Seminars, Spring 2026

SEMINARS, SPRING 2026

NOTE FOR 2026-2027 - THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED FOR THE COMING ACADEMIC YEAR SHORTLY.

ON THIS PAGE
-Updates Made to Page
-To Enroll in an MBB Seminar
-Seminar Program Overview
-Spring 2026 MBB 980 Seminar Descriptions
-Spring 2026 Departmental Seminars
-Links to Previous Seminar Listings

Updates Made to Page
- 13 January: added January note to Steps to Enroll section
- 14 January: noted MBB 980EE is cancelled, added MBB 980II (double i), added locations for MBB seminars
- 15 January: added follow-up lottery information, added MBB 980II location
- 19 January: added link to lottery form
- 26 January: remaining course openings information added, follow-up lottery material deleted

UPDATE, 26 JANUARY 2026

We currently have openings in two spring seminars...
* MBB 980W, Creativity at the Edge: Arts, Health, & Community (Lisa Wong & Cristina Pato )
* MBB 980II, Grief, Loss, & Death: Integrating Clinical & Population Health Perspectives (Christy Denckla)
If you would like to enroll in either course, please email Shawn Harriman at shawn_harriman@harvard.edu as soon as possible.

MBB SEMINAR PROGRAM OVERVIEW

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 after the MBB seminars.

Neuroscience students are expected to choose only from among the MBB 980 courses (no departmental options). Some tracks, including Psychology and Human Evolutionary Biology, will want to approve which course a student takes from those listed below; consult your concentration advisor if this applies to you.

MBB 980 SEMINARS FOR SPRING 2026

Note: Two courses previously listed for this semester have been cancelled:
MBB 980EE, Neuroscience and Music: Clinical Applications across the Lifespan
MBB 980GG, Neuroendocrine Pathways: Brain, Sex, and Hormones

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
Mind, Brain, and Behavior 980X, Fridays 12-2 p.m., Northwest Building B108
4 units of course credit
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? 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. We will explore 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). These will be discussed in the context of mental and occupational health, gender differences, and understanding the etiology of neuropsychiatric conditions such as, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), intracranial hypertension, etc. This course may be particularly interesting to Mind Brain and Behavior students pursuing careers in translational neuroscience, psychology, medicine, and related fields. features expert guest lecturers (e.g. NASA 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 potential visits to field / operational facilities.

NEW LISTING: From Brains to Large Language Models (LLMs): Thought, Language, and Consciousness
Anne Dymek / Germanic Languages and Literatures / FAS / annedymek@fas.harvard.edu
Mind, Brain, and Behavior 980HH, Thursdays 3-5 p.m., Sever 310
4 units of course credit
How are language and thought connected — and can one exist without the other? This seminar begins with today’s most urgent debates in neuroscience and artiﬁcial intelligence, where researchers disagree over whether large language models show only “formal” language or something closer to thought itself. To understand these questions, we trace their roots through philosophy, psycholinguistics, and anthropology, from theories of the brain’s language network to the long tradition of ideas about logos and meaning. Students will explore cutting-edge science alongside classic texts, asking what the future of human cognition looks like in the age of AI.

NEW LISTING (RESTORED COURSE): MBB 980W, Creativity at the Edge: Arts, Health, and Community
Lisa Wong / Medical School / lmwong@fas.harvard.edu & Cristina Pato
Mind, Brain, and Behavior 980W, Mondays 3-5 p.m., Science Center 116
4 units of course credit
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. Enrollment: 15 students. Enrollment preference is given to students in MBB tracks or secondary fields; non-MBB students are welcome to enroll if space is available. Prerequisites:None, but Psychology 1 (Introduction to Psychological Science) and Neuroscience 80 (Neurobiology of Behavior), or equivalent preferred. Interest in one or more art disciplines is encouraged.

Functional Neuroimaging of Psychiatric Disorders: Insights into the Human Brain-Mind in Health and Disease
David Silbersweig / Medical School / dsilbersweig@bwh.harvard.edu
Mind, Brain, and Behavior 980M, Thursdays 3-5 p.m., Northwest Building B-105
4 units of course credit, divisional distribution Sciences and Engineering/Applied Sciences
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.

