Biological Bases of Violence ((4 Credits))

Catalog description

Ever wondered what caused a nasty act of aggression? In this course, students will discover the hidden forces behind some of our most surprising behaviors -aggression and violence. The course begins with an overview of genetics, neurons, the brain, and the entire nervous system. It will focus on leading-edge methodologies within clinical, social, cultural, cognitive, developmental, and behavioral neuroscience to elucidate why, at times, brazen behaviors will occur. Crucially, the biological architecture of human individuality is shaped over a lifespan by our environments. The course will emphasize recognized reciprocal relationships between experiential factors and the brain’s biology. Students will analyze how the brain coordinates highly complex social behaviors of aggression and violence at the time a behavior happens. The course content then addresses influences working on longer timescales, and how they bias such consequential patterns of neural activity. From there students will consider how the brain is continually reorganized over a lifespan, helping to explain the diverse range of human behaviors.