Research Master's in Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Neuroscience track
The Neuroscience track offers a strong biologically oriented but multidisciplinary approach to neuroscience. It covers all biological aspects of human and animal brain processes - neuronal excitability, neuronal network analysis and organization of larger brain structures. The topics studied range from genetics to stress and from single cell analysis to the relation between large brain structures. They cover the wide range of biological disciplines that collaborate in brain studies: anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, (molecular) cell biology, genetics, informatics and computation. The student will study plasticity of the brain, brain development, brain aging, and the pathophysiology of brain disorders (schizophrenia, epilepsy, dementia, and so on).
The strong foundation in biology, physics and mathematics allows to include computational and systems approaches at all levels of aggregation. The main focus is on understanding brain functions in its broadest biological sense using state-of-the-art technology via in-depth experimental training in the research lab.
Cognitive Neuroscience track
The focus of the cognitive neuroscience track is on a neuroscientific approach to cognition. It is also firmly rooted in biology and focuses on how the brain processes information to enable complex cognitive functions. Besides fundamental neuroscience disciplines, brain imaging, systems neurophysiology and computation are strongly represented here. A question characteristic for this track is: “how do neural processes such as spikes and synaptic plasticity give rise to memory, conscious perception and behavioural decisions?”
The track aims at understanding how the brain implements cognitive processes by studying information processing in the healthy, active brain, but also by computer stimulation and interventional approaches targeting causal functions. In this track the pathological brain is equally captivating as the healthy brain and will be high-lighted by studying neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Cognitive Science track
The Cognitive Science track is characterized by its strong interdisciplinary focus on cognition and by its emphasis on a broad overview of mind/brain theories and knowledge. It provides courses and research opportunities into perception, learning and memory, thinking and problem-solving, knowledge representation, action control and language. The track focuses on cognitive processes involved in language production, comprehension and acquisition, the architecture and evolution of the language faculty, and its role in reasoning and communication.
The Cognitive Science track cuts across traditional boundaries between disciplines contributing to an understanding of cognition and the brain. The program is at the nexus of disciplines asking how the human mind deals with acquiring, storing, using, and expressing knowledge of the world that surrounds us, and how these faculties are mediated by the brain.
Last update 15 november 2010
Background picture by Pieter Goltstein