NEW LISTING: Grief, Loss, and Death: Integrating Clinical and Population Health Perspectives
Christy Denckla / Public Health / cdenckla@hsph.harvard.edu
Mind, Brain, and Behavior MBB 980II (double uppercase i), Tuesdays 3:45-5:45 p.m., Northwest Building B-108
four units of course credit
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.

Sleep and Mental Health
Edward Pace-Schott / Medical School / epace-schott@mgh.harvard.edu
Mind, Brain, and Behavior 980T, Mondays 3:45-5:45 p.m., Northwest Building B-127
4 units of course credit, divisional distribution Science and Engineering/Applied Science
The scientific study of sleep is an area of research that is both highly diverse and among the most interdisciplinary and unifying of topics in psychology and neuroscience. 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. Nonetheless, sleep remains mysterious and controversial and, remarkably, there still is no generally agreed upon function for this behavioral state that occupies one third of our lives! Sleep science exemplifies the translational approach in biomedical science whereby human and animal research together continually advance the field of sleep medicine. In this seminar, lectures during the first half of each class will provide overviews of the physiology and behavioral neuroscience of sleep. The second half of each class will be devoted to student-led discussions of assigned study questions as well as free discussions. In a short term paper, students will research in depth a topic of their choice that they find particularly interesting related to sleep neuroscience or mental health. will also briefly present what they have learned about their topic during the final class meetings. Some topics students might choose are described in the following paragraph. In addition, students will keep a nightly sleep and/or dream diary for 2-3weeks at some point during the semester in order to learn more about sleep from their own experiences. They will then describe what they have observed in a short essay. In the past, students have found this exercise to be especially interesting. Lastly, there will be a short open-book, unlimited-time final exam on material from the lectures. Topics for term papers might include the characteristic abnormalities of sleep in mood, anxiety, psychotic, addictive or neurodevelopmental disorders. 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 a contributing cause of mental illnesses. Thus, one might focus on the contribution of primary sleep disorders to psychiatric and neurological illness, such as the circadian rhythm disorders in bipolar illness or insomnia as a risk factor for mood and anxiety disorders. Still other topics might focus on the contribution of normal sleep to emotional regulation, memory consolidation, and cognitive performance. For those with more cellular neuroscience interests, topics might focus on linkages between sleep and immunity or the role of sleep in disposal of abnormal proteins as it relates to neurodegenerative diseases.

What Disease Teaches about Cognition
William Milberg / Medical School / william_milberg@hms.harvard.edu
Mind, Brain, and Behavior 980H, Tuesdays 3:45-5:45 p.m., William James 1305
4 units of course credit, divisional distribution Social Sciences
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.

DEPARTMENTAL SEMINARS FOR SPRING 2026

History of Science 1770, Broken Brains: A Patient-Centered History

Human Evolutionary Biology 117, Evolution, Anatomy, and Physiology of Sleep

Human Evolutionary Biology 124, Primate Playtime

Human Evolutionary Biology 126, Research in Cultural Evolution

Human Evolutionary Biology 143, Primate Development

Human Evolutionary Biology 145, Thinking through Human Cognition

Human Evolutionary Biology 181, Cultural Evolution

Neuroscience 101AA, Alzheimer’s Disease: Causes and Consequences of Brain Degenerations

Neuroscience 101L, Sleep Talk: Unraveling the Mystery of Sleep

Neuroscience 101X, Stress Resilience and Susceptibility: Mechanisms and Models

Neuroscience 140, Biological and Artificial Intelligence

Psychology 1325, The Emotional, Social Brain

Psychology 1335, The Truth behind Amnesia

Psychology 1344, Investigating Puzzles of the Human Mind from Brainwaves to Behavior

Psychology 1409, Psychology of Large Language Models

Psychology 1816, Broken Brains: Mechanisms and Markers of Mental Illness