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Module Aims and Content:

The aim of this module is to review advances in our understanding of mental disease from a neurobiological perspective drawn mainly from animal research but also human studies.

‘Mental-health conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders, schizophrenia and depres­sion, affect one in four people worldwide. Depression is the third leading contributor to the global burden of disease, according to the World Health Organization. Neuroscience is providing unprecedented informa­tion about processes that can result in, or relieve, dysfunctional behaviour. Such work is probing the flexibility of memory storage, the degree to which emotions and memories can be dissociated, and the selective neural pathways that seem to be crucial for highly specialized aspects of the emotional landscape and can be switched on and off experimentally’ (Holmes et al., 2014). The aim of this module will be to review these advances in our understanding of mental disease from a neurobiological perspective drawn mainly from animal research but including human studies.

The lecture series will cover the genetics of mental disease risk, the epigenetic influence of trauma and early life experience, the neurobiology of depression, recent research on fear and anxiety, addiction and impulsivity, schizophrenia (from a molecular and developmental perspective), sleep and insomnia, and will explore the molecular roots of dementia (particularly associated with problems of learning and memory). There will also be short presentations of on-going research in the department into autism and also cocaine addiction. Research using information derived from genetics, epigenetics, optogenetics and molecular genetics will be reviewed in a neurobiological context with the ultimate aim of a more mechanistic understanding of mental disease.

At the end of the module, students will have a sound conceptual understanding of the molecular basis for human neuropsychiatric disorders, derived from the current research literature.

The module is an option for iBSc Anatomy, Cell and Developmental Biology students and may be taken as an elective by students (including affiliate students) on other degree programmes with a neuroscience background.

Indicative lecture list (based on a typical year's syllabus):

• Epigenetics I:Ìý Nature v Nurture, Mechanisms;
• Epigenetics II: Nature v Nurture;
• Environmental impact and mental health;
• Genetics of Mental Disease;
• The Neurobiology of Depression;
• Psychedelic Drugs as Therapeutic Agent;
• New therapeutic approaches in Psychiatry: Deep brain stimulation;
• The Neurobiology of Drug Addiction;
• Learning and Memory;Ìý
• Fear and Anxiety;
• Neurobiology of Schizophrenia;
• Dissociation.

Module organizers: Prof. Stephen Hunt (hunt@ucl.ac.uk) and Dr Sandrine Geranton (sandrine.geranton@ucl.ac.uk).