Project Details
Description
Project Summary / Abstract. Breakthroughs in our understanding of how the brain generates simple and
complex behavior and how it malfunctions in neurological disease and pyschopathology require researchers
who have a strong foundation in neuroscience and a deep understanding of the evolutionary contingencies of
human neurobiology and behavior. Since its inception in 1978, the Neural Systems and Behavior (NS&B)
course at the MBL in Woods Hole, MA, has been the premier course for this kind of interdisciplinary training in
multi-level analysis of brain-behavior relationships. NS&B is an intensive, eight-week summer course that
combines lectures, laboratory exercises, and student-directed research in a unique learning environment. The
twenty course students typically come from diverse disciplines including neuroscience, animal behavior,
psychology, mathematics, computer science, physics, and engineering. They range in their prior training from
first year Ph.D. students to faculty members who are changing fields. The rigorous lectures by the best
teachers and researchers in the field provide a solid foundation for understanding a wide range of subjects,
from the basics of molecular genetics and neurogenomics to electrophysiology and signal processing, and
even cognition. Visiting scholars provide further exposure to the most recent breakthroughs in the study of the
neural basis of behavior and cognition. During the next funding period, NS&B will place particular emphasis on
recruiting excellent basic and translational scientist scholars whose research is informing advances in
understanding the neurobiology of mental illness as well as increasing the integration of molecular and imaging
approaches into the course exercises and research tools. Lunch discussions about science, ethics, and career
development constitute integral parts of the course. The laboratory exercises (modules) constitute the core of
the course and occupy the majority of the students’ time, providing the students with hands-on experience
using state of the art equipment addressing cutting-edge problems. The course is divided into four two-week
cycles with different laboratory modules and sets of faculty, each building upon the prior experiences of the
course. The modules encourage investigations at multiple levels of biological organization. To maximize
learning of research concepts and techniques, the course uses an array of organisms and preparations to
teach techniques and address questions relevant to behavior, the functioning of neural systems, and neural
disease. By the end of each two-week cycle, the students have not only mastered complex techniques, they
also have collected and analyzed data from a research project that they conceived and designed. The
creativity and diversity of these projects are a singular feature of the NS&B course and have never been
replicated in any other educational setting. Students find NS&B to be a life-changing event, not only because it
is intellectually challenging and provides hands on training but also because of the uniquely supportive
environment and networking opportunities that have been hallmarks of the course since its inception.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 7/1/98 → 3/31/24 |
Funding
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH: $212,956.00
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH: $212,956.00
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