Behavioral neuroscience is focused on neural systems and mechanisms that control behavior. The task of the behavioral neuroscientist is to explain behavior in physiological terms, and he/she must be expert in both behavior and neurobiology. Thus, PhD students in behavioral neuroscience will receive multidisciplinary training in behavioral theory and technique and in a broad range of neuroscience topics, including neurotransmission, neurophysiology, sensory and motor systems, regulatory and reward processes, and higher cognitive functions. Many important areas of research are represented by the behavioral neuroscience faculty and are funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and other agencies. Examples include neural basis of attention, decision making and executive control of behavior, spatial cognition, learning and memory, developmental psychobiology, emotion, hormonal regulation of social behaviors, sensory processing, and pain and addiction. Researchers use a variety of complementary and cutting-edge behavioral and neurobiological methods including in vivo single and multi-channel electrophysiology, neuroanatomical and histochemical techniques, neuropharmacology, and sophisticated behavioral analysis. Students also have the opportunity to participate in interdisciplinary research with faculty in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and through collaborations with the Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth. Doctoral students in behavioral neuroscience also receive training in research ethics and professional scientific skills, such as grant writing and teaching.
The field of cognitive neuroscience is concerned with how the brain controls the mind. The exploration of the mind is interdisciplinary, and includes scholars from areas such as computer science, biology, neurology, psychiatry, physics, linguistics, and philosophy. Research areas include the structures of cognition, perception and encoding, higher perceptual functions, attention and selective perception, memory, language, cerebral lateralization and specialization, motor skills, executive function and the frontal lobes, cognitive development and plasticity, evolutionary perspectives on the brain, and the problem of consciousness. An interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience is available through the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
The study of cognition encompasses the study of perception, attention, performance, memory, language and thought. Sub-areas of strength within the cognition/perception group in our department include vision, audition, language, memory, decision-making, and cognitive neuroscience. Methodological approaches represented within the group span experimental studies of human subjects (including neurological patients) as well as computational, neural net and mathematical modeling.
Social psychologists study how individuals think and act in their social worlds. The faculty within our department are active researchers on the topics of self-regulation, social cognition, mood and emotion, health behaviors, and social perception. The social psychology program at Dartmouth emphasizes understanding the social brain using neuroscience methods such as functional and structural brain imaging and evoked brain potentials. In addition, research is conducted using a variety of experimental and nonexperimental designs in laboratory and applied settings. Many research projects in this area are supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (e.g., NIDA, NIMH, NIA) and the National Science Foundation. Graduate students often collaborate with other faculty in the social brain sciences interest group, which includes faculty in cognitive neuroscience, education, and philosophy, as well as faculty from the medical school.
