Denmark: Neuroscience of Fear

Instructor: Drs. Jennifer Hansen and Alex Schreiber

Dates: May 22- June 13

Costs: Cost: $4,780 + airfare*

Listing: Psych 247/Bio 247/Nrsci 247/Phil 247

Units: 1 SLU Unit/3.6 Credits

Course Description: We will examine comparatively the fear response in humans from an evolutionary point of view and an existentialist-philosophical point of view in order to unearth the various assumptions of the purpose and role of a basic emotion.  We will further examine how fear affects political and economic decisions to further analyze the significance of fear in advanced industrial cultures.  Finally, we will end the course with some important neuro-ethics implications of the theoretical paradigms we adopt to understand fear, specifically, we will consider whether or not we should re-engineer human beings to either eliminate the fear response or simply treat it pharmacologically when it becomes chronic anxiety.

*This is an estimated cost for the program, and is subject to change.