Brain and Behaviour PSYCH 275 — Course Navigation
An introduction to brain mechanisms involved in sensation, perception, movement, motivation, learning, and cognition, as studied in both humans and lower animals. Prerequisites: PSYCH 104 or SCI 100.
Course Materials
Syllabus & Policies: Course syllabus with grading and policies.
Live Discussion: 💬 NEW LINK WONT KICK YOU OFF - Join our Discord chat for real-time questions and phenomenology reports during lectures.
Complete Textbook: 📚 Textbook Reader — read all chapters in a unified interface with navigation and section table of contents.
The course will use the readings in this webpage as the primary material. Additional optional readings can be found in the Reference Textbook: UTHealth Neuroscience Online — our free online reference framework.
Midterm Preparation: 📚 Comprehensive Review Scaffold — organized by concept with links to all material | 📝 Practice Midterm Exam — test yourself under timed conditions
Final Exam Preparation: 📚 Comprehensive Review Scaffold — organized by concept with links to all material | 📝 Practice Final Exam (Old) — test yourself under timed conditions | 📝 Practice Final Exam (New) — additional practice questions | 📋 Midterm 1 Example Answers — reviewed model answers for reference
Practice Old Quizzes and AI Grading: 📝 Past Quizzes 1–4 (Old) | 📝 Past Quizzes 4–10 (New) — review previous quiz questions organized by chapter | 🤖 Practice Answer Feedback Generator — paste any practice question and your answer to generate a grading prompt for ChatGPT or other AI models (Claude, Gemini, etc.). This tool creates prompts similar to those used in actual grading, but note that AI feedback may be more strict for learning purposes and can vary due to model differences and temperature/randomness settings. Results are useful for practice but may not be directly comparable to your actual quiz feedback.
Optional Interactive Chapter concepts: 🎨 Sketch Catalogue — explore interactive p5.js visualizations for each chapter with a live code editor.
Course Schedule & Chapter Readings
| Date | Topic & Description | Chapter | Supplemental Online Text |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 6 (Tue) | What Is a Thought? [Read] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] Sparks, symbols, and LLMs; perceptron origins; personhood and the fundamental question of what minds are made of. | Chapter 0 | Section 1: Introduction |
| Jan 8 (Thu) | What Is a Thought? (continued) [Read] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] | Chapter 0 | Section 1: Introduction |
| Jan 13 (Tue) | A Short History of Nearly Everything About Minds [Read] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] Deep time of nervous systems; hominin cognition; culture/tech co-evolution; where this course sits in science and society. | Chapter 1 | Section 2: Ch 1 |
| Jan 15 (Thu) | Electrical Signaling [Read] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] [Quiz 1: Covers Chapters 0-1] Membrane potentials and spikes; gradients vs linear models; speed, failure, fate. | Chapter 2 | Section 1: Ch 1-3 |
| Jan 20 (Tue) | Chemical Signaling [Read] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] Synapses invent meaning; chemistry as computation. | Chapter 3 | Section 1: Ch 4-6, 11-14 |
| Jan 22 (Thu) | Neural Plasticity: How Brains Learn to Learn [Read] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] Synaptic strengthening, LTP/LTD, Hebbian learning, and how experience rewires the brain. | Chapter 4 | Section 1: Ch 7; Section 4: Ch 7 |
| Jan 27 (Tue) | Review & QA Session #1 — Chapters 0-4 [Review Materials] [Quiz 2: Covers Chapters 2-4] | Section 1: Ch 1-15 | |
| Jan 29 (Thu) | Macroscopic Organization of the Nervous System (Part 1) [Read Part 1] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] From brainstem to cortex; hierarchical control; CNS/PNS divisions; functional anatomy. | Chapter 5 Part 1 | Section 2: Ch 1, 3 |
| Feb 3 (Tue) | Macroscopic Organization of the Nervous System (Part 2) [Read Part 2] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] Detailed neuroanatomy: ventricular system, blood supply, spinal organization, brainstem nuclei, cortical architecture. | Chapter 5 Part 2 | Section 2: Ch 1, 3 |
