Brendan Depue, PhD
Dr. Depue has a broad background in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, with specific training and expertise in neuroimaging. He currently studies regulatory mechanisms of the prefrontal cortex and putative control over brain regions that underlie cognition, emotion and motor behavior. He uses empirical evidence from healthy individuals to construct theoretical functional-neuroanatomical models and subsequently, tests them by translating these models to psychiatric populations. He has examined the inhibitory mechanisms of self- or inhibitory-regulation in both attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the last 10 years.
Curriculum
Introduction to Neuroimaging Analysis
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive method for observing the living human brain at work. This course will serve as an introduction to neuroimaging methods, introducing students to the preprocessing and analysis of fMRI data, including univariate and multivariate techniques. In addition to acquiring a conceptual understanding of the material, students will engage in hands-on workshop sessions of neuroimaging data.
Functional and Structural Brain Anatomy (Topics in Neuroimaging)
The human brain presents a puzzling and challenging paradox: Despite a fixed anatomy, characterized by its connectivity, its functional repertoire is vast, enabling action, perception, and cognition. This course will examine the organization of broad functional neural networks and how they relate to anatomy. These topics will be covered from a cognitive neuroscience perspective using recent review and neuroimaging literature.
Neurobiological Basis of Personality
Our behavior and brains are ubiquitously tied to one another. Although, neuroimaging use has been slow to understand how personality is associated with both the behavior and brain, neurobiological models and recent neuroimaging work, suggests core personality traits are decent predictors of both behavior and neurobiological mechanisms.
Brain and Behavior
Every behavior---sleep, eating, sex, play, aggression---has a specific biology and corresponding unique brain circuitry/activity. This course will give you an understanding of how the brain and nervous system work (i.e., neurophysiology and anatomy). You will learn about brain activity and biology related to vision/sensation, movement, learning and memory, emotion, cognition, reproduction, and sleep.