Neuroscience (BA/BS)

About this programme

Nervous systems are responsible for our motivations, sensations, memories, and actions, generating the breathtaking variety of behaviors we observe across human and nonhuman animals. But how does a network of interconnected nerve cells—from perhaps a few hundred in small invertebrates to roughly 100 billion in humans—perform this remarkable function? How do healthy human brains generate our conscious experiences, our emotions, our unmatched behavioral complexity, and our near-limitless capacity for forming new memories? How do disorders of and injuries to our nervous systems generate the debilitating symptoms—such as memory loss and paralysis—that affect people with conditions like Alzheimer’s disease or spinal cord damage? And what opportunities—such as novel drug treatments or brain-controlled prosthetics—might we someday use to treat these pathologies?