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Neuroscience of Consciousness (993C8)

15 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

Consciousness is one of the last remaining frontiers of scientific exploration, and theories and methods in neuroscience are at the front line of this endeavour. Topics covered in this module include: measuring and studying consciousness; states of consciousness (including wake, dreaming, hypnosis and vegetative state); visual consciousness (including the different roles of visual cortex and fronto-parietal network; blindsight and neglect as disorders of visual awareness); implicit learning and meta-knowledge; psychiatric disturbances of consciousness (eg hallucinations, depersonalisation); interoceptive awareness; consciousness and cortical plasticity (examples of synaesthesia, phantom limb and sensory substitution); computational models of consciousness; biological models of consciousness; and evolutionary approaches to consciousness.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 30 hours of contact time and about 120 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.