Notre Dame Pre-College Summer Scholars: Neuroscience

Dr. Vanessa Chan is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Psychology at Notre Dame and teaches the Notre Dame Pre-College Summer Scholars course "Neuroscience: Understanding the Human Body's Command Center."
In this course, students engage in a combination of class lectures and lab-based activities in an exploration of the structure and function of the neuron, how we measure neural activity in humans, and how this relates to human behavior. Through the use of electroencephalography (EEG), students observe and measure their own neural responses to stimuli, and answer research questions common to the discipline of cognitive neuroscience.
Over the course of the two weeks, students will get hands-on experience in not only measuring human electrophysiology, but also in the analysis and presentation of EEG data, and a window into the kinds of questions that neuroscience is poised to answer: How do our brains change as we get older, and how does that relate to how we learn and remember things? How do we process information as we're distracted by things around us? How does the brain form predictions about what we expect to see or hear at any given time? How can we help people who have suffered brain damage in recovering lost function?