Course Syllabus

 

Course Description

Prerequisite: One semester of neuroscience, physiological psychology, or biological psychology at university level

       How do we understand the interplay of human emotions and their neural networks? This course applies findings from the interdisciplinary field of neuroscience and the psychological study of cognition, emotion, and personality. Basic, complex, and social emotions are explored from the perspective of, for example, the subjective experience of emotion, non-conscious processes, how emotions are interpreted, expressed, or regulated. Affective systems, neural networks, and their relationship to cognitive processes such as attention, learning, memory, and decision making are addressed. Where relevant, human brain imaging findings, pathological conditions, treatment and cultural perspectives are considered.

 

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Discuss the main theoretical perspectives in affective neuroscience
• Critically analyze the impact of emotions on cognitive processes, including - but not only - higher order functions
• Integrate the different levels of emotion processing (cognitive, psychological and neurological) and their interplay within multimodal models
• Compare and discuss the alterations of affect and its regulation in terms of cognitive and neural processes from typical to pathological perspectives
• Reflect upon the developmental milestones of emotions and their regulation in terms of behavior and neurological process
• Present, discuss and criticize scientific papers
• Critically evaluate research methods used in the affective neuroscience field

The following topics will be covered during the course:

Module 1: Theories of emotion and its cerebral correlates from a developmental perspective

Theories of emotions

Definition and classification

The example of Social Emotions

The development of Emotion

Module 2: Affective disorders

Perception alteration and everyday life difficulties

Genetics of affective and social disorders

Remediation: clinical applications  

Module 3: Emotions - mutual relationship between elicitation and cognitive skills

Emotion and the body: from touch to vision

Emotion and audition: language and music

Emotion and Olfaction: specific link to memory processes

Emotion and consciousness

Emotion regulation and the prefrontal cortex

Module 4: Variability in emotion

Sex and Gender differences

Aging

Cultural differences

Emotions in non human animals

Embedded within the different topics, students will acquire critical knowledge in neuroanatomy, hormonal and autonomic nervous systems, neuroimaging, physiological and psychological tools used in affective neuroscience research.

 

Faculty

Élodie Cauvet obtained her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience, from Pierre & Marie Curie University in Paris (France). Her research interest started with language acquisition in infants leading to the study of the cerebral processing of language and music in adults. She became interested in neurodevelopmental disorders starting with developmental dyslexia then expending into autism spectrum disorders as well as ADHD. She is using techniques from psychology as well as neuroimaging in her research; this includes MRI (anatomical and functional) as well as EEG and eye tracking. She has been conducting her latest research at Karolinska Institutet Center for Neuro-developmental Disorders (KIND). Her interests include social cognitive skills, empathy and emotion processing within the whole spectrum of functioning from typicality to disorders such as ASD. With DIS since 2016.

 

Readings

Books: (selected chapters)

Armony, J.  & P. Vuilleumier (Eds.), (2013) The Cambridge Handbook of Human Affective Neuroscience; Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.    Chapter 1: Models of emotion: The Affective Neuroscience Approach, D. Sander

Kandel (2021):    Chap 42: Emotion, C. Daniel Salzman, Ralph Adolphs, p.1045 - 1064

 

Articles: (included but not restricted to)

Aviezer, H., Hassin, R. R., Ryan, J., Grady, C., Susskind, J., Anderson, A., ... & Bentin, S. (2008). Angry, disgusted, or afraid? Studies on the malleability of emotion perception. Psychological science, 19(7), 724-732.

Calvo, M. G., Gutiérrez-García, A., & Del Líbano, M. (2018). What makes a smiling face look happy? Visual saliency, distinctiveness, and affect. Psychological research, 82(2), 296-309.

Casey BJ, Heller AS, Gee DG, Cohen AO. Development of the emotional brain. Neurosci Lett. 2019 Feb 6;693:29-34. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.11.055. Epub 2017 Dec 5. PMID: 29197573; PMCID: PMC5984129.

