ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

PSYCH 450

Explore the psychology and biology of our closest living ancestors and how it can provide insights into human behavior and cognition. Learn how a variety of factors (ecological, evolutionary, developmental, and experiential) shape the variation we see across and within primate species. Topics include investigation of similarities and differences across taxa in development, learning, memory, evolution of the brain, spatial navigation, tool-use, social behavior, parental behavior, communication, self-recognition, and theory of mind, as well as ethical issues and conservation.

NEURODPT/PSYCH/ZOOLOGY 674

Behavior results from a complex interplay among hormones, the brain, and environmental factors. Behaviors and their underlying neural substrates have evolved in response to specific environmental conditions, resulting in vast species diversity in behavioral and neuroendocrine solutions to environmental problems. Designed to explore the primary literature on the neuroendocrine underpinnings of behavior spanning from feeding to sex differences in complex social behaviors. A range of taxonomic groups will be discussed, including (but not limited to) mammals, birds, and fish.

ZOOLOGY 425

Explore how organisms make decisions and how these decisions affect their survival. These decisions are key aspects of an organism's life, e.g. foraging behavior, mating behavior, anti-predator behavior, and habitat selection. Approaches these questions with the perspective that understanding the proximal and ultimate basis of behavior requires understanding the ecological and evolutionary context of behavior.

PSYCH 454

Biological basis of human and animal behaviors, including perception, action, cognition, social interaction and disease. Weekly themes from "Cracking the Neural Code" to "Love and War". Learn, develop and use neural mechanisms to explain and (attempt to) predict what they and others think and do in all facets of life.

PSYCH 513

Complex social behavior emerges from the interplay of hormones, the brain and environmental signals. Introduces how hormones and neurotransmitters shape brain and behavior in animals and humans. Review the mechanisms by which hormones shape brain sex differences and its consequences on juvenile (i.e. play) and adult behavior. Examine how hormones influence sexual behavior using basic animal models, and extend this to human sex differences, including sexual orientation. Additional topics include how hormones shape competitive and affiliative behaviors, eating disorders, and stress and mental health, as well as how individual variation occurs in response to the changing environment and genetic landscape, including epigenetics at an introductory level.