Course Syllabus

Affective Neuroscience Lab

Semester & Location:	Fall 2019 - DIS Stockholm
Type & Credits:	Companion Course - 3 credits
Major Disciplines:	Neuroscience, Psychology
Faculty Members:	Élodie Cauvet - eca@disstockholm.se Monica Siqueiros - Lab assistant
Program Director:	Lars Rossen - lro@dis.dk
Time & Location	Tuesday/Friday 13.15-16.10, 1E-510 (1E-511)

Description of Course

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

Co-requisite: Enrollment Affective Neuroscience

You will participate in research activities focusing on emotion as this relates to cognitive and social functions. Experimental paradigms will include neuropsychological measures, and behavioral measures such as self- report, face recording camera, reaction time etc. Class work consists of supervision of your research activities and review of your selected research topics within the field of Affective Neuroscience.

Classes consist of lectures, group work and supervision. The instructor will discuss and guide the students regarding the selected topics, ethical aspects, methods and methodologies, data analysis, and dissemination methods (scientific writing and poster building). Students are expected to present to the other groups and to the instructor the different stages of their work throughout the semester. Strengths and weaknesses of all projects will be discussed within each session collegially so that groups receive constructive feedback from their peers. The classes will also include time for each group to develop their experimental study and receive individualized technical support.

Students will be assigned to groups of 2 to 4 to learn research methodology by practicing it within the field of Affective Neuroscience. Research will focus on the interaction between emotion and cognitive processes. Students will carry out an experimental study from hypothesis generation to discussion of the results. They will phrase their own research question within their assigned subtopic, carefully review the literature associated, design their experimental paradigm, collect the data, analyze and interpret it in the light of recent findings. Students work will conclude with a poster presentation as well as a research article. All studies will be computer-based and will focus on collecting quantitative behavioral data (reaction time, accuracy measures etc.). For programming the experimental paradigms, students will use E-Prime or PsychoPy. Statistical analyses will be carried out using SPSS or R.

Note: The class room is 1-E510 for the lab. The testing room of the lab is 1-E511

 

Learning Objectives

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

• Conduct a literature review on a selected research topic approved by the instructor
• Discuss and critically analyze the methodology employed in cognitive neuroscience research
• Elaborate a research question given the current literature and design a small scale experimental study to answer it
• Implement an experimental study: from setting up the experimental paradigm, to data collection
• Choose the proper statistical framework for the analysis of an experimental study and conduct the analysis
• Discuss and critically reflect on findings with regard to the literature
• Present (poster + article) and defend in class and publicly at the showcase the results of the conducted experiment
• Understand and discuss the ethical considerations and implication at stake within the research field of psychology and neuroscience
• Provide constructive feedback on others’ work including discussing strengths and weaknesses of other projects

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 Institute 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.

Lab Assistant:   

Monica Siqueiros is a psychologist and a PhD student at the Center for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at Karolinska Institutet. In her PhD research, she aims to investigate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in cognitive measures associated to Autism Spectrum Disorders and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder in children and infants combining eye-tracking, EEG and a twin design.

 

Reading

Books (selected chapters)

Harrington, M. (Ed.). (2010). The design of experiments in neuroscience. Sage.Mayers, A. (2013).

Introduction to Statistics and SPSS in Psychology (Vol. 28). Harlow, England: Pearson.

 Peer reviewed Articles

Aïte, A., Cassotti, M., Linzarini, A., Osmont, A., Houdé, O., & Borst, G. (2018). Adolescents’ inhibitory control: keep it cool or lose control. Developmental science, 21(1), e12491.

Annesley, T. M. (2010). Who, what, when, where, how, and why: the ingredients in the recipe for a successful Methods section. Clinical chemistry, 56(6), 897-901.

Ashar, Y. K., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Yarkoni, T., Sills, J., Halifax, J., Dimidjian, S., & Wager, T. D. (2016). Effects of compassion meditation on a psychological model of charitable donation. Emotion, 16(5), 691.

Baron-Cohen, S., Bowen, D. C., Holt, R. J., Allison, C., Auyeung, B., Lombardo, M. V., ... & Lai, M. C. (2015). The “reading the mind in the eyes” test: complete absence of typical sex difference in~ 400 men and women with autism. PLoS One, 10(8), e0136521.