Coppin, G., & Sander, D. (2021). Theoretical approaches to emotion and its measurement. In Emotion measurement (pp. 3-37). Woodhead Publishing.

de Gelder, B., De Borst, A. W., & Watson, R. (2015). The perception of emotion in body expressions. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 6(2), 149-158.

Decety, J., & Holvoet, C. (2021). The emergence of empathy: A developmental neuroscience perspective. Developmental Review, 62, 100999.

Frye, N. G., & Lindquist, K. A. (2025). Language and emotion concepts in the predictive brain. The Cambridge handbook of human affective neuroscience.

Gallagher Brian, 2023, Does More Money Make Us Happier, Nautil.us, interviez Matt Killingsworth from University of Pennsylvania, https://nautil.us/does-more-money-make-us-happier-287786/Links to an external site.

Ju William Neuroscience: Canadian 2nd EditionLinks to an external site. Copyright © 2020, The Autonomic Nervous System, https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/neurosciencecdn2/chapter/anatomy-physiology-the-autonomic-nervous-system/Links to an external site.  

Oatley, K., & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (2014). Cognitive approaches to emotions. Trends in cognitive sciences, 18(3), 134-140.

Van Dongen, J. D. (2020). The empathic brain of psychopaths: From social science to neuroscience in empathy. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 695.

Yu Q, Peng Y, Mishra V, Ouyang A, Li H, Zhang H, Chen M, Liu S, Huang H. Microstructure, length, and connection of limbic tracts in normal human brain development. Front Aging Neurosci. 2014 Aug 28;6:228. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2014.00228.

Zou, L. Q., van Hartevelt, T. J., Kringelbach, M. L., Cheung, E. F., & Chan, R. C. (2016). The neural mechanism of hedonic processing and judgment of pleasant odors: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis. Neuropsychology, 30(8), 970.

 

Online Media: 

The biggest myths about emotions, debunked | Lisa Feldman Barrett, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QfCvIJRtE0Links to an external site.

Inside Out movie, 2015

Neuroanatomy short – 2min neuroscience

Direction terms, 2015:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7uU1c1iElM Links to an external site.

Thalamus (intro), 2015:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF8_82e9RmQ Links to an external site.

Limbic system, 2015:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNs9ruzoTmI Links to an external site.

Amygdala, 2016:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVvMSwsOXPw Links to an external site.

Dr. Andrew Meltzoff: Bodies, Brains & Emotions in Infant Development, 2017,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HmRA6sxoeULinks to an external site.

Theories of Emotion, Steven Barnes, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyxv0wZL29M&list=PL6u-Bsd5F9sadB90GH7OkySjOQ9ApP0VQ&index=15Links to an external site.

Field Studies

1 - Fotografiska Museum

How are emotions represented in photography? Representing and experiencing emotions

We will visit the Fotografiska museum of Stockholm. You will team up and go through the different exhibitions for approx. 90min. Questions will be used to guide the experience and allow for reflection. These reflections will be discussed together right afterwards around a Fika.

Each student in the group will select pieces of art that depict one different emotion, analyze how these emotions are rendered, (specifically identifying which features were critical for this emotional recognition). You will further reflect upon the individual emotions that were elicited by these pieces. Specifically, you need to pay attention to your own feelings but also to your physiological responses. Think that these emotional responses can be related to other moments in your life. Reflect on how these responses might have affected your decisions, actions etc. After the visit, we will meet for a Fika (Swedish tradition to gather around coffee and pastries)  to discuss and present your reflections and findings in order to eventually define the emotions and their physiological, psychological and neural correlates. This field study constitutes the introduction and presentation of the class.

Learning objectives:

• Define different emotions
• Assess individual knowledge in terms of: emotion psychological constructs, psychological and cognitive models, neural representations
• Introduce the class content
• Discuss class expectations

 

2- Board Game creation workshop

Through a fun 3 hour workshop, you will start exploring the relationship between emotions, playing and learning.

To guide you through the final assignment, namely creating a board game on the topic of affective neuroscience, you will kickstart the creation of your own board game with a professional board game designer, Björn Ekenberg. Concretely, you will work iteratively through the process of creating a board game.

