Course Syllabus

Affective Neuroscience: Emotions, Cognition, and Behavior

Semester & Location:	Fall 2019 - DIS Stockholm
Type & Credits:	Core Course - 3 credits
Core Course Study Tours:	Paris, France
Major Disciplines:	Neuroscience, Psychology
Faculty Members:	Élodie Cauvet - eca@disstockholm.se
Program Director:	Lars Rossen - lro@dis.dk
Time & Place	Monday/Thursday 8:30 – 9:50, Location: 1E-510

 

Description of Course

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

Co-requisite: Enrollment in Affective Neuroscience Research Lab

 

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
• Contrast different emotions on their physiological and neurological correlates
• 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 and pathological perspective
• 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:

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

Theories of emotions

Definition and classification

The development of Emotion

Social emotions

Theme 2: Affective disorders

Perception alteration and everyday life difficulties

Genetics of affective and social disorders

Remediation: clinical applications  

Theme 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 and attention: bias and top down effects

Emotion regulation and the prefrontal cortex

Theme 4: Variability in emotion

Sex differences

Aging

Cultural differences

 

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.

 

Reading

            Required textbook

Armony, J.  & P. Vuilleumier (Eds.), (2013) The Cambridge Handbook of Human Affective Neuroscience; Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.

Books: (selected chapters)

Kandel (2013): Principles of Neural Science, 5^th edition, chapter 48, Emotions and Feelings and chapter 47, The Autonomic Motor System and the Hypothalamus.

Articles:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

 

Field Studies

1) Wednesday, August 21^st 9:30 – 13:00

How are emotions represented in photography? Representing and experiencing emotions

We will visit the Fotografiska museum of Stockholm. Students will team up in two’s and will go through the different exhibitions for approx. 1.5 hours. Questions will be used to guide the experience and allow for reflection. These reflections will be discussed together afterwards.

Each group will chose different couples of emotions. Each group will select pieces of art that depict these emotions, analyze how these emotions are rendered, (specifically identifying which features were critical for this emotional recognition). Each student will further reflect upon the individual emotions that were elicited by these pieces. Specifically, each student will need to pay attention to their own feelings but also to the physiological responses individually experienced. These emotional responses can be related to other moments in life when similar responses were experienced and how these responses might have affected decisions, actions etc. After the visit, we will meet at the café of the fotografiska museum for a Fika (Swedish tradition to gather around coffee and pastries) with it’s beautiful view of Stockholm. The discussion at the café (with pastries) is for each group to present their reflections and findings in order to 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
• Ice-breaker: meet fellow students and teacher in a cozy location

 

2) Wednesday, September 16^th 15:00 – 17:30

Genetics of Affective Disorders: tour of the lab and lecture

Kristiina Tammimies is a senior researcher at Karolinska Institute. She will give a tour of her genetic lab at Karolinska institute and give an introduction into the genetics of affecting affective disorders and the techniques used to to study them.

Learning objectives:

• Learn about the different genetics tools and technigues used to study affective disorder
• Learn about the heritability of the different affective disorders: impact of genetics and environment with its interactions
• Discuss critical ethical points related to the study of genetics in psychiatric disorders

 

Study Tours

Study tours are an integral part of the class. Class content will be reviewed and integrated with real word settings (research, clinical etc.) and experience.

The goal is to experience first-hand different settings related to the class content: including high-end research lab and facilities and  clinical venues. We will inquire how emotions are elicited by different mediums and their subjective individual experience and importantly use also scientific objective description of their neural correlates and mechanisms.

 

Core Course Week -  Short Study Tour: Göteborg and Stockholm

Expressing and experiencing emotions: Disorders and Remediation

Examples of activities might include:

Improvisation workshop: "Acting = Fake emotions?”  

Experience how to display emotions and group social interaction from an acting point of view. Discuss the characteristics of such emotional displays from the emitter and receiver perspectives. Learn about the physiological and neurological processes elicited by acting/faking emotions and about group interactions. Practical experience.

Music therapy: Communication, contact and collaboration: grounding experiences in physio-music-therapy within psychiatry

Anna-Karin Kuuse, is a music therapist and Anna Behn is a Physiotherapist in Gothenburg. They have been working together in an Adult Psychiatric Outpatient Unit with groups in Physio-music-therapy. Within these groups, they tackle grounding, communication, contact and collaboration. The work they developed is adequate for several clinical groups. This workshop will initiate discussions about different treatments and resources.  

In Stockholm, 12th and 13th of September

12th morning: Internet Psychiatry, visit of the child and adolescent psychiatry research center and discuss with Jens Högström

12th afternoon: Emotional learning, PTSD and social interactions: lecture from Lisa Espinosa

13th morning: Consciousness, disorders and emotion: workshop with Prof. K. Evers

13th afternoon: presentation of assignment: oral presentation on affective disorders

 

Long Study Tour: Paris, France

From sensory modalities to social emotions: Study tour is an integral part of the class. We aim to experience first-hand different settings related to the class content: including high-end research lab and facilities, and clinical context.

