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Prerequisites: (PSYC BC2119) or (PSYC BC3362)

This course explores behavioral neuroscience through a guided reading and discussion of recent scientific literature involving research in two “opposite” behaviors, sexual courtship and aggression. These are complex social behaviors that are highly conserved across species. Although some of their features are species-specific, there are broad similarities throughout the animal kingdom. Complex interactions between genes, environmental signals, and hormones influence the development and manifestation of these behaviors, but the core circuitries involved appear to be pre-wired in the nervous system, as animals with no previous social experience can engage in normal encounters that are characterized by stereotyped behavioral patterns. The study of innate social behaviors in genetically tractable organisms offers unique opportunities to identify underlying neuronal circuitry, understand how this circuitry is genetically specified and elucidate the contributions of neuronal sexual dimorphism.