Neuroscience explores how the brain and nervous system function to generate behavior, emotion and cognition. Neuroscience is highly interdisciplinary, integrating biology, psychology, chemistry, physics and computer science. Exploring the complexity of the nervous system requires analyses at multiple levels. Neuroscientists investigate how genes and molecules regulate nerve cell function (cellular/molecular neuroscience), explore how neural systems produce integrated behaviors (behavioral neuroscience), seek to understand how neural substrates create mental processes and thought (cognitive neuroscience) and use mathematics and computer models to comprehend brain function (computational neuroscience). In studying how the brain and nervous system function normally, neuroscientists also hope to better understand devastating neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Neuroscience was implemented as a new interdisciplinary major in 1999, replacing the Psychobiology Program and providing a strong foundation in neuroscience and related courses.

Our students benefit from small classes and investigative labs in their introductory and advanced courses.

Our majors graduate with a liberal arts background and a strong foundation in neuroscience which allows them to proceed to medical school or attend top-ranked graduate neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology Ph.D. programs, including UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Duke, and Northwestern.

The best proof of the success of the Neuroscience Program:

• 60 percent of our graduates proceed to medical school;
• 20 percent of our graduates continue on with graduate work in neuroscience, psychology, or neuropsychology;
• 10 percent of our graduates pursue careers that intersect with neuroscience?for example, patent law or work in the biotech industry.