Learning Neuroscience Principles and Methods through Facts and Fiction of the Movies

Catalog description

In this course, we will fuse together the fact and fiction of movies with neuroscience. One type of assignments in the course will involve watching a set of movies (e.g.: Inception, Black Mirror, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fringe, Memento) and then connecting the ideas presented in the movie with what we will cover in class, which will focus on neuroscience and the methods that are used to study it. Papers that have played a crucial role in advancing neuroscience research and innovation will be discussed in tandem with the movies. Students will be able to identify and analyze the premise that underlies these movies as a whole: the neuroscience tenet that “the brain is the mind’s physical substrate through which ideas, memories, and personalities can be artificially enhanced or distorted”. Ethical considerations of developing neuronal clusters “in a dish” will also be considered.