Seminars
Seminars
Each MBB student is required to take an Interdisciplinary Seminar, usually during the junior year. These seminars are discussion-based courses that usually meet once a week for a few hours, during which students consider important readings and research on a topic or set of topics related to mind/brain/behavior. In lieu of exams, students usually prepare papers based on library or laboratory research, and grades are usually based on these papers and class participation.
In choosing a seminar, you might select a seminar closely allied to your interests to allow you to deepen your specialized knowledge, or you might take one in a more distant area to gain an appreciation of the varying perspectives and methodologies within MBB.
The seminars offered by the MBB program, listed in the catalog as Mind, Brain, and Behavior 980 courses, explore questions in mind/brain/behavior whose answers will require the perspectives and findings of several fields. Unless otherwise noted, their enrollments are limited to 15, with enrollment priority given to juniors in MBB tracks or in the MBB secondary field, and they provide four units of course credit.
In addition to the MBB 980 courses, some departmental courses also qualify, and are listed below.
Seminars offered in previous years but not this year still fulfill the seminar requirement. Seminars from recent years are listed below.
Neuroscience students are expected to choose only from among the MBB 980 courses (no departmental options). Some tracks, including Psychology and Human Biology, Behavior, and Evolution, will want to approve which course a student takes from those listed below; consult your concentration advisor if this applies to you.
Updated Enrollment Information (August 26th)
After our initial and follow-up lotteries, courses still have space in them. If you are interested in enrolling in any of our fall seminars, please start by contacting the instructors (emails below) to introduce yourself and explain your interest. Then email Shawn Harriman at shawn_harriman@harvard.edu, sending him a statement of interest and some general information: your year, your concentration, your MBB affiliation (track student, secondary student, no affiliated), and how many MBB seminars you have already taken (if any). We will try to have enrollment decisions before the start of classes.
Advances in Understanding the Wiring of the Brain: Neuroimaging and Big Data in Connectomics
Lisa Nickerson / Medical School / lnickerson@mclean.harvard.edu
MBB 980V, Tuesdays 3-5 p.m.
The last decade has seen a revolution in mapping the human brain “connectome” of functional and structural wiring patterns that generate our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. In this course, we will learn the basics of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods used for connectomics research - functional and diffusion MRI. Key methodological and interpretational issues for each technique will be examined to gain a deeper understanding of MRI measures of connectivity. We will discuss some of the key brain networks in the brain’s connectome, and the links between the functional and structural wiring of the brain. Last, tremendous advancements in human brain connectomics have been made possible by efforts to collect “big” neuroimaging data in thousands and thousands of individuals. We will discuss some of these key open access resources for connectomics research, including: the Human Connectome Projects with petabytes of neuroimaging and phenotyping data collected in thousands of individuals across the entire lifespan and in numerous brain diseases; the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) decade-long longitudinal study of childhood through adolescence in 10,000 kids, and the largest neuroimaging study in the world – the UK Biobank that is collecting imaging, genetics, medical records, and deep phenotyping data in 100,000 individuals. This wave of “big data” is providing exceptional opportunities for advancements in connectomics and in machine learning applications to human health, yielding breakthroughs every day in our understanding of how our brains work, and what makes us uniquely us when we are healthy and when we are sick.
Cognitive Neuroscience of Meditation
Sara Lazar / Medical School / slazar@mgh.harvard.edu
MBB 980S, Mondays 3-5 p.m.
Buddhist philosophy describes a model of how the mind works, as well as a method, mindfulness meditation, that can be used as a tool to transform consciousness and reduce mental distress. Neuroscientists have begun to study the impact of meditation on brain structure and function, often using Buddhist philosophy to guide their hypotheses. We will review and discuss how the science relates to Buddhist philosophy, using the four foundations of mindfulness as the primary framework. We will also compare and contrast the Buddhist model with modern scientific models of how conscious experience is created in the brain, in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of consciousness that integrates philosophy, neuroscience, and personal experience. No prior knowledge of Buddhism is required. The course will be a mixture of lecture, discussion of two primary scientific articles that are assigned each week, and formal powerpoint presentations by students. Students will write a final paper on a topic of their choice that is relevant to the themes of the course.
Fighting Cancer with the Mind
Emily Walsh / Medical School / ewalsh8@mgb.org & Jamie Jacobs / Medical School / jjacobs@mgh.harvard.edu
MBB 980K, Wednesdays 3:45-5:45 p.m.
