This major provides a strong background in the biological underpinnings of behavior and cognition. It is intended for students who plan to pursue a career in neuroscience or a related discipline. Students electing this major are exposed to basic courses in Biology and Psychology and to advanced courses in neuroscience and behavior. Majors must choose one of two areas of concentration. The behavior concentration places greater emphasis on behavioral and systems neuroscience, while the cellular concentration places greater emphasis on cellular and molecular neuroscience.

All majors engage in two semesters of research while taking the Senior Research Seminar. In the junior year, majors must begin developing a plan for the senior research project. There is a meeting for junior majors during the spring semester to begin this process.

Neuroscience and Behavior majors must have completed the introductory courses in Biology, Chemistry, and Psychology by the beginning of their junior year, and maintained at least a B- average in those courses.

There are no minors in Neuroscience and Behavior.

The Program Planning meeting for the Spring 2010 semester will be on 28 October (a Wed) at 12:30 in Alt 903. Pizza will be served.

Recent Publications by NAB Faculty

Ward RD, Kellendonk C, Simpson EH, Lipatova O, Drew MR, Fairhurst S, Kandel ER, Balsam PD (2009) Impaired timing precision produced by striatal D2 receptor overexpression is mediated by cognitive and motivational deficits.  Behav Neurosci 123(4): 720-30

Duvarci S, Bauer EP, Paré D (2009) The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis mediates inter-individual variations in anxiety and fear.  J Neurosci 29(33): 10357-61

Spector AC, Glendinning JI (2009) Linking peripheral taste processes to behavior.  Curr Opin Neurobiol. 19(4): 370-7

Huey RB, Deutsch CA, Tewksbury JJ, Vitt LJ, Hertz PE, Álvarez Pérez HJ, Garland T, Jr (2009) Why tropical forest lizards are vulnerable to climate warming. Proc. R. Soc. B 276(1664): 1939-48

Ernst M, Romeo RD, Andersen SL (2009) Neurobiology of the development of motivated behaviors in adolescence: a window into a neural systems model.  Pharmacol Biochem Behav 93(3): 199-211

LeSauter J, Hoque N, Weintraub M, Pfaff DW, Silver R (2009) Stomach ghrelin-secreting cells as food-entrainable circadian clocks.  Proc Natl Acad Sci USA  106(32): 13582-7