The Neuroscience of Love

This material provides students with an advanced introduction to empirical findings, methods, and theoretical perspectives from the field of social interaction using comparative neurophysiology. The main purpose of this material is for students to acquire knowledge on both neurological and physiological regulatory systems that mediate the social interaction. The secondary aim is for students to develop their critical appraisal of how early social interaction between infants and their caregivers influence typical and atypical development in humans. Topics will include: (i) research methods in comparative neurophysiology; (ii) historical precursors: Lorenz, Harlow & Bowlby; (iii) parenting in mammalian species; (iv) neural and hormonal bases of social interaction; (v) how early social interaction social and romantic interactions; (vi) technological applications to enhance and monitor social interactions.