Exploring the Mind
Overview
Exploring the Mind is an introduction to the multidisciplinary study of the mind. This cluster will address such questions as: the nature of minds and mental phenomena; the connection between perception, cognition, and the world; how the brain has evolved and how the mind develops through one’s life; how brain mechanisms contribute to our understanding of human experience; consciousness and the self; and the possibility of programming computers to have artificial minds. This cluster will appeal to anyone curious about understanding how the mind/brain works to produce sensation, perception, thought, emotion, consciousness, and language—and how these phenomena can be computationally modeled in machines. Students will be asked to participate in either Neurobiology of Mind or Neuroeconomics, and either Puzzles: Humans, Animals & Machines or Psychosocial Development of Mind.
Courses
Seminar: Psychology 94FCS Psychosocial Development of Mind through the Life Course
Deborah Gold, Associate Professor, Departments of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Sociology, and Psychology; Director, Undergraduate Human Development Program
This seminar will introduce students to the mind as it changes from birth to
death. This seminar will examine how the mind is initially influenced by
social environment and parenting and how it changes in response to
environmental and interpersonal input through adolescence and into adulthood.
Students will study both psychosocial and physiological development as they
inform and interact with mind development, paying special attention to
developmental changes in adulthood and late life. Students will compare and
contrast not only age differences but also age changes in psychosocial
aspects of mind. The readings for this course will come from psychology,
sociology, psychiatry, cultural anthropology, and human development.
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Seminar: Philosophy 98FCS Puzzles of Mind: Humans, Animals, & Machines
Guven Guzeldere, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy
This seminar will focus on the nature and constitution
of mind in humans, animals, and robots. We will
examine the relation between body and mind, and
between consciousness and cognition. We will also
study several related philosophical problems about the
mind, such as: subjectivity, skepticism about other
minds, the relation of language to mind, and the effects
of brain lesions on mental life. Readings will be from a
variety of sources, including philosophy, psychology,
neuropsychology, cognitive ethology, and artificial
intelligence.
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Seminar: Neurobiology 95S Neuroeconomics & Decision-making
Scott Huettel, Associate Professor, Departments of
Psychiatry, Psychology & Neurobiology; Associate Director of Cognitive Neuroscience
Michael Platt, Associate Professor, Department of Neurobiology
Understanding human behavior is a central goal of
science. Historically, behavior has been studied using
two distinct perspectives: economic/psychological and
neuroscientific. Neuroscientists, psychologists, and
economists have recently come to recognize that these
perspectives are not independent, and that only by
combining the mathematical rigor and behavioral precision
of economics with the biological inferences drawn from
neuroscience can behavior be fully understood. The
emerging field of neuroeconomics considers such problems
as: what makes us trust someone with our financial
or emotional future? Why do addicts continue their
drug use, despite knowing its negative consequences?
How does emotional state influence consumer preferences?
How does advertising influence brain function? Topics
will include the basic structural and functional organization
of the brain, strengths and limitations of techniques
in neuroscience, how concepts from economics are being
introduced into neuroscience, and how results from
neuroscience are changing economics models. Readings
will be drawn from texts in both economics and neuroscience
and from primary academic research in neuroeconomics.
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Seminar: Neurobiology 93S Neurobiology of the Mind
William C. Hall, Professor, Department of Psychology & Neurobiology
No textbooks or lectures in this seminar. The course is taught by the Socratic Method. The students
read original papers authored by famous neuroscientists and then discuss and answer questions about the
papers in class. The papers are concerned with four topics: how information from our sense organs instructs
the centers in the brain that organize and initiate behavior, the cellular and molecular basis of learning
and memory, how nerve cells form their proper connections during the development of the brain and, finally,
why nerve cells fail to regenerate and reestablish connections that are severed by brain disease or injury.
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Focus 99 Special Topics in Focus: Mind/Brain Science
The discussion course provides students with an integrative
understanding of central issues in the mind and brain
sciences. The course emphasizes interaction with student
peers and with the cluster faculty. As examples, students will learn
about artificial intelligence by speaking with a computer,
about decision making through playing interactive games,
and about functional neuroimaging through touring Duke
University research laboratories. Students will also learn
about research into mind-brain studies at Duke, through
panel discussions, and guest lectures from Duke faculty.
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