- Department: Psychology
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
- See module specification for other years: 2022-23
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 2 2023-24 |
This module will cover:
the cognitive neuroscience of how we process threats (i.e. something that is a real or imagined danger)
how differences in threat-processing might lead to anxiety disorders (such as phobias or generalized anxiety disorder)
how traumatic events might change how we experience threats
how understanding the above factors can inform intervention and clinical practice
The existence of threatening situations, stimuli or events is unfortunately a fact of life. Differences in how we process threats (and, indeed, in our thresholds for processing something as a threat) may result in anxiety disorders, which are globally some of the most common and debilitating mental illnesses. Relatedly, traumatic events may also change how we process threats.
The aim of this module is to allow students to understand how threats are processed, both cognitively and neurobiologically, and how threat processing may go awry. A subsidiary aim is to consider how this might change after traumatic experiences. At the end of the module, we will discuss how this knowledge can be applied to treatments for both anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder, and the limitations and strengths of our current approaches for understanding the brain.
This module will be relevant to all students interested in understanding anxiety from a cognitive neuroscience perspective, and to all those interested in further clinical work or research in anxiety or PTSD.
Outline theories of how threat is processed in the brain, and relate these to clinical conditions such as phobia and generalised anxiety disorder
Describe relevant constructs and their relationships: anxiety, fear, childhood maltreatment, trauma, threat processing, PTSD
Summarise how threat processing may be affected by traumatic experiences
Explain brain areas and/or circuits that may be altered after childhood maltreatment or trauma, paediatric PTSD, and adult PTSD
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Online Exam -less than 24hrs (Centrally scheduled) | 100 |
None
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Online Exam -less than 24hrs (Centrally scheduled) | 100 |
All marks will be released via e:vision.
Robinson, O. J., Pike, A. C., Cornwell, B., & Grillon, C. (2019). The translational neural circuitry of anxiety. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 90(12), 1353-1360.
Hein, T. C., & Monk, C. S. (2017). Research Review: Neural response to threat in children, adolescents, and adults after child maltreatment–a quantitative meta-analysis. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 58(3), 222-230.