Course Description: Cancer is fundamentally a biological disease driven by genetic and cellular changes, yet its development and outcomes are shaped by a wide range of environmental, behavioral, and social influences. It is well understood that health behavior change, like targeting modifiable risk factors (i.e., tobacco use, obesity, alcohol consumption), can influence cancer prevention, treatment, and control. There is also a critical role of mind-body medicine in screening behaviors, medical treatment adherence, quality of life, symptom management, survivorship, and end-of-life care decision-making. However, growing research and debate now focus on whether psychosocial factors may influence cancer progression and survival through interactions with neural, endocrine, and immune systems. There appear to be two perspectives on this matter, one popular and one scientific, which draw on insights from oncology, biology, immunology, psychology, and neurology. This seminar will explore the concordance, opposition, and tensions between these perspectives. We will review the long history of these beliefs, potential underpinnings, cultural influences and implications, and what constitutes scientific evidence to support a belief. The seminar addresses these questions by integrating concepts and methods from molecular and cellular biology, neuroscience, immunology, psychology, and the history and philosophy of medicine. Rather than seeking a definitive answer to the course question, the seminar emphasizes rigorous evaluation of medical beliefs, competing interpretations of evidence, and the scientific reasoning used to support or challenge them.
From Signals to Selves: Tools for Understanding Brain, Mind, and Behavior
Walid Yassin / Medical School / wyassine@mgh.harvard.edu
MBB 980JJ, Mondays 3:45-5:45 p.m.
Our understanding of the brain, mind, and behavior depends on the tools we use to observe them, so what can such tools tell us about these systems? This interdisciplinary course introduces the students to various tools utilized to better understand the logic behind, mechanism, application, strengths, and limitations of the major tools we use to evaluate neural structure and function, mental processes, and behavioral patterns. With a focus on tools, methods, and measures, the course will explore foundational readings and empirical studies. The course includes a description of various measures, such as neuroimaging, electrophysiology, neuropsychological and clinical measures, as well as behavioral assessments. Using lectures, presentations, discussions, debates, and group projects, the students will have an understanding of the theory and application of measuring the most important systems known to man: the brain, mind, and behaviors.
The Role of Music in Health and Education
Lisa Wong / Medical School / lmwong@fas.harvard.edu
MBB 980P, Thursdays 3-5 p.m.
Music shapes the course of human history at both a micro and macro scale; the "universal language" has the power to connect people who share no other common ground. Its power to bind people together is intuitively understood, but only through recent neuroimaging advances over the past few decades have scientists been able to move past intuition to reveal its impact on the brain. In this course, we will examine the exciting progress of the fields of music, science, and social science, through a variety of lenses, and meet some of the experts in the field. Who are the key investigators and practitioners in today's emerging music/brain landscape? What are the latest discoveries about how music affects the brain? How does how we hear and listen impact our perception of music? Who are some of the key influencers in music and social change? This course invites students to deepen their relationship with music, exploring different aspects of the art form through the lens of neuroscience, education, medicine, music therapy, public health and social justice. By the end of this course, the learner will (1) understand the effect of music on the developing brain; (2) understand the mechanism of hearing music; (3) consider the pathophysiology of disordered movement and hearing and how music can be used therapeutically; and (4) understand how other disciplines can add to their knowledge of the therapeutic uses of music. Given the transdisciplinary nature of the work, students will be introduced to literature from different disciplines and use these resources to explore their own individual interests in music.
History of Science 1735, Being Human since 1945
History of Science 1760, Brainwashing and Modern Techniques of Mind Control
History of Science 1765, History of Psychedelics and Trauma
Human Evolutionary Biology 114, Gut Microbiome and Human Health
Human Evolutionary Biology 116, Clinical Comparative Medicine: Evolutionary Perspectives on Mental and Physical Health
Human Evolutionary Biology 152, Genetics of Human Brain Evolution
Linguistics 133, Sound and Mind
Neuroscience 101V, Sculpting Activity: Neural Inhibition and Health and Disease
Neuroscience 101W, Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience
Neuroscience 101DD, Dopamine: A Systems Neuroscience Perspective
Neuroscience 101EE, Neuroscience of Psychedelic Experiences
Neuroscience 101QQ, Connecting Neurons to Shape Behavior
Neuroscience 101RR, The Neurobiology of Pain: From Sensation to Suffering
Psychology 1454, Neuroscience Fiction: An Introduction to Cutting-Edge Neuroscience through the Lens of Film and Television
Brain and Behavior in Extreme Environments: Space Exploration, Sports, and Clinical Applications
Vladimir Ivkovic / Medical School / vivkovic@mgh.harvard.edu & Gary Strangman / Medical School /strang@mgh.harvard.edu
MBB 980X, Fridays 12-2 p.m.