 

Guest Lecturer

Prof. Kathinka Evers is a senior researcher in Philosophy at the Center for Research Ethics and Bioethics (CRB) at Uppsala University. Her research focuses on philosophy of mind and brain, bioethics and neuroethics. She directs the teaching and research on neuroethics at Uppsala University, where she started the first courses in the subject. She led the research on neuroethics and philosophy in the FET Flagship Human Brain Project from 2013 to 2023. She now co-leads philosophy research in the Horizon 2020-projects Neurotwin and CAVAA.

 

Approach to Teaching

I am an enthusiastic teacher whose goal is to develop your curiosity, sense of questioning and critical thinking. As such, I encourage asking questions whether for clarification or for going more in depth. I believe that there is no such things as bad questions: what appears trivial might actually turn into the most interesting and insightful question.

Each class include both lectures by the teacher and discussions led by the students.  We will develop and reflect upon the emotions, mood and their typical and atypical correlates from different descriptive scales: physiological, psychological, cognitive and neural. Classes’ content relies on the readings. Content of the readings is expected to nourish the discussions and might not be developed in details during the class. However, any unclear areas, pointed out by students’ questions, will be reviewed in class. 

  

Expectations of the Students

Active participation: Students are expected to participate actively in class. This includes taking part in the discussions, asking or answering questions. There are no stupid questions and I encourage and reward student expression. Opinions can be expressed as such and scientific sources to discussion points are always rewarded. You are expected to behave professionally and treat each other with empathy. This is a crucial skill that as a teacher I nurture and cherish which greatly helps communication, learning and in general well-being.

Absences: Students have to inform the teacher in advance in case they cannot attend a class. Missing a class unexcused will affect the active participation grade i.e. a 7% decrease of the grade. Just being present to all classes will be awarded with a C. You need to actively work to increase your grade.

Preparation to the class: To engage with the class material properly, you are expected to come to class prepared. To this end, you are expected to spend 6 hours per week outside of class time with the different materials. This includes but isn't restricted to:

• answering online quizzes before the class.
• read and understand the required readings or preparation material before class. Think about what are the crucial points in the reading, what did you find super interesting, what is still unclear. Take your own notes so that we can discuss and answer your questions in class. This will also serve as a start for creating your own study guide.

In class and after: Slides include graphs, pictures and illustrations necessary to understand the class. Students are expected to take notes complementing and explaining the slides. Slides are a support and should be treated as such and not as the main source of info required. Class content need to be written down individually by the students. Main discussion will be summarized by the students and transcribed on white board and pictures of these will be available on Canvas in respective classes.

 

Evaluation

The course consists of lectures, discussions and assignments at home and in class as well as field studies. Students’ attendance of the classes, visits and their active participation in the discussions are mandatory and taken into account in the evaluation. In discussions and assignments, students are required to demonstrate that they read and understood the required literature. They should be able to integrate their knowledge to discuss in depth research questions and topics. Showing independent and critical thinking is expected.

 

Grading

Assignment	Percent
Active Class Participation  (individual)	20%
Affective disorder presentation (group + ind.)	20%
Mood Diary: Use and Analysis (individual)	20%
Final Project: Video Recorded Design Commentary  (group + ind.)	20%
Final Project: Serious Board Game  (group)            Emotion and the brain game	20%
Total	100%

 Detailed assignment description and rubrics are available via Canvas and in-class

 

 Descriptions of assignments

Active class participation (20%)

Activity in discussions and group work. Active participation and engagement include among others 1- asking questions related to readings and material presented in class, 2- taking part in discussions, 3- being active during field trips, and guest lectures. Active participation also means taking the initiative. Active participation takes into account the capacity to lead discussions during some classes that will be mentioned beforehand.

 

Affective Disorders Presentation (20%)

Groups of three students will be assigned to an affective disorder that they will need to research on. The goal of this assignment is to be able to provide the class with a comprehensive presentation of the disorder and integrate the content of the course with the state of the art research on the disorder. In addition of the presentation, that will take place, students will have to hand in a visual summary (power point presentation slides, poster, graphs) that will summarize and integrate their knowledge of the disorder. During class presentations, students are expected to ask questions and discuss with their peers (20% of the grade).