More details will be given closer to the departing gate.

Some examples of learning objectives:

• Experience uni- vs. multimodal sensory input and reflect upon the related emotional components.
• Discover and integrate class content with concrete everyday experience
• Develop your understanding of social neuroscience and its relationship with emotions, moods and disorders
• Engage in critical and informed discussions with researchers and challenge you current ideas.
• Reflect upon the impact of affective and social neuroscience on societal challenges (artificial intelligence, remediation in psychiatry, education etc.)

Guest Lecturers

Monica Siquieros 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.

 

Kristiina Tammimies is a senior researcher at Karolinska Institutet. Her research aims to understand how genetic factors contribute to the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) and how these factors translate into biological pathways affecting brain development using genome-wide techniques such as whole genome sequencing. Here, Kristiina will give an introduction into genetic factors affecting NDDs and the techniques used to to study them.

 

Lisa Espinoza is a PhD student at the Emotion Lab of Karolinska Institute. Her research creates a bridge between clinical field and experimental research by investigating how social interaction (in the form of social support) could affect emotional memory after an aversive experience.

 

/Lab/

Refer to the co-requisite syllabus for all details

 

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. There is no such things as bad questions: what appears trivial might actually turn into the most interesting and insightful questions.

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 will 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

Students are expected to be involved in their studies and are responsible for them. In addition to being present in class, having read the required readings and handing in assignments at the due time (all mandatory), students are expected to participate actively in class and to create a lively and positive learning environment. This includes (but is not restricted to) participating in the discussions and asking questions to both the teacher and peers.

Students are responsible for their learning. This implies taking notes from the lecture and summarizing the content of both lectures and discussions. Presentations include graphs, pictures and illustrations necessary to understand the class. Students are expected to take notes complementing and explaining the slides. The presentations  are a support and should be treated as such and not as the main source of information. Class content delivered orally by the teacher need to be written down individually by the students. Main discussions must be summarized by the students and transcribed on white board. A picture of these will be available on Canvas for the respective classes.

 

Evaluation

The course consists of lectures, discussions and assignments at home and in class as well as field studies, core course week and long study tour. Students’ attendance of the classes, visits, tours and their active participation in the discussions are mandatory and taken into account in the evaluation. In discussions and assignments (in class or in tours), 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	Grade	Percent
Active Class Participation	Individual	10%
Core Course Week Assignment: affective disorders	Group	15%  (5% + 10%)
Long Study Tour Assignment: Mood diary and Emotion regulation	Group and Individual	15%  (5% + 10%)
Quizzes	Individual	10%
Midterm	Individual	15%
Paper presentation and discussion	Group	10%
Final project: integrative research paper	Group	15%
Final project: Board game creation	Group	10%
Total		100%

 Detailed assignment description and rubrics will be available via Canvas and in-class

 

Descriptions of assignments

Active class participation (10%): Individual

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 as well as being active during field trips, study tours and guest lectures. Active participation also means taking the initiative. Attendance is mandatory and will be reflected in this assignment grade. See Canvas for class participation grading.

 

Quizzes (10%) : Individual

Date: multiple across the semester

Before some of the classes, a short quizz including a couple of questions will check the understanding of the previous class. This will be taken in class and individually.

Core Course Week Assignment: Affective Disorders (5% + 10%)  : Group

Date: September 5^th

Presentation of the visits (oral + visual summary) - 5%: Before departure, students will be grouped in two's or three's and be assigned to one of the visits. They will have to conduct a short research on the visit that they will orally present to the rest of the class on 01/31. They will produce a short descriptive summary including topics related to the class as well as potential questions to ask during the visit. All short visual visit summary (max 1 page each) will be stapled together and handed in to the whole class to be used during the visit on top of the booklet delivered by the teacher. 

Date: September 13^th

Students will grouped in two’s or three‘s and be assigned to one affective disorder. Students will have to pay specific attention during the visits and lectures for their assigned disorder in order to learn and ask as many relevant questions as possible. This include preparing discussion topics and/or questions in advance of the academic visits.The goal is to be able, by the end of the core course week, to provide the class with a comprehensive presentation of the disorder and integrate the content of the core course week with the state of the art research on the disorder. In addition of the group presentation, that will take place on the last day of the week (Sept. 13^th), 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. Students are expected to ask questions and discuss with the other groups, the content of which will be taken into account in their grade.

