Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning (NEUR0014)

Neural Mechanisms of Consciousness (Lecture 15 of 16 in NEUR0014: Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning). Thorough review of the neural basis for consciousness, including neural correlates of consciousness, the effects of anaesthesia on the brain and relevant brain areas to consciousness (e.g. reticular activating system, thalamus).

Value-Based Choice (Lecture 11 of 16 in NEUR00014: Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning) Through review of the neural basis of value-based choice.

Orbitofrontal Cortex: Emotion, Learning & Value (Lecture 12 of 16 in NEUR0014: Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning) Thorough review of the proposed functions of the orbitofrontal cortex including the somatic marker hypothesis, response inhibition and the encoding of value and expected reward - and evidence to disprove some of these theories! The orbitofrontal cortex is a very important brain area in the field of neuroeconomics - but how do we know this, and what neural basis underpins ...

Hippocampus & Memory (Lecture 5 of 16 in NEUR0014: Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning) Thorough review of the role of the hippocampus in memory, including the Standard Consolidation Model, oppositions to this model and the proposed neural bases of memory consolidation, storage and recall.

The Amygdala Complex (Lecture 16 of 16 in NEUR0014: Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning). Thorough review of the amygdala complex and its relationship with learning, motivation and emotion. Exerpt: "The pervasive use of the fear conditioning paradigm in rodents has meant that, for many years the amygdala was thought of as the brain’s ‘fear’ module. Accumulating evidence, from patient data, lesion studies in non-human primates and single neuron recordings convincingly paints a ...

The Hippocampus & Spatial Cognition (Lecture 3 of 16 in NEUR0014: Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning) Thorough review of the hippocampus as it relates to spatial cognition, including place cells, head-direction cells and grid cells.

The Role of Dopamine in Learning (Lecture 9 of 16 in NEUR0014: Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning) Through review of dopamine as it relates to learning, reward and motivation, including the hedonia hypothesis, incentive salience theory and reward contiguity, contingency and prediction error.

Hypothalamus (Lecture 2 of 16 in NEUR0014: Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning) Thorough review of the hypothalamus as it relates to behavioural control, including ingestive and affiliative (parental and pair bonding) behaviours

Basal Ganglia (Lecture 10 of 16 in NEUR0014: Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning) Thorough review of the basal ganglia as it relates to learning of behaviours. Traditionally thought to support procedural learning (i.e. habit formation), more recent research supports the basal ganglia to play a role in both goal-oriented (dorso-medial striatum) and habitual (dorso-lateral striatum) behaviour.

Adult Neurogenesis and the Dentate Gyrus (Lecture 6 of 16 in NEUR0014: Neural Basis of Motivation and Learning) Thorough review of adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus in both mammals and humans, and how this relates to memory storage and recall.