Great strides are currently being made in the understanding of brain systems that are involved in processing reward, establishing affective states, and controlling cognitive processes. These advances constitute a modern scientific perspective on how organisms regulate desires and choose behaviors to fulfill personal and social goals.
This course provides an overview of these brain systems, and in particular how they interact in the regulation of behavior. The course explores three core ideas using research articles and book chapters. 1) Reward and motivational systems in the brain are biased toward achieving short-term, concrete gains, whereas it is often of benefit to choose behaviors according to longer-term, broader goals. 2) Cognitive control systems evolved to modify the function of core affective and motor systems, allowing long-term goals to guide behavior 3) Control systems are themselves influenced by affective and reward systems.
The course begins by reviewing the functional neuroanatomy of each system, and builds upon this physiological framework a psychological model of the control of human behavior.
Email me: tor@psych.columbia.edu
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