Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive neuroscience is the study of higher cognitive functions in humans and its underlying neural bases. By definition, it is an integrative area of study drawing principally from cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics. There are two broad directions which can be taken in this concentration—one is behavioral/experimental and the other is computational/modeling. In either case, the goal is to understand the nature of cognition from a neural perspective.

Concentration Advisor: Sheila Blumstein (Sheila_Blumstein@Brown.edu, 3-2849), and Bill Heindel (William_Heindel@Brown.edu, 3-9168).

Standard program for the ScB degree

Concentration Courses

A total of 16 courses are required for the concentration. Each student is required to pass 9 courses designed to introduce students to the foundations, systems level, and integrative aspects which uniquely define cognitive neuroscience; two laboratory courses; four elective courses; and either a senior seminar course (COGS 1950) or an independent research course. The laboratory and elective courses should fit within a particular theme or category such as general cognition, vision, language, or computational/modeling. The design of the concentration and selection of courses should be made in consultation with the faculty advisor.

Foundations:

• NEUR 0010, Introduction to Neuroscience
• MATH 0090, Introductory Calculus (or the equivalent)
• BIOL 0200, The Foundation of Living Systems
• COGS/PSYC 0090, Quantitative Methods in Psychology, APMA 1650, Statistical Inference, or PSYC 2060, Experimental Design
• COGS 0420, Human Cognition

Note: Students wishing to pursue a computational/modeling track are encouraged to take APMA 1650.

Systems Level and Integrative Courses:

• PSYC 0470, Brain Damage and the Mind
• NEUR 1030, Neural Systems
• NEUR 1660, Neural Basis of Cognition
• COGS 1280, Computational Cognitive Science or APMA 0410 Mathematic Methods in the Brain Sciences

Laboratory Courses

Students must choose two laboratory courses. Please note that due to enrollment limits in some lab courses, priority may be given to concentrators in that department. Students should therefore be prepared to choose from the other laboratory options.

• NEUR 1600, Experimental Neurobiology
• NEUR 1650, Structure of the Nervous System
• NEUR 1670, Neuropharmacology and Synaptic Transmission
• NEUR 1680, Computational Neuroscience
• PSYC 1030, Techniques in Physiological Psychology
• PSYC 1090, Research Methods in Psychology
• PSYC 1190, Human Sensory Processing
• PSYC 1200, Animal Learning and Behavior Laboratory
• PSYC 1540, Laboratory in Social Cognition
• COGS 1020, Neural Modeling Laboratory
• COGS 1240, Research Methods in Physiologic and Acoustic Phonetics
• COGS 1450, Research in Psycholinguistics
• COGS 1530, Laboratory in Cognitive Processes
• COGS 1610, Laboratory in Cognitive Development
• COGS 1970; NEUR 1970; or PSYC 1990, Independent Study (may be used for only one laboratory in either the biological or cognitive category)

Electives

Four additional courses around a particular theme. Normally only one elective course that is below the 1000-level may count towards the elective courses required. An appropriate (but additional) laboratory course may be used in lieu of one of the four elective courses.

– Primarily behavioral/experimental:

• COGS 0320, Biology and Evolution of Language
• COGS/PSYC 0440, Perception and Mind
• COGS 0450, Language and the Mind
• COGS 0480, Human Thinking and Problem Solving
• COGS 0500, Making Decisions
• COGS 0630, Children's Thinking: The Nature of Cognitive Development
• COGS 1050, Music and Mind (MUSC 1310)
• COGS 1180, Cognitive Development
• COGS 1190, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
• COGS 1200, Computational Vision
• COGS 1230, Production, Perception and Analysis of Speech
• COGS 1380, Ecological Approach to Perception and Action
• COGS 1410, Language Processing
• COGS 1420, Syntactic Theory and Syntactic Processing
• COGS 1430, Child Language Acquisition
• COGS 1440, Visualizing Vision
• COGS 1470, Language Learning Disorders
• COGS 1480, Language and the Brain
• COGS 1500, Subcortical Bases of Language and Thought
• COGS 1520, Thinking
• COGS 1540, The Evolution of Perceptual Systems
• COGS 1560, Human Memory and Learning
• COGS 1620, Cognitive Development
• COGS 1740, Topics in Language Acquisition
• COGS 1780, Psychological Acoustics
• COGS 1840B, Neuroimaging and Language
• COGS 1860B, 3D Shape Perception
• COGS 1870, Concepts and Categories
• COGS 1880, Reasoning and Problem Solving
• COGS 1940, The Cognitive and Neural Basis of Higher-level Vision
• NEUR 0650, Biology of Hearing
• NEUR 0660, Biology of Vision
• NEUR 1680, Computational Neuroscience
• NEUR 1710, Neuroimaging
• NEUR 1930A, Cognitive Neuroscience: Motor Learning
• NEUR 1930B, From Neurophysiology to Perception
• NEUR 1930F, Brain Interfaces for Humans
• NEUR 1940A, Cognitive Neuroscience
• PSYC 0270, Basic Perception
• PSYC 0440, Perception and Mind
• PSYC 0750, Principles of Behavioral Neuroscience
• PSYC 0810, Child Development
• PSYC 0940, Developmental Psychopathology
• PSYC 1010, Psychopharmacology
• PSYC 1020, Psychophysiology of Sleep and Dreams
• PSYC 1400, Human Memory
• PSYC 1780, Psychological Acoustics
• PSYC 1790, Psychology of Timing
• PSYC 1800, Animal Cognition
• PSYC 1810, Seminar in Cognitive Neuroscience
• PSYC 1820, Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion
• PSYC 1850, Motion Perception
• BIOL 0450, Animal Behavior

– Primarily Computational/Modeling:

Students are advised to take APMA 0330 (Methods of Applied Analysis I) and APMA 0340 (Methods of Applied Analysis II) as their two supporting science courses. Note that MATH 0100 is a prerequisite for these courses.

• NEUR 1680, Computational Neuroscience
• APMA 0100, Introduction to Modeling
• APMA 1360, Topics in Chaotic Dynamics
• COGS 1360, Introduction to Computational Linguistics
• CSCI 1410, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
• CSCI 1480, Building Intelligent Robots
• ENGN 1220, Neuroengineering

Honors

Students who would like to pursue a degree with honors are normally expected to have a B+ average within the concentration and are required to satisfactorily complete a written thesis and an oral defense.

Page last updated in February, 2008.

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