Neuroscience and Behavior

This program focuses on the study of brain-behavior relationships, broadly defined. It offers students exceptional flexibility to customize their graduate training and research. The program also provides equally exceptional access to state-of-the-art techniques and technologies, such as single-cell recording, optogenetics, electrophysiology (EEG/ERP), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computer simulation. Problems studied by the neuroscience area include, but are not limited to: molecular and genetic determinants of behavior, physiological bases of motivated behaviors (e.g., appetitive, sexual, maternal, and drug-seeking behaviors), neural and hormonal bases of learning and memory, neural bases of anxiety, physiological bases of psychiatric disorders, and the underlying mechanisms of cognitive processing and social interaction. Cognitive processes currently under investigation include associative learning, reward processing, decision-making, selective attention, and problem-solving. Clinical phenomena currently under investigation include alcoholism, anorexia, diabetes, epilepsy, obesity, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and autism.

A number of interdisciplinary centers exist that provide valuable training for neuroscience and behavior graduate students at Purdue. Of particular interest are the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience (PIIN), the Ingestive Behavior Research Center, and the Center for Research on Brain, Behavior, and NeuroRehabilitation CEREBRAL). PIIN brings together investigators from many disciplines who share a common interest in the properties of the brain. PIIN organizes regular special lectures and colloquium series that bring distinguished neuroscientists to Purdue. The Ingestive Behavior Research Center is an interdisciplinary center that offers a variety of training options such as special lecture series and opportunities to participate in collaborative research on basis of ingestive behavior, eating disorders, and obesity. CEREBRAL is an Area of Research Excellence within the College of Health and Human Sciences addressing questions about how to improve quality of life, not just extend it, and how to predict disease- and aging-related declines in highly variable populations.