Within the translational neuroscience paradigm, this course explores the concepts of neurobehavioral adaptation, stress, resilience, and neuropsychiatric disorders, in relation to the underlying neurophysiologic mechanisms that regulate them. What can we learn about the limitations of human neurobehavioral function through exposure and adaptation to extreme environments, as well as readaptation to “normal” environment, or onset of neuropsychiatric disorders? We will explore neurobehavioral adaptations to extreme activities such as spaceflight, expeditionary (polar, underwater, desert exploration, military deployments), emergency response services (e.g. firefighting), and impact sports (e.g. football). The limits to neurobehavioral adaptations will be discussed in the broader context of mental and occupational health, gender differences, and understanding the etiology of neuropsychiatric conditions such as depressive and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), intracranial hypertension and stroke, etc. These will be augmented with insights from COVID-19 pandemic which placed a large portion of the world’s population in an extreme environment defined by social and physical isolation/confinement, movement and travel restrictions, disruption of personal and professional activities, novel health risks, and behavioral adjustments. Contemporary findings from research studies conducted in laboratory, occupational/extreme, and clinical environments will be discussed in the context of translational neuroscience paradigm including neurocognitive, neurophysiological, and psychoneuroimmunological considerations. Special focus will be placed on demonstrations of research/clinical application of novel technologies such as ambulatory brain and physiologic monitoring. Theoretical concepts and research findings will be evaluated relative to their utility in developing prevention and mitigation strategies in extreme environments, as well as translational implementation in clinical treatments for related medical conditions in the general population. This course may be particularly interesting to Mind Brain and Behavior students pursuing careers in translational neuroscience, psychology, medicine, and related fields. This course features expert guest lecturers (e.g. NASA astronauts and researchers, Antarctic expeditionary physicians, underwater explorers, etc.), demonstrations of unique experimental methodologies and equipment (e.g. ambulatory brain and physiologic monitoring) used in extreme environments, and field visits to operational facilities such as Boston Fire Department Training Academy and/or Neural Systems Group (NSG) at Massachusetts General Hospital (directed by Dr. Strangman).
Creativity at the Edge: Arts, Health, and Community
Lisa Wong / Medical School / lmwong@fas.harvard.edu & Cristina Pato / cristina@cristinapato.com
MBB 980W, Mondays 3-5 p.m.
In 2013 at the Nancy Hanks Lecture for Americans for the Arts, cellist Yo-Yo Ma postulated that the scientific concept of “edge effect” could be applied to artistic and cultural development. In ecology, the “edge effect” describes the intense bioactivity that occurs where two divergent ecosystems meet. Ma contends that the ecological edge effect is an example of Nature’s creativity, explaining that “in that transition zone, because of the influence the two ecological communities have on each other, you find the greatest diversity of life as well as the greatest number of new life forms.” He went on to draw a parallel with the arts: that the greatest diversity of creative arts and new artistic “life forms” arise when artists learn from each others’ cultures. The field of arts in health and the integration of the arts into medical education is advancing rapidly. Medical caregivers and scientists are studying the neuroscience of aesthetic experience, looking at how the arts can be incorporated into healing, well-being and education. At the same time, musicians and artists are embracing their unique role in healing through the arts. This course encourages students to integrate the arts with science and medicine through readings, art immersion, didactic talks, and hands-on experiential learning.
Functional Neuroimaging of Psychiatric Disorders: Insights into the Human Brain-Mind in Health and Disease
David Silbersweig / Medical School / dsilbersweig@bwh.harvard.edu
MBB 980M, Thursdays 3-5 p.m.
Functional brain imaging has revolutionized the study of systems-level behavioral neuroscience and psychiatric disorders, through the ability to localize and characterize distributed brain activity directly associated with perception, cognition, emotion and behavior in disorders where there are not gross brain lesions. This seminar will introduce students to translational neuroimaging methods at the interface of neuroscience, psychology and medicine. It will cover recent and ongoing advances in our understanding of fronto-limbic-subcortical brain circuitry across the range of psychiatric disorders (e.g. mood disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, addictions). It will discuss new, emerging biological (as opposed to descriptive) taxonomies and conceptualizations of mental illness and its treatment. It will explore the implications of such knowledge for issues such as consciousness, meaning, free will, emotion, resilience, and religiosity. It will incorporate clinical observations, scientific data and readings, and examine future directions in brain-mind medicine. Class Note: Additional class meetings for site visits to be arranged.
Grief, Loss, and Death: Integrating Clinical and Population Health Perspectives
Christy Denckla / Public Health / cdendkla@hsph.harvard.edu
MBB 980II (ii), Tuesdays 3:45-5:45 p.m.
Students have few academic opportunities to engage with the profound themes of grief, loss, and death, even in an era of pandemics, climate change, and widening health disparities. In this seminar-style course, we apply a population mental health perspective that integrates work across a range of disciplines including psychology, psychiatry, neurobiology, epidemiology, anthropology, sociology, and critical race theory. From this interdisciplinary vantage point, we will uncover the surprising insights that emerge from the study of grief, loss, and death. This seminar incorporates an explicit focus on self-reflective learning grounded in a co-created supportive learning environment. Students can expect to acquire an understanding of the core theories and empirical methods in the study of population mental health, grief, loss, and death. Students will apply acquired skills and knowledge to achieve their learning goals within an ungrading framework.
