21 courses with the subject NSBV BC, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
NSBV BC1001INTRODUCTION TO NEUROSCIENCE3.00
This course is required for all the other courses offered in Neuroscience and Behavior. The course introduces students to the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. The topics include the biological structure of the nervous system and its different cell types, the basis of the action potential, principles of neurotransmission, neuronal basis of behavior, sleep/wake cycles, and basic aspects of clinical neuroscience
This course is for students interested in learning how to conduct scientific research. They will learn how to (i) design well-controlled experiments and identify “quack” science; (ii) organize, summarize and illustrate data, (iii) analyze different types of data; and (iv) interpret the results of statistical tests
NSBV BC2008ADAPTIVE OR ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT OF THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN3.00
The teen brain has received a lot of media coverage with advances in brain imaging techniques that provide a voyeuristic opportunity for us to look under the hood of the behaving adolescent brain. This course will cover empirical and theoretical accounts of adolescent-specific changes in brain and behavior that relate to the development of self control. These accounts of adolescent brain and behavior will then be discussed in the context of relevant legal, social and health policy issues. Lectures and discussion will address: Under what circumstances self control appears to be diminished in adolescents. How do dynamic changes in neural circuitry help to explain changes in self control across development? When does the capacity for self control fully mature? Are these changes observed in other species? How might these changes be evolutionarily adaptive and when are they maladaptive? How might understanding adolescent brain and behavioral development inform interventions and treatments for maladaptive behavior or inform policy for changing the environment to protect youth?
Prerequisites: BC1001 or BIOL BC1101, BC1102, or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 45 students. This class explores the complex interactions among genetics, hormones, environment, experience, and behavior. Topics covered include the endocrine system, sexual development, reproductive behavior, and social interactions such as affiliation, aggression, parenting, as well as homeostasis, biological rhythms, stress, memory, and mood
NSBV BC2180Neurodevelopmental Processes and Cognitive/Behavioral Disorders3
Explores the evolution of disorders affecting children due to some impairment in the brain or nervous system. Constitutional vulnerabilities demonstrate that nervous system injury varies as a function of neurodevelopmental stage. Disorders to be studied include those impacting language, hearing, vision, movement, mood and emotion, and learning.
NSBV BC3367Transformative Landmarks in Neuroscience4
Modern neuroscience incorporates topics from molecular neurobiology to cognition. Cognate disciplines include psychology, biology, biochemistry, chemistry, neuropharmacology, neurology and psychiatry, physics, computational science. We review neuroscience landmarks through readings of scientific publications, news reports, and controversies surrounding apparently transformative research, and contemplate contemporary viewpoints that have the benefit of hindsight.
NSBV BC3376PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF INFANT DEVELOPMENT4.00
Prerequisites: BC1001 and BC1128/1129 Developmental (lab and lecture taken together) or BC1129 (only lecture). Or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 15 students. Analysis of human development during the fetal period and early infancy. Review of effects of environmental factors on perinatal perceptual, cognitive, sensory-motor, and neurobehavioral capacities, with emphasis on critical conditions involved in both normal and abnormal brain development. Other topics include acute and long term effects of toxic exposures (stress, smoking, and alcohol) during pregnancy, and interaction of genes and the environment in shaping the developing brain of high-risk infants, including premature infants and those at risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
This seminar will explore neurobehavioral development throughout pubertal and adolescent stages of development. Specifically, topics will include how neuroendocrine changes induce pubertal onset, structural and functional changes in the adolescent brain, and how these developmental changes influence normal and abnormal psychophysiological processes. Students who complete this seminar will learn to: 1) demonstrate experimental methods used in developmental psychobiological research; 2) demonstrate the impact of structural and functional changes in the nervous system on the physiology and behavior of an individual; 3) critically read and interpret the primary research literature and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of experimental results; 4) conduct literature searches and synthesize these searches in to a comprehensive literature review; and 5) write a scientific literature review.
Exposition of research and theory in neuroscience with an emphasis on the use of neural imaging techniques (EEG, evoked potentials, MEG, PET, fMRI) for exploring sensation, perception, and cognition in the healthy, intact brain.
NSBV BC3381Visual Neuroscience: From the Eyeball to the Mind's Eye4.00
By absorbing electromagnetic radiation through their eyes, people are able to catch frisbees, recognize faces, and judge the beauty of art. For most of us, seeing feels effortless. That feeling is misleading. Seeing requires not only precise optics to focus images on the retina, but also the concerted action of millions of nerve cells in the brain. This intricate circuitry infers the likely causes of incoming patterns of light and transforms that information into feelings, thoughts, and actions. In this course we will study how light evokes electrical activity in a hierarchy of specialized neural networks that accomplish many unique aspects of seeing. Students will have the opportunity to focus their study on particular aspects, such as color, motion, object recognition, learning, attention, awareness, and how sight can be lost and recovered. Throughout the course we will discuss principles of neural information coding (e.g., receptive field tuning, adaptation, normalization, etc.) that are relevant to other areas of neuroscience, as well as medicine, engineering, art and design
Basic principles of the study of drugs that influence the neural systems and induce changes in behavior. Molecular, biochemical and behavioral characterization of psychotropic drugs: stimulants, sedative-hypnotics, anxiolytics, alcohol, hallucinogens, and opiates. Etiology and treatment of psychological and neurological disorders.