 

Study Tour Assignment: Long Tour (5% + 10%)

Date: October 3^rd

GROUP: Presentation of the visits (oral + visual summary) - 5%: Before departure, students will be grouped in two's or three's and be assigned to one of the visits. They will have to conduct a short research on the visit that they will orally present to the rest of the class on 10/03. They will produce a short descriptive summary including topics related to the class as well as potential questions to ask during the visit. All short visual visit summary (max 1 page each) will be stapled together and handed in to the whole class to be used during the visit on top of the booklet delivered by the teacher. 

Date: October 24^th

INDIVIDUAL: Mood Diary and emotion regulation - 10%: use and implications in emotion regulation (5 pages max) Conduct a mood diary on yourself during the length of the study tour and analyze it. Mood diary is a powerful tool used by psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers but also everyday people to get record over time emotional status. After each visits, 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. Login the elements in the visits (or outside if you would like to share). In the end of the week, you will shortly summarize the week objectively and analyze your diary with a focus on emotion regulation with reappraisal strategies (or expressive suppression) that you used or might have wanted to use in light of Cutuli 2014 paper available on canvas.

 

Midterm (15%)  : Individual

Date: September 26th

Short answered questions (between 7 and 10) and two short essays. Short answer questions will be a combination of information recall and explanation of concepts and theory. Short essays will summarize knowledge on a specific topic covered in class and will require integration of class content. This can include describing emotional processing at neural level in a concrete everyday life situation, or proposing an experiment to answer a research question and the expected results.

 

Paper presentation and discussion (10%)  : Group

Date: Variable across groups

Students will be grouped in two’s or three’s and will be assigned to one of the themes from classes 12 to 16. Students will have to prepare a research paper oral presentation on this topic (15-20minutes), and open up and lead a discussion using 2 burning questions with their fellow students. The oral presentation will be graded as a group and the goal is to present a research paper at the state of the art on the topic covered in class this day, as well lead a discussion on current research questions. The teacher must have previously approved the paper. Presentation dates and topics will be assigned randomly during class at least 2 weeks before the first presentation. After the presentation, the slides will be handed in. Group grades will take into account the slides (quality and readability), the oral presentation, the information presented (quality of the topic search and organization), and the lead of the following discussion.

 

Final project: Serious game and the role of emotions in learning processes.  (15% + 10%)  : Group

The final project aims to integrate the knowledge you acquired through this class in an innovative and playful way, i.e. by creating a serious board game on the topic of “Emotions and the Brain” and consists of two parts: See Assignments below.

 In this group project, students will be teamed up by 3 to 4 and create a serious board game that will cover all the topics developed in class. Ultimately, through this project, they will lead a reflection on the role of emotions in the learning process while integrating knowledge acquired in class.

The integrative research report, part 1, aims  to: (a) summarize  the research process leading to the conception of the game, and (b) to reflect upon the role of emotions emanating from play session into the learning process.

The serious game, part 2, consists of the serious game creation process and evaluation. 

You will have to work on your own on your group project. Dedicated time across the semester will allow some update and feedback onto advancement. Constructive peer review feedback is crucial to any group project and will be graded according to a rubric.

Final Project, part 1: Integrative research report   (15%)

Date: November 19th

The integrative research reports aims to summarize and integrate the content of this class. Specifically, you will explain in detail the topics that your game will develop, both from a neuroscience perspective but also from a game design perspective. This reflection on your game is designed so that you integrate the effect of pedagogical tools on knowledge dissemination and consolidation. Both form your experience in designing the game but also playing the other group game: what are the effects of playing and the emotions elicited (such as epistemological emotions) on the learning process from a cognitive and affective neuroscience perspective. Scientific papers, experiments will need to support the different points developed through the paper.

You will need to discuss how building up a game is affecting your learning process, how are emotions playing a role in this specific experience regarding the learning outcome of this class. From a dissemination perspective, you will need to discuss how the board game tool is well suited to disseminate the affective neuroscience topic. You will also need to explain the iterative research process leading to your final board game. Why did you chose these topics, how are they best conveyed by your board game.

Your team will have to include game choice motivation, game mechanics, choice of content in terms of knowledge, and reflections upon the learnings, benefits and limitations of using serious gaming as a dissemination tool for others and learning tool for yourself.

Final project, part 2:  ‘Emotion and the Brain’ Serious Game  (10%)

Date: November 19th

Groups of 3 to 4 students will be tasked to develop a serious game covering the class content. You will be able to choose form a variety of games (board games, card games, role playing games, video games). Work on the game and the reports will span over each class using project time every day.

The final grading of the game will be conducted both by peer review from the other groups, using pre-defined criteria, as well as by the teacher. The final session of the class will be dedicated to a play session in order to evaluate each final project, which will be complemented by a short presentation (10min max) of the main findings summarized in the integrative research paper.

 

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

 DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org