Neuroscience
Major
Ask new questions and take innovative steps to further understand brain function in this rapidly evolving area of study
The interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience at Simpson will immerse you in coursework across a variety of departments to help you understand how signals in the brain underlie important processes such as memory, learning and sensory perception and lead to pathologies such as schizophrenia, dementia and developmental disorders.
What will I learn?
Neuroscience is an interdepartmental program with the Department of Psychology and the Department of Biology & Environmental Science. By pursuing this major, you will have an enhanced understanding of the neural structures and systems controlling functions such as vision, memory, emotion, movement and ultimately all of human behavior.
This course explores the biological basis of behavior, explaining how understanding biology helps us to better comprehend the psychological issues we encounter in everyday life.
What can I do with my degree?
Depending on your focus in the major, you will be prepared for advanced study in graduate programs such as Ph.D. programs in biology or psychology, or health and medical programs such as occupational therapy, optometry, nursing and medical school.
Work in the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
You can join teams of undergraduate researchers, under the direction of psychology and neuroscience faculty, in the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab to identify and plan projects, run data collection sessions, prepare and analyze the data and write and present the results. You have a variety of research tools at your disposal.
There are five general purpose cognitive psychology research stations, each equipped with E-Prime laboratory software, Matlab and the SPSS statistical analysis package. There is also advanced psychophysiology measurement equipment that records muscle activity (EMG), skin temperature and skin conductance (EDA). A 24-channel Electroencephalogram (EEG) data acquisition system is used to study brain activity related to music, language and attention.
The location of eye fixations is closely related to what the brain is attending to and processing at any given moment which is why we added an SMI Red 500 eye tracking system. It includes eye tracking glasses that can be worn while shopping, driving and many other activities that can’t be reproduced in the lab.
Explore the departments that contribute to the Neuroscience major
Interdisciplinary majors and minors provide you with exposure to a variety of different academic disciplines. Take a look and see what those departments have to offer.
