Programme Outline

During the first semester, you will take several courses that will familiarise you with key issues in perceptual and cognitive brain research, you will build a detailed understanding of how the ‘working’ brain perceives, feels, moves, and attends to relevant information. Specific course topics include auditory and visual perception, attention, language, and sensorimotor functions. In addition, you will learn to translate this knowledge in empirical research by hands-on training in all aspects of the experimental cycle, including experimental design, recording brain activation data, data analysis, and interpretation. Methods that you will learn to apply include fMRI and EEG, as well as data analysis in the software packages Brainvoyager and EEGLAB. In the second semester, you'll complete a research project and write your master’s thesis.

Research internship & thesis

In recent years, internship and thesis topics have included:

• fundamental brain research: mapping auditory space in the temporal cortex; audio-visual interactions in the brain.
• applied brain research: fMRI investigation of food reward processing; EEG investigation of attention biases when perceiving health messages.
• clinical research: learning and memory in mice models of Alzheimer’s disease; noninvasive brain stimulation (TMS) in fundamental and clinical research.

Excellent staff, excellent facilities

You will work within an international and multidisciplinary team that includes psychologists, biologists, physicians, engineers, physicists, and computer scientists: all members of the Maastricht Brain Imaging Center (MBIC). This center offers a unique research infrastructure with the newest ultra-high-field imaging facilities.

Problem-Based Learning

This programme is taught using Problem-Based Learning (PBL). In small tutorial groups of 10 to 12 students, you'll seek solutions to ‘problems’ taken from real-world situations. Instructors act as facilitators, giving help as it’s needed. This allows you to build independence and develop problem-solving skills that you’ll need in the field. This active, dynamic and collaborative learning method has one of the highest knowledge retention rates of any instructional method.

International classroom

From day one of the programme, you’ll be challenged with differing viewpoints and experiences as you interact with staff and students from all over the world. Your worldview will be enhanced by this interaction, bringing you closer to the programme’s goal of teaching students not only facts and concepts but also international accessibility and understanding. Roughly 80% of the students in this master’s programme come from outside the Netherlands. Such diversity creates an international atmosphere that is strengthened by the international orientation of the programme.