Neuroscience of Human Cognition: Imagination, Language, and Consciousness

MET BI 366

  • Critical Thinking
  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • Scientific Inquiry II

Your brain is a bizarre device, set in place through natural selection of your ancestors and your own experience. One thing that clearly separates your brain from the brain of any other non-human animal is the propensity of your brain for imagination and creativity. In this class we will dive into the neuroscience of imagination: from neurons to memory to neurological mechanism of generating novel conscious experiences. We will study what makes your brain unique and the selectional forces that shaped the brains of our ancestors. We will discuss what makes human language special and how it evolved. This interdisciplinary class is intended for paleoanthropologists who want to learn neuroscience, psychologists who are interested in the question of the origin of language, biologists who are interested in the uniqueness of the human mind, neuroscientists who want an exposure to paleoanthropology and linguistics, philosophers fascinated by neurological basis of behavior and other students interested in an understanding of the mind of a man and the evolution of the brain. Prerequisites: NE101. Students cannot take both METBI566 and METBI366 for credit. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Scientific Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.

FALL 2024 Schedule

Section Instructor Location Schedule Notes
A1 Vyshedskiy BRB 122 W 6:00 pm-8:45 pm

SPRG 2025 Schedule

Section Instructor Location Schedule Notes
A1 Vyshedskiy BRB 122 W 6:00 pm-8:45 pm

Note that this information may change at any time. Please visit the MyBU Student Portal for the most up-to-date course information.