Until 5 August a group of 26 students will participate in the eighth edition of the “Harvard Summer Program in Mind/Brain Sciences” at CIMeC’s laboratories at the University of Trento
A unique opportunity for neuroscience enthusiasts: eight weeks to fall in love with the mind and brain. That’s the plan of the Harvard Summer Program in Mind/Brain Sciences, which will offer excellent teaching and networking, lessons, lab work from Monday to Thursday, and mountain treks, afternoons at the lake, visits to Italian cities and other day trips to learn about Italian art, culture and traditions. This in-house experience involves 26 students from the universities of Harvard, Yale and Trento, who will stay at the San Bartolameo hall of residence. The goal of the summer school is to make sure that the students learn to love the charming and complex world of the mind and brain, and will love it forever. Students who participated in the previous editions have left very positive feedback, saying that the teaching staff was fantastic and shared their enthusiasm and passion for research. In particular, they have appreciated the social and leisure aspects of the program, and recommended it to others.
The initiative includes a very diversified program of lessons with neuroscientists and cognitive scientists from Harvard University (USA) and Goldsmiths University in London (UK), and experimental activities with researchers from the University of Trento.
The summer program, which started on 10 June, is designed to provide students with basic notions of neuroscience and the scientific knowledge necessary to explore other subjects in the area. There will be lectures and laboratory work (on neuroimaging for example): students will conduct research in the field of cognitive science and participate in experiments, collaborating and exchanging views with CIMeC’s researchers. “Finestre sulla struttura della mente e del cervello” and “La magia e la mente” are the titles of the courses scheduled for 2017: in the latter case, magical illusions will be the occasion to discuss the latest progress in understanding the mind through psychology and cognitive neuroscience. The course explores the psychological illusions magicians use to trick our mind, so students will learn how the brain works and what its limits are.
The project was started by the Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative in 1993 in Harvard to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to research and academic activities, to understand the structure, function, evolution, development, and ageing of the brain, and its disorders in the light of human behavior, genetics, society. The summer program is organized by the Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative and the Harvard Summer School with collaboration from the University of Trento, under the supervision of Alfonso Caramazza (Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and visiting professor at the University of Trento). John A. Assad (Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School) and Gustav Kuhn (Reader in Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London) are part of the teaching staff.
The website of the Summer School: events.unitn.it/en/harvard-sp2017