science

Boston College Adds Neuroscience Major – Boston College Chronicle


Through the major, students will gain a better understanding of the biological basis of brain function in relation to thought and behavior. The program has co-requisites in biology and chemistry as well as elective natural science co-requisites, 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, administrators and faculty point out that neuroscience holds relevance for fields such as nursing, social work, mathematics, economics, philosophy, even history. 

“How the mind works is of fundamental interest in so many contexts—like the way we make decisions in regard to money, work, family, or love,” says Gianinno Family Sesquicentennial Assistant Professor of Psychology John Christianson, 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, says the major “will enable students to become critical thinkers as they reflect on topics that are at the core of the human experience: How do we learn through our experiences? How do brain cells give rise to thought and behavior? How does context influence everything from what we see to how we behave toward others? Which aspects of behavior are easily controlled and which proceed without conscious awareness?”

She adds, “Students will learn how recording from neurons can shed light on the processes that go awry when people respond with fear despite multiple cues of safety. 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. They will learn about the processes that allow a neural trace of a past event to persist as a memory, and they will consider the implications when that memory is erroneous or incomplete.”



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