Neuroscience and Psychology Stream

Stream Leader

Dr Velia Cardin: velia.cardin@ucl.ac.uk

Aims

To study neural functions across a variety of different levels, ranging from lower-level processes of perception and action to complex, high-level mental phenomena such as attention, memory, emotion and consciousness. The Psychology pathway of the Neuroscience and Psychology (NAP) stream will consider these neural processes from a predominantly behavioural and cognitive perspective, while the Neuroscience pathway of the NAP stream will focus mainly on the anatomical and physiological foundations of nervous system function. Beyond these areas of main focus, the NAP stream will also offer the opportunity to examine topics such as disorders of nervous system function, developmental neuroscience, neurogenetics, neuropharmacology and social psychology.

Objectives

Students who have completed this stream will be able to describe:

• The anatomical organisation of the central and peripheral nervous system, and how this arises during development;
• The biology of a typical neuron including, its structure, the generation of nerve impulses, the ways in which neurons send signal both within and between themselves, and the ways in which neural connections can change;
• The fundamental processes underlying behaviour including perception, representation, learning and memory, attention, action, decision-making and emotions/mood;
• Some of the ways in which the properties of neurons and their circuits are thought to mediate the above processes;
• The basics of computational neuroscience including how neural networks are structured and how they may process information, form representations and be  modified on the basis of past activity;
• The ways in which neural processes sometimes go awry, as a result of maldevelopment, accident or disease, leading to disorders of functioning such as Alzheimer’s disease, addiction, psychosis, autism and many others.

The Neuroscience and Psychology stream combines with:

Organic Chemistry

Medical Physics

Mathematics and Statistics

History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science