Brain, Behavior & Cognition
- Program Director: Dr. Paul Reber
The Program in Brain, Behavior & Cognition (BBC) provides graduate training at the crossroads of the neural and cognitive sciences. Eight full-time faculty members engage in research on how we perceive the world, acquire new information, retrieve memories, communicate and interact with others, and effect complex cognitive abilities such as creative problem solving. A particular strength of the BBC area lies is the many collaborative projects that bring together groups of BBC students and faculty, and that use a variety of Cognitive Neuroscience methods. Indeed, the BBC program is a focal point for Cognitive Neuroscience research at Northwestern.
Several research themes animate the BBC program. One theme is centered on memory and the various mechanisms whereby information is stored as a function of experience. Memory is revealed in the form of conscious retrieval of autobiographical experiences, in altered behavior that is not necessarily accompanied by awareness of remembering (e.g., implicit memory), through adaptation in perceptual processing, and as neural plasticity in association with the regulation of synaptic plasticity and gene transcription. We also investigate a variety of human cognitive phenomena using sophisticated behavioral measures, neuroimaging with fMRI methods, and through psychophysiological measures. EEG measures are used in several BBC labs to study visual perception, attention, emotion, memory, meditation, comprehension of complex language structures, deception, creativity, and insight. Traditional psychophysical methods are used in studies of perception and attention, methods of molecular biology are used in studies of neural plasticity, and studies in patient populations provide additional leverage on the problem of understanding human mental functions from both neural and cognitive perspectives.
Training in the BBC program emphasizes convergences of theory and data from both the neural and cognitive sciences. Training draws upon the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (NUIN), the Cognitive Science Program, the Cognitive Neuroscience Program, the Cognitive Brain Mapping Group, the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center, and other units on campus. We encourage applicants to enter our program with a thorough background of coursework and research experience in multiple areas of neuroscience and experimental psychology.