NEW COURSE: Neuroendocrine Pathways: Brains, Sex, and Hormones
Victor Navarro / Medical School / vnavarro@bwh.harvard.edu
MBB 980GG, Tuesdays 3-5 p.m.
This course focuses on the study of the neuro-endocrine interactions that determine the organizational and functional effects of hormones in the brain throughout development with a focus on the role of sex hormones (estradiol, testosterone) in the brain. The course will address a) the role of hormones in the sexual differentiation of the brain; b) the role of the brain in the maintenance of the body homeostasis through the regulation of the different endocrine axes; c) central control of sexual maturation (puberty); d) regulation of the hypothalamic neuronal networks by peripheral factors (e.g. metabolism, stress, environment, endocrine disruptors); e) effect of hormonal cues on behavior; f) senescence of the neuroendocrine systems (e.g the hypothalamus after menopause). At the end of the course, the students will gain basic knowledge of the interactions between the brain and the endocrine system, and how sex hormones play a crucial role in the development and function of the brain throughout life. These developmental and functional effects of sex hormones in the brain are essential for the full understanding of neurobiological processes.
Sleep and Mental Health
Edward Pace-Schott / Medical School / epace-schott@mgh.harvard.edu
MBB 980T, Mondays 3:45-5:45 p.m.
The scientific study of sleep is an area of research that is both highly interdisciplinary and among the most unifying topics in psychology and the neurosciences. In the past several decades, exciting new discoveries on the neurobiology of sleep have been facilitated by technologies such as functional neuroimaging and molecular genetics. Sleep science exemplifies the translational approach in biomedical science whereby investigators in human and animal research work together to continually advance the field of sleep medicine. Scientific findings increasingly point to the importance of sleep for mental health and optimum performance, as well as to sleep disruption as both a result and potential cause of mental illness. In psychiatric neuroscience, sleep is an area of both unquestionable importance and one in which many fundamental questions remain unanswered due to the unique challenges of studying human sleep. Despite rapidly accelerating new discoveries and ever-increasing knowledge about the mechanisms and correlates of sleep, much about sleep remains controversial. Remarkably, there still is no scientifically agreed upon “function” for this behavioral state that occupies one third of our lives! Why should reasons for a behavior as universal as sleep remain mysterious? My great curiosity about sleep is continuously stimulated by such questions. By the end of the semester, I very much hope that participants in this seminar will become similarly fascinated with this enigma that exists right under our noses, and perhaps some may choose to further explore this exciting area of neuroscience.
What Disease Teaches about Cognition
William Milberg / Medical School / william_milberg@hms.harvard.edu
MBB 980H, Tuesdays 3:45-5:45 p.m.
This course seeks to reconcile the complicated and messy problems of patients with brain disease with the concise analysis of precisely defined cognitive functions in normal subjects. Students will learn to overlap cognitive functions on to the brain in disease - at the gross dissection and imaging levels - and to understand some of the complex interactions of individual cognitive operations in disease using the examples of famous landmark cases in the literature (e.g.Broca’s Monsieur Leborgne, Phineas Gage, HM and others). The course will include a dissection of a human brain, an examination of how the actual brain maps onto two dimensional neuroimages, and discussions of how the classic lesion based maps of cortical function are related to contemporary maps based on functional neuroimaging.
Engineering Science 223, Neurophysiology and Neural Interfaces
History of Science 1770, Broken Brains: A Patient-Centered History
Human Evolutionary Biology 117, Exploring Sleep through Open Data
Human Evolutionary Biology 124, Primate Playtime
Linguistics 175, Structure of American Sign Language
Neuroscience 101L, Sleep Talk: Unraveling the Mystery of Sleep
Neuroscience 101AA, Alzheimer’s Disease: Causes and Consequences of Brain Degenerations
Neuroscience 101HH, Worth the Effort: The Neural Mechanisms of Decision Making
Neuroscience 101JJ, Timing the Brain: Circadian Clocks and Their Role in Neural Function and Behavior
Neuroscience 101MM, Memory Models: The Many Levels of Learning in the Brain
Neuroscience 101NN, Math Meets the Mind: Applied Mathematics in Neuropsychiatry
Neuroscience 101PP, The Fragile Brain: How Environmental Factors Impact Neural Development
Psychology 1335, The Truth behind Amnesia
Psychology 1409, Psychology of Large Language Models
Psychology 1816, Mechanisms and Markers of Mental Illness