Prerequisites: BC1001 and one of the following: Neurobiology, Behavioral Neuroscience, Fundamentals of Neuropsychology, or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 20 students. Recent advancements in neuroscience raise profound ethical questions. Neuroethics integrates neuroscience, philosophy, and ethics in an attempt to address these issues. Reviews current debated topics relevant to the brain, cognition, and behavior. Bioethical and philosophical principles will be applied allowing students to develop skill in ethical analysis
NSBV BC3389Hallucinations, illusions, dreaming and imagination4.00
Perception is often taken as the most striking proof of something factual: when we perceive something, we interpret it as real. In this seminar we will challenge this assumption by taking into consideration states of altered perception, wherein the brain creates perceptual experiences that do not correspond to sensory input. Specifically, we will review a number of experiments showing changes in brain activity accompanying illusions, hallucinations, and dreaming across sensory modalities (i.e., vision, hearing, touch), and in both clinical and non-clinical populations. We will examine the similarities and differences between these states of altered perception both at the level of phenomenology and underlying biological mechanisms, specifically focusing on neural oscillations. Using the latest research findings in clinical, cognitive, and computational neuroscience, this seminar offers a great opportunity to learn more about how the brain creates perceptual experiences and why sometimes we perceive something that isn’t real
This seminar will explore factors that modulate stress reactivity and the impact of stress on the structure and function of the nervous system and behavior. Topics will include how developmental stage, sex/gender, time of day, and experience influence how an organism responds to stress at endocrinological, neurobiological, and behavioral levels Spring 2026: NSBV BC3392 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment NSBV 3392 001/00777 W 10:10am - 12:00pm 227 Milbank Hall Kevin Bath 4.00 17/17 Fall 2026: NSBV BC3392 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment NSBV 3392 001/00316 Th 2:10pm - 4:00pm 406 Barnard Hall Russell Romeo 4.00 14/14
Excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission is often influenced and altered by neuromodulators such as dopamine, acetylcholine, and serotonin. Imbalances in neuromodulation are implicated in many psychiatric disorders. This course will assess the role of neuromodulation under normal circumstances and how dysfunction in neuromodulation can lead to psychiatric disorders. This course will draw from ground breaking primary literature and review articles published in the field of neuroscience.
This seminar will explore sleep and circadian rhythms, emphasizing how these factors and their disruption influence human health, disease, function, and well-being. Topics will include the physiologic and neurobiological generation of sleep and circadian rhythms, and the interaction between these systems with cognitive, behavioral, endocrine, metabolic, and mood/psychiatric variables in humans, as well as sleep disorders and their treatment. NOTE: The course description is the same for the fall/spring course and the summer course
Prerequisites: PSYBC1119 This course provides a comprehensive overview of theoretical models and research relevant to the neurobiology, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy and neurodevelopmental processes underlying psychological trauma. Cognitive, emotional and behavioral symptoms associated with post traumatic experience are examined from a neuroscience perspective. Neurotherapeutic treatment interventions are reviewed and critiqued as models of applied clinical neuroscience
Prerequisites: Open to senior Neuroscience and Behavior majors. Permission of the instructor. This is a year-long course. By the end of the spring semester program planning period during junior year, majors should identify the lab they will be working in during their senior year. Prerequisites: Open to senior Neuroscience and Behavior majors. Permission of the instructor. This is a year-long course. By the end of the spring semester program planning period during junior year, majors should identify the lab they will be working in during their senior year. Discussion and conferences on a research project culminate in a written and oral senior thesis. Each project must be supervised by a scientist working at Barnard or at another local institution. Successful completion of the seminar substitutes for the major examination
Prerequisites: Open to senior Neuroscience and Behavior majors. Permission of the instructor. This is a year-long course. By the end of the spring semester program planning period during junior year, majors should identify the lab they will be working in during their senior year. Prerequisites: Open to senior Neuroscience and Behavior majors. Permission of the instructor. This is a year-long course. By the end of the spring semester program planning period during junior year, majors should identify the lab they will be working in during their senior year. Discussion and conferences on a research project culminate in a written and oral senior thesis. Each project must be supervised by a scientist working at Barnard or at another local institution. Successful completion of the seminar substitutes for the major examination
