STS.010
Neuroscience and Society
Spring 2010
This course explores the social relevance of neuroscience, considering how emerging areas of brain research at once reflect and reshape social attitudes and agendas. Topics include brain imaging and popular media; neuroscience of empathy, trust, and moral reasoning; new fields of neuroeconomics and neuromarketing; ethical implications of neurotechnologies such as cognitive enhancement pharmaceuticals; neuroscience in the courtroom; and neuroscientific recasting of social problems such as addiction and violence. Guest lectures by neuroscientists, class discussion, and weekly readings in neuroscience, popular media, and science studies.
Readings
- LEC #: 1 · TOPICS: Introduction · READINGS: No readings.
- Harrington, Anne. “The Brain and the Behavioral Sciences.” In The Cambridge History of Science: Vol. 6, The Modern Biological and Earth Sciences. Edited by Peter J. Bowler and John V. Pickstone. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780521572019.
- Gould, Stephen Jay. “Measuring Heads: Paul Broca and the Heyday of Craniology.” Chapter 3 in The Mismeasure of Man . New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1996. ISBN: 9780393314250.
- Guest Lecture by Hans Breiter, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital
- Dumit, Joseph. “Travelling Images, Popularizing Brains.” Introduction and chapter 5, in Picturing Personhood: Brain Scans and Biomedical Identity . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780691113982.
- Montague, Read. Chapter 1 in Your Brain is (Almost) Perfect: How We Make Decisions . New York, NY: Plume/Penguin Group, 2007. ISBN: 9780452288843.
- Guest lecture by Susan Lanzoni, PhD
- Rizzolatti, Giacomo, et al. “Mirror Neurons and Autism.” Scientific American , November 2006.
- Iacoboni, Marco. “Neuropolitics.” Chapter 10 in Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others . New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2008. ISBN: 9780374210175.
- Ramachandran, V. S., and Sandra Blakeslee. “God and the Limbic System.” Chapter 9 in Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind . New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1999. ISBN: 9780688172176.
- Brizendine, Louann. “Love and Trust.” Chapter 3 in The Female Brain . New York, NY: Broadway Books/Random House, 2007. ISBN: 9780767920100.
- Fausto-Sterling, Anne. “Sexing the Brain: How Biologists Make A Difference.” Chapter 5 in Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality . New York, NY: Basic Books, 2000. ISBN: 9780465077144.
- Brizendine, Louann. “What Makes Us Women,” and “The Birth of the Female Brain.” Introduction and Chapter 1 in The Female Brain . New York, NY: Broadway Books/Random House, 2007. ISBN: 9780767920100.
- Restak, Richard M. D. “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era.” Chapter 3 in The New Brain . Emmaus, PA: Rodale Books, 2004. ISBN: 9781594860546.
- Harrington, Anne. “Broken by Modern Life.” Chapter 4 in The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine . New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2009. ISBN: 9780393333978.
- Gould, Stephen Jay. “Measuring Bodies: Two Case Studies on the Apishness of Undesirables.” Chapter 4 in The Mismeasure of Man . New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1996. ISBN: 9780393314250.
- Guest lecture by Ruth Greenberg, Esq.
- Dumit, Joseph. “Ways of Seeing Brains as Expert Images.” Chapter 4 in Picturing Personhood: Brain Scans and Biomedical Identity . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780691113982.
- Guest lecture by Monty Brower, M.D.
- Valenstein, Elliot S. Great and Desperate Cures . Chapters 9 and 13. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780465027101.
- Kramer, Peter D. Listening to Prozac . Introduction and chapter 1. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1997. ISBN: 9780140266719.
- Guest lecture by Emily Wanderer, graduate student in MIT Science, Techology and Society
- Guest speaker: Nate Greenslit, PhD
- Montague, Read. “How Neurons Generate Preference.” Chapter 7 in Your Brain is (Almost) Perfect: How We Make Decisions . New York, NY: A Plume Book/Penguin Group, 2007. ISBN: 9780452288843.
- Editorial. “Brain Scam?” Nature Neuroscience 7, no. 7 (2004): 683.
- Brammer, Michael. Letter to the Editors: “Brain Scam?” Nature Neuroscience 7, no. 10 (2004): 1015.
- “Open Your Mind: The Ethics of Brain Science.” The Economist . May 23, 2002.
- Kennedy, D. “Neuroscience and Neuroethics.” Science 306, no. 5695 (2004): 373.
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗Historical OpenCourseWare
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.