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Neuroscience

The Neuroscience Program provides an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental approach to graduate education and research training in the structure, function, and development of the nervous system and its role in cognition and behavior. Students obtain training at all levels of the nervous system, from cellular/molecular to behavioral/cognitive.

Graduate Program

The Neuroscience Program offers a Ph.D. in neuroscience.

Doctor of Philosophy

The Doctor of Philosophy in neuroscience requires a minimum of 72 s.h. of graduate credit. The program's curriculum is designed around three tracks: molecular/cellular, developmental/systems, and cognitive/behavioral. Following broad-based instruction in a core curriculum, students specialize in one of the tracks.

Within a framework of core, track-specific, and elective courses, each student pursues a program of study individually designed according to his or her undergraduate training and graduate research goals. After enrolling in the Neuroscience Program, entering students consult with the advisory committee regarding their level of preparation for the program's required courses.

The Student Advisory Committee meets with all first- and second-year graduate students once each semester, helping each student explore his or her research interests and select faculty mentors for the required laboratory rotations. Each student is expected to complete three rotations in faculty laboratories before selecting a thesis advisor. Rotations ordinarily last 12 weeks but may last from 8 to 16 weeks. Under special circumstances, two rotations may be in the same laboratory, an arrangement that permits the student to learn a variety of techniques and approaches before settling down to work on the dissertation project. Students usually choose a dissertation lab at the end of their first year.

BACKGROUND REQUIREMENTS

Students are expected to demonstrate competency, through prerequisites or course work, in each of four fields: biochemistry, general physiology, cell biology, and statistics. These requirements ordinarily should be fulfilled by the end of the first year of graduate study. Waivers of background course requirements may be requested by students who have taken equivalent courses before entering the neuroscience program.

NEUROSCIENCE CORE

The following courses form the core of the neuroscience graduate curriculum. 

In addition, students register for the following two courses each semester. 

ELECTIVES

Elective requirements may be met with three or more courses from a list of courses offered by the Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Biology, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Pharmacology, Psychology, and other departments as appropriate. Students must take electives in at least two of the program's three tracks, ensuring that they receive advanced training both in their area of specialization and in related areas of neuroscience. With permission of the Student Advisory Committee, students may satisfy the elective requirement wholly or in part by registration in 132:301 Directed Study in Neuroscience.

Admission

Applicants must meet the admission requirements of the Graduate College; see the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College or the Graduate College section of the Catalog.

For information about predoctoral training opportunities in neuroscience, contact the Neuroscience Program or visit its web site.

Financial Support

Full-time Neuroscience Program students receive stipends and full tuition scholarships through fellowships and research assistantships. Awards are renewed annually, based on continued satisfactory progress and availability of funds. The standard stipend for graduate students is $24,250 for 2009-10.

The Neuroscience Program is committed to supporting its graduate students for their entire training period. Students normally are supported in the first year by the program. After that, support is expected to come from the student's primary research mentor. Occasionally, advanced students are supported through teaching assistantships. Tuition is paid for all students.

NIH Training Grant

The Neuroscience Program is supported by a training grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant provides stipend and tuition support for a select group of first- and second-year graduate students.

Facilities

Training is conducted primarily in the laboratories and teaching facilities of the Carver College of Medicine graduate Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, and Pharmacology; clinical Departments of Internal Medicine, Neurology, and Psychiatry; and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences graduate Departments of Biology, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Integrative Physiology, and Psychology. Students use faculty laboratories and central research facilities for ultrastructural analysis; histochemistry and immunocytochemistry; electrophysiology; fluorescence-activated cell sorting; cellular and subcellular biochemistry; cell, tissue, and organ culture; operant and classical conditioning; molecular biology; behavioral genetics; neural substrates of complex behavior; brain-behavior relationships in humans; neuropsychology; and functional neuroimaging (PET, fMRI).