Behavioral Neuroscience
Behavioral neuroscience is concerned with how the brain controls behavior, and the task of the behavioral neuroscientist is to explain behavior in physiological terms. The behavioral neuroscientist must be expert in both behavior and neuroscience. The student will receive training in behavioral theory and technique and in a broad range of neuroscience topics, including neurotransmission, sensory systems (vision, audition, somatosensory, vestibular, olfaction, gustation), motor systems, regulatory systems (food/water intake, thermal regulation, sexual behavior, sleep), and higher cognitive functions (learning/memory, emotion, language). Research within the department is conducted in many of these areas including: visual systems, developmental psychobiology, emotional behavior, learning/memory, spatial orientation, pain and addiction, neurotransmitter systems, and the effects of hormones on behavior.
Cognitive Neuroscience
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.
Cognitive Science
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/Personality Psychology
Social and personality psychologists study how individuals act in their social worlds. Traditional topics range from individual processes that form the basis of social interaction (e.g., person perception, attitude formation and change) to social relationships and group dynamics. The faculty within our department are active researchers on the topics of self and identity, self-regulation, personality structure, social neuroscience, mood and emotion, and nonverbal social behavior. Although much of this research involves experimental designs in laboratory settings, research is also conducted using a variety of experimental and nonexperimental designs in applied settings.
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