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.

Evers, K. (2016). The Responsible Brain. Free Will and Personal Responsibility in thhe Wake of Neuroscience. Revista latinoamericana de filosofía, 42(1), 33-44.

Gendron, M., Roberson, D., van der Vyver, J. M., & Barrett, L. F. (2014). Perceptions of emotion from facial expressions are not culturally universal: evidence from a remote culture. Emotion, 14(2), 251.

Kalanthroff, E., Henik, A., Derakshan, N., & Usher, M. (2016). Anxiety, emotional distraction, and attentional control in the Stroop task. Emotion, 16(3), 293.

Kawakami, A., & Katahira, K. (2015). Influence of trait empathy on the emotion evoked by sad music and on the preference for it. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 1541.

Ladouceur, C. D., Dahl, R. E., Williamson, D. E., Birmaher, B., Axelson, D. A., Ryan, N. D., & Casey, B. J. (2006). Processing emotional facial expressions influences performance on a Go/NoGo task in pediatric anxiety and depression. Journal of Child psychology and Psychiatry, 47(11), 1107-1115.

Pacheco‐Unguetti, A. P., & Parmentier, F. B. (2016). Happiness increases distraction by auditory deviant stimuli. British Journal of Psychology, 107(3), 419-433.

Pinkham, A. E., Griffin, M., Baron, R., Sasson, N. J., & Gur, R. C. (2010). The face in the crowd effect: anger superiority when using real faces and multiple identities. Emotion, 10(1), 141.

Roux, P., Christophe, A., & Passerieux, C. (2010). The emotional paradox: dissociation between explicit and implicit processing of emotional prosody in schizophrenia. Neuropsychologia, 48(12), 3642-3649.

Reppold, C. T., Hauck Filho, N., Hutz, C. S., & Teixeira, M. A. P. (2016). Social Conduct Scale (SCS): a psychometric investigation. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, 29(1), 24.

Zhang, W., Gross, J., & Hayne, H. (2017). The effect of mood on false memory for emotional DRM word lists. Cognition and Emotion, 31(3), 526-537.

 

Literature related to each group research project

A literature review of the group research topic is part of the class requirements. This should include 150 pages of peer-reviewed research articles (might also include systematic review and meta-analyses). This is part of the first assignments as well as the final project.

 

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 deeper understanding. No questions are stupid and what appears trivial might actually turn into the most interesting and insightful questions. This class is by essence designed to trigger and nurture scientific questioning and methods. You will learn by doing and experiencing science by yourself. I will guide you through the scientific process starting from the formulation of a research question to the interpretation of self-acquired data and leading to the acquisition of new knowledge about the affective neuroscience field and experimental scientific work. Reflection on ethical considerations constitutes an essential aspect of experimental work, especially within affective neuroscience field, and as such of this class.

Classes are a mix of short lectures as well as individual and group reflections, research work tutored by the teacher and the assistant. We will guide the students through the merge of theory and practice.

I believe that more brains are more effective than single ones, with different thinking styles enriching the debate and discussions. I also believe that interacting with peers by presenting one’s owns project at different stages, listening carefully to others presentation, while proposing constructive criticisms and feed-back with regards to their experiment will provide the best learning outcomes in terms of critical thinking and high quality science.

 

Expectations of the students

 Students are expected to be involved in their studies and are responsible for them. On top of being present in class, having read the required readings and handing out the assignments on due time (all mandatory), they are expected to participate actively in class to create a lively and positive learning environment. This include (but is not restricted to) participating in the discussions and asking questions to teacher and peers. Students are thus expected to come in class with notes and questions related to their reading and the topic of the class. They are expected to collaborate constructively with their peers and teachers by providing feed-back at all stages of the projects. All students are expected to contribute equally in terms of time and quality to the group work and the class in general.

 

Evaluation

Students attendance to the classes and their active participation in the discussions are taken into account in the evaluation. Both in class and lab sessions, students are required to demonstrate that they read the literature for the classes, that they are able to apply their knowledge (theoretical, practical, methodological etc.) at all the stages of the experimental process. Showing independent and critical thinking is also subject to evaluation, this includes but is not restricted to constructive criticism of their fellow students.

