Faculty of Science

Human Behaviour, Theories and Methods in Motor and Cognitive Neuroscience
Provider: Faculty of Science

Activity no.: 5500-22-06-31
	Enrollment deadline: 08/10/2022

Place

Institut for Idræt og Ernæring

Date and time

28.10.2022, at: 08:00 - 04.11.2022, at: 16:00

Regular seats

ECTS credits

5.00

Contact person

Marta Katarzyna Topor E-mail address: mt@nexs.ku.dk

Enrolment Handling/Course Organiser

Jacob Wienecke E-mail address: wienecke@nexs.ku.dk

Written language

English

Exam form

Continuous assessment

Course workload

Course workload category	Hours
Lectures	14.00
Preparation	50.00
Theoretical exercises	26.00

Sum	90.00

Content

Course description
The field of motor and cognitive neuroscience is progressing rapidly due to its diverse application in health, education and wellbeing. The course will cover the field’s main theories regarding
the interlinked neural basis of motor and cognitive abilities. In addition, it aims to train students on best research practices for the investigation of these concepts in their own work across varied contexts. The course takes a neurobiological and methodological perspective to understand:

1) How cognitive functions like memory, language, emotions, and attention contribute to motor performance.
2) How physical activity and motor-enriched learning support brain function and cognitive performance.
3) How to maintain transparency, credibility and integrity in projects to maximize research outputs.

The course promotes an integrated level of understanding and attempts to connect behavior with brain network dynamics and underlying molecular changes both on the theoretical and methodological levels. To achieve such understanding, students will be introduced to some of the major neuroscientific techniques that examine brain function at a macro, meso and micro level. They will also learn about the most pressing matters regarding methodology throughout the research lifecycle – critical engagement with the literature, research design, data management, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of outcomes.

Objectives
KNOWLEDGE:
• Explain of how physical activity and motor-enriched learning can benefit cognitive performance based on current neuroscientific knowledge about brain-body interactions.
• Describe how attention, executive function, memory and language critically influence motor performance and give examples for the neural networks that mediate their influence.
• Describe the advantages and limitations of neuroscientific research methods commonly used for studying the neural implementation of behaviour.
• Acknowledge the brains multilevel organization by classifying and inter-connecting neuroscientific explanation in terms of single neurons, local networks to whole-brain dynamics and motor performance.
• Recognise the issue of questionable research practices in neuroscience and explain how they can be prevented.

SKILLS:
• Draft a valid experimental design aimed at investigating a neuroscientific research question related to the content of the course. Communicate experimental results and be able to discuss them in relation to the existing neurophysiological knowledge.
• Translate theoretical neuroscientific knowledge to practical applications by designing and improving training plans based on neuroscientific insights.
• Acquire at least one new methodological skill to improve research in practice, e.g. assessing bias in literature, pre-registration of hypotheses, reproducible workflows, data management planning, sharing data and/or methodology, application of linear models.

COMPETENCIES:
• Discuss and evaluate the current evidence for the effect of physical activity on brain function.
• Critically relate micro-meso- and macro levels of neuroscientific explanation with each other and discuss how they can contribute to understanding human behavior.
• Elaborate how neuroscientific research can contribute to improving cognitive and motor abilities in practice Apply advanced methodological solutions to ensure transparency and integrity of research projects
• Apply a critical approach for the evaluation of findings in literature and own research projects

Enrolment guidelines

Here is the programme of the course.

Literature

Selected chapters of ‘Principles of Neural Science’ (Kandel ER, Schwartz JH, Jessell TM 2012, Siegelbaum SA, Hudspeth AJ. 5th ed. McGraw-Hill, New York. ISBN 0-07-139011-1) will form the basis of the course. The course book will be supplemented by scientific articles.
All literature will be made available on the course webpage prior to the course start.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching will include lectures, student presentations, group work and peer-assessment.

Lecturers

Guest Lecturers
Gustav Nilsonne
Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Gavin Buckingham
University of Exeter, United Kingdom

Myrto Mavilidi
University of Wollongong, Australia

Manuela Macedonia
University of Salzburg, Austria

Richard Carson
Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom

Marco Bove,
University of Geneva, Switzerland

Teachers from UCPH-SCIENCE
Associate Professor Jacob Wienecke
Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports

Associate Professor Jesper Lundby-Jensen
Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports

Associate Professor Anke Karabanov
Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports

Associate Professor Mark Schram Christensen
Department of Neuroscience

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