太阳城网赌平台将于明年秋天在心理学系开设神经科学专业, 使本科生能够在一个跨学科的性质和应用领域获得一个以太阳城官网为重点的学位,这个领域越来越受到大学生的欢迎.

BC管理人员和教师表示,建立神经科学学士学位专业解决了学生长期以来对该项目的需求, capitalizes on departmental strengths, and puts the University on par with many peer institutions. Neuroscience, they add, offers compelling subject matter for a Jesuit, 天主教大学,以文科为基础的课程,倡导跨学科的工作和对人类状况的关注.

John Christianson

心理学百五十周年助理教授约翰·克里斯蒂安森领导了设计该专业的委员会. (Gary Wayne Gilbert)

Through the major, 学生将更好地了解与思维和行为有关的大脑功能的生物学基础. 该课程有生物和化学的必修课程以及选修的自然科学必修课程, and emphasizes exposure to hands-on, laboratory science. Students will take courses that are related to evolution, genetics, physiology, neurobiology, and the neural basis of higher cognitive and emotional processes in humans.

While the program has a scientific orientation, 管理人员和教师指出,神经科学与护理等领域有关, social work, mathematics, economics, philosophy, even history. 

“在很多情况下,大脑是如何工作的,这是我们最感兴趣的——比如我们在金钱方面做出决定的方式, work, family, or love,吉安尼诺家族一百五十周年心理学助理教授约翰·克里斯蒂安森说, who led the committee that designed the major. “Neuroscience is a means to understand the chemistry of the brain, to make connections between biology and behavior. And it’s still very much a new field, perhaps 50 years old, so we’re only just starting to crack the code.”

Professor Elizabeth Kensinger, the department chair, 她说,该专业“将使学生成为批判性思考者,因为他们反思的主题是人类经验的核心:我们如何从我们的经验中学习。? How do brain cells give rise to thought and behavior? 从我们所看到的到我们对待他人的行为,环境是如何影响一切的? 行为的哪些方面是容易控制的,哪些方面是无意识的?”

She adds, 学生们将了解到,尽管有多种安全提示,但当人们对恐惧做出反应时,神经元的记录如何揭示出出错的过程. They will learn how early life experiences, and the effects of those experiences on brain development, can have lasting consequences on decision-making and behavior. 他们将了解让过去事件的神经痕迹作为记忆持续存在的过程, and they will consider the implications when that memory is erroneous or incomplete.”

在很多情况下,大脑是如何工作的都是我们最感兴趣的——比如我们在金钱问题上的决策方式, work, family, or love. Neuroscience is a means to understand the chemistry of the brain, to make connections between biology and behavior.
吉安尼诺家族一百五十周年心理学助理教授约翰·克里斯蒂安森

Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Dean Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., hails the addition of the neuroscience major. “这与我们专注于整合和跨学科教学与太阳城官网的使命非常契合. 神经科学专业的学生将培养对一系列学科之间重要联系的认识, which contributes to our Jesuit, Catholic mission of developing an integrated sense of the wholeness of knowledge.  新专业也与我们的愿望相联系,即促进综合科学太阳城官网,以服务于健康,作为共同利益的一个方面.”

在过去的几十年里,神经科学是学术界发展最快的学科之一.S. tripled from 1996 to 2006 alone, 而在2006-2015年间,神经科学核心期刊的数量从11种增加到22种. BC’s Psychology Department, 几年前,该公司将神经科学项目作为其战略计划的一部分, 发现心理学专业的学生和参加心理学课程的学生绝大多数都认为神经科学学位对他们的职业目标很重要, and that they would change their current major to neuroscience if it was available.

Also of interest to the department was that, of the top 40 institutions in the U.S. News & World Report 包括bc在内的主要太阳城官网型大学的排名中,至少有18所大学开设了神经科学专业. Moreover, 一项对15家同行机构的神经科学项目的调查发现,其中13家提供本科专业, and the remaining two a minor.

Elizabeth Kensinger

Psychology Chair Professor Elizabeth Kensinger (Peter Julian)

The department also looked at its own capabilities, says Kensinger. “心理学系长期以来的优势之一是致力于将神经科学和心理科学方法结合起来,以理解人类行为. 我们系最显著的特点之一是它融合了行为神经科学, cognitive neuroscience, 以及心理科学解决人类经验核心问题的方法. 

“We are therefore thrilled to be able to offer students a major in neuroscience, 它强调跨学科的协同作用,这是理解人类思想和行为的复杂性所必需的.”

BC’s Jesuit, 天主教的性格和对文科的承诺为其神经科学项目提供了另一个独特的品质, say Christianson and Kensinger. Christianson points to the research undertaken by his colleagues, including Associate Professor Liane Young and her Morality Lab, in which she studies the cognitive underpinnings of moral judgments; Associate Professor Gorica Petrovich, who researches how environmental cues affect food intake; and Kensinger herself, an expert on the effect of emotional content on memory, and how these influences change during the lifespan.

“对神经科学的探索要求学生深刻反思人类的状况, from multiple angles and levels,” says Kensinger. “神经科学固有的跨学科性质也要求学生看到跨太阳城官网领域的相互联系:去欣赏, for example, an MRI taken while a person is thinking about a childhood event is to see biology, physics, and computer science coming together to understand the human experience of memory. 

“Whether in the courtroom or the classroom, 神经科学已经带来了思考人类行为本质的新方法.  神经科学对于加深对心理健康以及心理和身体健康之间的相互联系的理解有着巨大的希望.  神经科学的进步也与技术的进步有着深刻的协同作用.”
 

—Sean Smith | University Communications