 

Grading

Assignment	Percent
Attendance and Participation (individual)	10%
Ass1: Preparation and Planning Outline (group)	10%
Ass2: Experimental design and translation into e-prime (group)	10%
Ass3: Project description and ethical considerations (group)	10%
Progress Reports (3x10%) (group but modulated by individual involvement)	30%
Final Outcome: Manuscript (Group – 15%) + class presentation - conference format (Group - 10%) + Poster (Group – 5%)	30%
Total	100%

 

Attendance and Participation – 10%: Attendance to all classes and lab session is mandatory. 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. The student is active in discussions and group work. Active participation and engagement includes asking questions related to readings and material presented in the class and taking part in discussions, including constructive criticism of others work. Active participation means to contribute on own initiative.

Every week, progress will be checked. Students will all need to present their progress and discuss the upcoming steps. They will keep a logbook which will serve as a basis to their 3 progress reports. 

See Canvas for the corresponding rubric.

 

Ass1: Preparation + Planning Outline – 10%

Due Date: September 3rd after class

Group based

Students need to write an outline of their project including milestones and deadlines applied to their specific question. This should include their initial research question, their hypotheses and prediction. This document will also include a definition of their constructs and their operationalization.

 

Ass2: Experimental design and translation into e-prime  - 10%

Due date: September 17th after class

Group based

Student will write a second outline to detail their experimental design: description of the paradigm, the required sample size and expected results. They need to present a plan but also a contingency plan: discuss which part might not go as expected and propose solution in these cases.They will need to discuss the validity of their constructs and translate their paradigm into e-prime terms.

The assignment aims at checking the proper understanding of experimental design terminology and apply it to their group experiment. Further, this documents outlines the proper implementation and operationalization of the experiment using the software terminology.

 

Ass3: Project description and ethical considerations – 10%

Due date: September 27th

Group based.

The assignment aims at reflecting upon the ethical aspects relating to each groups project. They will write a mock ethical proposal including all essential aspects of a real ethical application: the scientific issue at stake, a short overview of the field, the description of the project, its significance, the availability of relevant safety measures and its ethical considerations. Gender and minorities issues should be discussed.

 

Progress Reports – 3 x 10% (30%)

Due Dates: 3 different along the class: 1) October 4th , 2) October 25th, 3) November 12th.

Group based but modulated by individual involvement

Progress reports can be based on lab notebook but are not restricted to it. Students will write down an overview of their progress: the different tasks realized, timeline and milestones to achieve, potential adjustment/revision to the initial plan. Any relevant information might be added to this report: flowcharts, experiment material, code/screenshots of experimental setup … Each group member will clarify her/his contribution. Every student is expected to contribute equally to the project.

 

Final Outcome – 30% (manuscript 15% and poster 10%)

Manuscript – 15%

Due Date: December 6th

Group

Student groups will write down an academic paper following the standard research journal layout: abstract (250words), introduction including the literature review, the hypothesis, the predicted results, a method section including statistical methodology, the result section illustrated by relevant pictures, graphs and tables and a discussion section putting their results in perspective and opening on potential(s) experiment to dig deeper in the neurological mechanisms associated to their question. The manuscript should be handed in per group.

 

Class presentation: Conference format + Discussion - 10%

Due date: December 3rd

Group + individual modulation by questions during the discussion part

Student groups will present their results to their peers in a mock conference format with supporting slides for 15 minutes. Then, discussion will be opened by their peers questions, which will also be graded from both perspectives (questions asked and answers provided).

 

Poster + presentation at showcase – 5%

Due Date: November 29th;  Showcase presentation: December 10th

Group based

Posters will follow conference template including all relevant sections: hypothesis/question at stake, short literature review, methods, results, discussion and conclusion with opening. Students are expected to present their results at the showcase where they will explain their experiments and results to their peers and teachers including from other programs, in a short and interactive format (3 to 5min). This also involves vulgarizing their results since part of the audience will be completely naïve regarding research in affective neuroscience.

 

All assignments need to be passed to complete this course. Failing at one of them, will be reflected in the final grade.

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

• Course Enrollment and Grading
• Attendance
• Coursework, Exams, and Final Grade Reports

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