NRS 205: Emotion And Behavior

(Jan Thornton) 4 credits, prerequisite: an introductory course in Biology, Psychology, or NRS 105. This course will cover the role of evolution/genes, brain mechanisms, and learning in the control of emotions and emotional behaviors. We will take advantage of London's rich history related to the discovery of evolution and genes by reading primary source materials and visiting places where the research was done. 2009 is the 150th anniversary of Darwin's Origin of Species and Cambridge is where Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA. We will review neural communication and types of learning. We will then examine more closely the evolutionary, neural, and learning underpinnings to emotions and some emotional behaviors. These include such behaviors as aggression and violence, parental and social behaviors, and reward and addiction.