| Feb 5 (Thu) | Sensation and Perception [Read] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] [Quiz 3: Covers Chapter 5 (Parts 1 & 2)] Inference over data; illusions; embodiment; tactile first principles. | Chapter 6 | Section 2: Ch 2, 4-5 |
| Feb 10 (Tue) | Sensation and Perception (continued) [Read] Continued coverage of Chapter 6: inference over data, illusions, embodiment, and tactile first principles. | Chapter 6 | Section 2: Ch 2, 4-5 |
| Feb 12 (Thu) | Chapter 6 Completion & Midterm Review (practice quiz) [Read] [Review Guide] [Practice Exam] Complete Chapter 6 coverage; midterm review Chapters 0-6. | Chapter 6 | Section 2: Ch 2, 4-5 |
| Feb 17-20 | Reading Break — No Classes | ||
| Feb 24 (Tue) | MIDTERM EXAM (Chapters 0-6) | ||
| Feb 26 (Thu) | Vision Part 1 [Read] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] Eye optics, retinal computation, phototransduction; from photons to ganglion cells. | Chapter 7 | Section 2: Ch 14-15 |
| Mar 3 (Tue) | Vision Part 2 [Read] [Slides HTML] [Slides PDF] [Quiz 4: Covers Chapter 7] Visual pathways, parallel streams, predictive vision. | Chapter 7 | Section 2: Ch 14-15 |
| Mar 5 (Thu) | Attention and Chemical Senses [Read] [Slides HTML] Attention mechanisms, audition, olfaction, gustation; revisiting receptive fields, tuning, representation, and engrams. | Chapter 8 | Section 2: Ch 9, 12-13 |
| Mar 10 (Tue) | Attention and Chemical Senses (continued) [Read] [Slides HTML] [Quiz 5: Covers Chapter 8] | Chapter 8 | Section 2: Ch 9, 12-13 |
| Mar 12 (Thu) | Attention and Chemical Senses [Read] [Slides HTML] Attention mechanisms, audition, olfaction, gustation; revisiting receptive fields, tuning, representation, and engrams. | Chapter 8 | Section 2: Ch 9, 12-13 |
| Mar 17 (Tue) | Attention and Chemical Senses (continued) [Read] [Slides HTML] [Quiz 6: Covers Chapter 8] Completion of Chapter 8: attention networks, auditory pathways, olfaction, and gustation. | Chapter 8 | Section 2: Ch 9, 12-13 |
| Mar 19 (Thu) | Motor Control [Read] [Slides HTML] Motor units, spinal reflexes, descending pathways, motor cortex; from thought to action through hierarchical control. | Chapter 9 | Section 3: Ch 1-5 |
| Mar 24 (Tue) | Motor Control (continued) [Read] [Slides HTML] [Quiz 7: Covers Chapter 9] Spinal circuits, descending control, cerebellar coordination, and basal ganglia contributions to action. | Chapter 9 | Section 3: Ch 1-5 |
| Mar 26 (Thu) | Learning and Memory [Read] [Slides HTML] Episodic, semantic, and procedural memory; LTP and synaptic consolidation; machine memory vs. forgetting as design. | Chapter 10 | Section 1: Ch 7; Section 3: Ch 4-5; Section 4: Ch 5, 7 |
| Mar 31 (Tue) | Association Cortex and Executive Function [Read] [Slides HTML] [Quiz 8: Covers Chapter 10] Hierarchical organization; agnosia and neglect syndromes; frontal lobe executive control; planning, inhibition, and decision-making algorithms; split-brain lateralization. | Chapter 11 | Section 4: Ch 9 |
| Apr 2 (Thu) | Sleep and Consciousness [Read] [Slides HTML] Biological rhythms, sleep stages, theories of consciousness, and the hard problem. | Chapter 12 | Section 4: Ch 9; Kolb Ch 13 |
| Apr 7 (Tue) | Psychopharmacology [Read] [Slides HTML] [Quiz 9: Covers Chapter 11] Drug actions, neurotransmitter systems, psychoactive substances, and therapeutic interventions. | Chapter 13 | Section 1: Ch 11-14; Kolb Ch 6 |
| Apr 9 (Thu) | Final Review & Course Wrap-Up [Chapter 12] [Slides HTML] [Chapter 13] [Slides HTML] [Review Guide] Integration, catch-up, and comprehensive final exam preparation after completing the remaining end-of-term material. | Final Review | Sections 4-5 |
| Apr 17 (Fri) | FINAL EXAM (cumulative Chapters 0-13, focus on 7-13) 5:30 PM — 1.5 hrs — ETLC E1-001 | All Sections |
Classes run January 6 - April 9, 2026. Reading Break: February 17-20. Final exam: April 17, 2026 at 5:30 PM (1.5 hrs — ETLC E1-001).
Integrates the complete course journey from thoughts to consciousness; explores future directions in neuroscience, AI, brain-computer interfaces, and understanding minds. Recommended reading before the final exam to see how all course topics connect.