PSYC3517: Hippocampus and Memory: Clinical and Health Perspectives

• 60 Credits from Level 2 Psychology modules C800

• None

• None

• To provide a grounding in the neurobiology of the hippocampal formation, and its support of spatial and episodic memory and other cognition
• To explore this system in healthy and clinical conditions, with the latter focused on the Dementias and Alzheimers disease (with some attention to Epilepsy, Stress, and PTSD)
• To explore diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to Alzheimers disease

• Overview of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the hippocampal formation in health and disease, including healthy ageing
• Focus on cognitive correlates of cellular firing, including neurons in animals and humans coding for spatial and temporal variables
• Consideration of empirical and theoretical study characterising the specific types of cognition that depend upon the hippocampal formation, focusing on navigation and spatial memory, episodic memory, and imagination.
• Neurobiological and psychological aspects of Alzheimers disease, with briefer consideration of other clinical conditions involving the hippocampal formation, e.g. Vascular Dementia, Epilepsy, Stress, and PTSD.
• Therapeutic approaches to Alzheimers disease
• Diagnostic approaches to Alzheimers disease, emphasising the use of spatial and episodic memory tests

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Detailed knowledge of neurobiological bases of spatial and episodic memory from the level of individual neurons to brain regions to behaviour
• Neurobiological and psychological aspects of various clinical conditions that involve disruption to the hippocampal formation, notably Alzheimers disease

Subject-specific Skills:

• Ability to review critically and consolidate understanding of knowledge and principles drawn from empirical and theoretical studies from the neurobiological, psychological, and clinical literatures involving the hippocampal formation.appropriately

Key Skills:

• Ability to research relevant literature
• Good written communication skills including selection of key material for argument, summarising empirical data and positions in debates, and making arguments
• Good IT skills in word processing
• Ability to work independently in scholarship and research within broad guidelines

• Students' acquisition of detailed knowledge will be facilitated by lectures, a tutorial, and detailed reading list
• A 2-hour tutorial giving an in-depth insight into neuropsychological tests used to diagnose Alzheimers disease. The basic tutorial unit is a pair of students. One student acts as the Clinician, the other the Patient, and then they swap roles.
• The online exam essay assesses students' acquired knowledge of principles and empirical data and their ability to organise and synthesise them coherently and critically in written form in response to a set question.
• The Exam essay will also assess students' written communication skills

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