About Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience

The Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience (BCN) area with the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences focuses on investigating the biological basis for behavior and cognition. The faculty affiliated with this training area engage in NIH- and NSF-funded research using both humans and animals as they address topics ranging from human language to learning and memory to models of disorders.

Neuroscience Research

The content areas of research strength in the BCN area include:

• Neurobiology of learning and memory
• Animal behavior
• Cognitive control
• Sleep
• Communication
• Sensory processing
• Neural circuitry of stress
• Drug addiction
• Neurodevelopment
• Language

Our Approach

The BCN faculty use systems and cognitive neuroscience approaches to addressing their questions of interest. As a result, the BCN laboratories employ a wide variety of techniques, including neuronal recording, optogenetics, immunohistochemistry, fMRI, EEG, eye-tracking, computational modeling, brain stimulation / neuromodulation (DBS and TMS), and functional neuroanatomy, combined with different behavioral and cognitive approaches. Moreover, the BCN faculty collaborate extensively with colleagues across campus, including those in Biology, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neurosurgery. Most of the BCN faculty are also members of the Iowa Neuroscience Institute (INI), a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary neuroscience center, led by Dr. Ted Abel. Through the INI, graduate students in BCN laboratories have the opportunity to interact with a wide array of neuroscientists and broaden their skills sets even further. In addition, graduate students have the opportunity to attend weekly colloquia given by leading neuroscientists from across the country and around the world.

The Program

Graduate students interested in joining the laboratories of BCN faculty should apply through the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences PhD Program and choose the BCN training area. The training program for the BCN area uses a flexible, mentor-based approach that facilitates research, enabling students to be highly productive and setting them on a path toward becoming an independent scientist. Upon joining the program, students immediately join a lab and begin focusing their efforts on developing their laboratory skills and research ideas. Students also form a Research Advisory Committee of three faculty, including the mentor, who meet with and advise the student every semester until the student completes his/her Dissertation Prospectus, upon which the student's Dissertation Committee serves in a similar capacity. The BCN area's course requirements are relatively low to provide flexibility in each student's curriculum. There are two parallel curriculum sub-tracks within the BCN training, each will provide a tailored training curriculum for students interested in Behavioral Neuroscience (BN) or Cognitive Neuroscience (CN). (The new CN sub-track will be available to students starting Fall 2021.) Each BCN student must select one of these two sub-tracks, in consultation with their advisor and the RAC committee. The decision should be made upon matriculating into the graduate program.

Example of coursework for the Behavioral Neuroscience Sub-Track:
 
First Year

Fall

• Fundamental Neurobiology
• Quantitative Methods in Psychology (statistics)

Spring

• Foundations in Behavioral Neuroscience
• Elective 1

Second Year: Fall or Spring

• Elective 2

 
Example of coursework for the Cognitive Neuroscience Sub-Track:
 
First Year

Fall

• Foundations in Cognitive Neuroscience
• Quantitative Methods in Psychology (statistics)

Spring

• Functional Neuroanatomy
• Programming for Psychologists

Second Year

Fall 

• Elective 1

Spring

• Mixed-Effects Modeling for Psychology (Advanced Statistics)

 
Courses that students can select for electives include: 
NSCI:7235 Neurobiology of Disease
PSY:5203 Fundamental Neurobiology
PSY:5610 Proseminar in Cognition and Perception
PSY 6101 Cognitive Science Language Proseminar
PSY:6230 Foundations of Learning, Memory, and Cognition
PSY:6280 Structural Functional MRI Methods and Application
PSY:6370 Principles of Neuropsychology
PSY:6440 Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
PSY:6590 Judgment and Decision Making
PSY:7150 Analyzing Neural Time Series 
PSY:7150 Network Neuroscience
PSY:7610 Cognitive Neuroscience of Working Memory
PSY:7610 Eye Movements in Cognition
BME:5320 Bioinformatics Techniques
BIOS:6810 Bayesian Methods and Design
 
In addition, specialized seminar courses are typically offered every year by different faculty. Students also have the opportunity to take courses focused on skills development, such as research writing, and to take workshops across campus that focus on career development.

For full details regarding curricular requirements, please consult the BCN section in the Psychological and Brain Sciences Graduate Handbook (please note that the full description of the CN sub-track will be added to the 2021 Graduate Handbook during the summer of 2021).

In addition to the curricular requirements, students in the BCN area are required to complete a First-Year Project, which they present as part of the departmental Research Symposium during their second year. During their third year, students must complete their Prospectus, in which they propose their planned dissertation work. The Comprehensive Exam is folded into the Prospectus, enabling students to progress rapidly in their research toward their Ph.D.

Full financial support is provided to all graduate students in the program.
 

Prospective Graduate Students

Regardless of which training program you may be considering, we strongly encourage you to visit the faculty members' websites and to contact the individual faculty members whose work interests you. In addition, please feel free to email our training area coordinator Jason Radley.

View all Faculty in BCN