 

Mood Diary  and Emotion Regulation  (20%)

Conduct a mood diary on yourself during the length of the summer course and analyze it with regards to Emotion Regulation strategies.

Mood diary is a powerful tool used by psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers but also everyday people to get record over time emotional status. After each day, you will record your mood, emotions and noticeable events that might have triggered these emotions, add any additional info that you deem necessary to the understanding and analysis of your emotions.

You can rate your mood on a scale, name the different emotions you felt, add your energy level and the hours of sleep you got since they might influence emotional processing. Log the elements of the day that triggered your emotions. In the end of the course, you will shortly and objectively summarize it (1 to 2 paragraph of summary). 
Then, you will analyze your diary with a focus on emotion regulation strategies: which ones did you use or might have wanted to use? (1 to 2 pages for the analyses)

Use scientific paper references (5 to 10 reviewed recent papers, not more than 11 years). For instance, you may use Cutuli 2014 paper available on canvas and the chapter on contemplative neuroscience  https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/neurosciencecdn2/chapter/4-4-integrative-and-contemplative-neuroscience/ .

 

Final project: Serious game and the role of emotions in learning processes.  (20% + 20%)

The final project aims to integrate the knowledge acquired through this class in an innovative and playful way. In group, you will create a serious board game on the topic of “Emotions and the Brain” covering as many topics developed in class as possible.

The assignment consists of two parts:

1- a 12 to 15min video Design Commentary: a podcast-style director's commentary layered over an actual playthrough,

2- the creation of a serious board game and evaluation of its use.

You will have to both work on your own for this project as well as in class. There will be time set aside almost everyday for your to work in your group. Dedicated time through the summer will allow some in-class check up on advancements/beta testing.

Final Project, part 1: Video Design Commentary   (20%)

The student group record a 12–15 minute video commentary while someone (a group member, a friend, or a classmate unfamiliar with the game) plays through their board game. This is a podcast-style director's commentary layered over an actual playthrough. Each group submits one recording plus a reference list.

The recording should follow the natural flow of the game but hit three distinct topics:

1- Design rationale,

2- Emotion and learning reflection

3- Serious gaming discussion 

For more details on the content of each section, see the assignment section. The submission needs to include: 

• At least 10 peer-reviewed sources cited verbally during the commentary: a full reference list needs to be submitted as a separate document
• All three levels of description must be covered: behavioural, cognitive and psychological, neural circuit level. 

The grade is modulated by the individual participation in the video. 

 

Final project, part 2:  ‘Emotion and the Brain’ Serious Game  (20%)

The student group will be tasked to develop a serious game covering the class content. They will be able to choose form a variety of games (board games, card games, role playing games). They will work on the game development through the summer term. The involvement and process of board game creation will be graded by the faculty. The final board game will be played together on the last day of class.

 

Workload

This course is an intensive course. In just three weeks, you will cover an extensive content and receive three credits. In order to merit this you should expect a high workload and intensive preparation for classes on a daily basis.

 

Use of laptops and phone in class

Based on the latest research on the topic, the only use of laptops or phones that is beneficial to the learning process is if it is solely used as a learning tool, namely taking notes, or taking the quizzes. However, most of the time, it is extremely hard (to to cerebral attentional processes to ignore all other enticement that these devices provide. If you cannot mute/ignore non class related tools/processes, then it has a detrimental effect on learning. As such, I recommend using your laptop only for taking notes in class (or specifically asked class related tasks), any other uses will not be accepted.

 

AI use policy

“Limited Use” --> The use of AI writing tools like ChatGPT in this course is restricted to specific stages, which will be defined by the faculty. The primary content of assignments should reflect your knowledge, creativity, and critical thinking. As with all sources of information and ideas, ensure that all AI contributions are correctly cited, namely I need to see your input into the tool, and output of the tool associated to the document you submit. I am not grading or giving feedback to AI, this is pedagogically uninteresting. In case of non disclosed AI use suspicion, the faculty will contact you to clarify. Since this will be considered as academic dishonesty, it will impact heavily your grade. 

 

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