or
online discussions.
*A pass participation for each clicker class is contingent upon the student
obtaining 80% correct responses.
**You are welcome to participate in specific experiments from those available
through the psychology department participant pool (or to do the nonparticipatory alternate assignments) for an extra 2% on your final grade.
Participating is entirely your decision and is between you and the Participant
Pool Teaching Assistant (Veronica Whitford) who will give me a spreadsheet at
the end of the year indicating who participated and for how much credit. She
will visit our class at some point to describe the process. All questions about the
participant pool should be sent to her at: mcgill_subject_pool@yahoo.com
Right to submit in English or French written work that is to be graded
[approved by Senate on 21 January 2009]:
In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this
course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is
to be graded.
This right applies to all written work that is to be graded, from one-word
answers to dissertations.
McGill University Statement on Academic Integrity.
[approved by Senate on 29 January 2003]
McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must
understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and
other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and
Disciplinary Procedures (see http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity for more
information).
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L'université McGill attache une haute importance à l’honnêteté
académique. Il incombe par conséquent à tous les étudiants de
comprendre ce que l'on entend par tricherie, plagiat et autres infractions
académiques, ainsi que les conséquences que peuvent avoir de telles
actions, selon le Code de conduite de l'étudiant et des procédures
disciplinaires (pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez consulter le
site http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity).
RESOURCE DOCUMENTS
www.mcgill.ca/files/students/AI-InstructorsResource.pdf
www.mcgill.ca/files/students/AI-InstructorsResourceGraduateStudents.pdf
Use of Text-matching software
[approved by Senate on 1 December 2004]:
This course may use text-matching software to verify the originality of students’
written course work. You are hereby informed of the use of text-matching
software in the course.
RESOURCE DOCUMENTS
www.mcgill.ca/files/students/Text-Matching-Policy-on-English.pdf
Exams. The midterms will be held on October 7th and November 18th. McGill
institutes a priority system for midterm examinations to resolve conflicts in the
event that another class you are taking has a midterm scheduled at the same
time. Make sure to work out your exam schedule well in advance. The final
exam will be held during the examination period at the end of the term, at a date
to be announced later by the registrar. If you have any other type of conflict with
either exam – an out of town sporting event, a play rehearsal, or another activity,
please see the section below regarding “missing an exam.”
Exam administration. Please be punctual and come prepared.
Identification. You must write your student ID# on both the exam and the
computerized answer sheet. If you enter a wrong number, or fail to put your
name on both sheets, you will receive a 0 for the exam. There will be no
exceptions to this rule.
What you can bring and what you cannot bring to the exam. You must bring a
pencil - the computerized forms will not read pen or colored pencils or other
markers. You should bring an eraser if you think you might want to change an
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answer. If you break your pencil, or run out of lead, you will NOT be able to
borrow a pencil from anyone in the room. Thus, please bring extra pencils and
erasers.
You will not be allowed to bring anything to your desk in the examination room
except for a pencil, an eraser, and (by Quebec regulations) a printed FrenchEnglish translation dictionary, if you need one. A “translation dictionary” is not
a definitions dictionary, it is a word-to-word dictionary. No cell phones,
electronic organizers, PDAs, computers, pagers, electronic dictionaries, game
boys, iPods, iPhones, etc. will be allowed. If you bring books, backpacks, cell
phones, coats, etc. into the exam room, you must leave them in the front or back
of the room away from the desks.
Behaviour during the exam. No talking will be allowed during the exam, and
no questions will be answered by the professor or the exam invigilators. Anyone
talking for any reason will be assumed to be cheating, and will be dismissed
from the exam with a grade of 0. Students who feel wrongly dismissed can
appeal to the Dean of Students. Once the exam begins, you must stay in the
room until the exam is over. No one will be allowed to leave early (this is
because the rooms are cramped, and it is unfair to students still writing the exam
to have other students crawling over them to try to get in and out). If you feel a
question is ambiguous or otherwise faulty, you can appeal after the exam is
finished, but not during the exam. (See "After the Exam and Appeals" below.)
