PSYC 83.08 Social And Neural Networks
Networks exert profound influences on our lives. We are each embedded within social networks that influence our emotional wellbeing, the information we can access, and even which diseases we might catch. Likewise, each of us has a complex network of neurons embedded within our head: our brain. The structures of these neural networks reflect our cognitive abilities, mental health, and how we form our social networks. Despite the superficial dissimilarities between these types of networks, we can use a common framework – graph theory – to describe and understand both social and neural networks. This course will explore social psychology and neuroscience through the lens of networks, providing students with novel perspectives on and powerful tools for analyzing these subjects. Students will come away with a firm grasp of graph theory, social networks, brain networks, and artificial neural networks.
Instructor
Thornton
Prerequisite
PSYC 1 or
PSYC 6, and
PSYC 10 or equivalent, and one of the following:
PSYC 23,
PSYC 38, a course in the PSYC 53 series, or
PSYC 60; and instructor permission through the department website