After the Exam and Appeals
After you've taken the exam, you can see your exam during the "exam review"
period in accordance with the specifications and procedures of the psychology
department. You can sign up for an appointment at the psychology
undergraduate advising office in Stewart Biology building to review your exam
under the supervision of a proctor. If you feel that a question was ambiguous, or
improperly marked, you can file a written appeal. To have your claim
considered, you must cite a formal source (i.e., specific page in your reading
material or passage from a lecture (indicating the exact date and context of the
material) to support your argument.
Extra Credit Option. If you choose to participate in the voluntary class
demonstrations, you will have the opportunity to complete one or more studies
and submit a short report about them to earn up to 2 extra credit points, added to
your final marks in this course. This extra credit option is an opportunity, not a
right (i.e., it is optional, not mandatory). Regardless of the reason, if you are
unable to complete a class demonstration/experiment, you will not receive the
extra credit. It is up to you to make the necessary arrangements to complete and
get extra credit. Individuals deemed to make a meaningful contribution to class
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or online discussions will earn 1% extra credit point. No other opportunity for
extra credit is available.
Bonus points for students near the cut-off. At the end of the term every year,
some students find that they are close to the next letter grade category, having
missed it by only ½ or even 1/10th of a point. No bonus points or adjustments
are possible in these cases. The above-mentioned “extra credit option” applies
for this case precisely. If you did do the extra credit and received those two (or
three) points, then note that you are not merely ½ a point away, you were 2 ½
points away, and you've already received your extra credit. If you chose to or
did not earn the extra credit, then you missed your only opportunity for
additional points in this course.
Missing a midterm exam
Please do not ask for permission to miss an exam because it will not be
granted. If you miss one midterm for any reason, you will take the final exam
for 70% of your final grade. If you miss both midterms, you will take the final
exam for 90% of your grade. (Past experience, and theories about learning and
cognition, all strongly support the principle that you're much better off taking all
three exams, course participation credit, and extra credit, because it will give you
more opportunities than just one to show what you know.) Note that receiving a
0 on a midterm for a rule violation (e.g., talking during the examination, failing
to put your correct student ID on both the answer sheet and the exam question
sheet, or showing up at the wrong seating) does not entitle you to take the final
for more points. You are still free to skip either or both midterms and take the
final exam for more points, as per the above. There will be absolutely no
opportunities to make up a missed midterm for any other reason. Specifically:
illness, death in the family, sporting events, injury, psychological distress, etc. do
not entitle you to rewrite the midterm; you will simply take the final for more
points.
Missing the final exam
Students who miss (or anticipate missing) the final exam must contact the
Associate Dean of their faculty (arts, science, engineering, etc.). If the reason is
acceptable to the Associate Dean the student will be able to write a deferred
exam for 50% (or the appropriate percentage) of the final grade.
The arrangements for evaluation or the course schedule may require revisions
in the case of life-changing events or circumstances beyond the instructor's
control. If the event of any such change, the instructor and TA will make
every effort to consult the class.
How to get a good grade?
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Remember the main principle of this course: Professor Raz provides the
overarching ideas, discusses the main themes, and integrates the topics into a
cogent whole; his lectures go beyond the readings and serve to provide a “bigpicture” appreciation. It is your responsibility to go over the specific readings
and more detailed items; you should have a good sense of the “nitty-gritty”
aspects of theories, experiments, and important points.
Check the course’s website as often as you check your email, keep up with the
readings, and use your clickers in class. Go for all extra credit options. Plan to
set aside enough time to read every article and chapter. Research findings
suggest that you will synthesize the information better if you read a bit over time
rather than cram all at once. In the past, students have found it helpful to form
study groups to study and discuss the readings together. We encourage this
habit and urge you to ask questions when things are unclear.
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