Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences

• Awarded 'Top Rated Programme' label (Keuzegids Masters 2017/2018/2019)

• Excellent research facilities including University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), NeuroImaging Center and Centre for Life Sciences

• More than 75% enrolment in PhD projects after graduation

• Integrated teaching by top researchers from three faculties in small groups

• Students collaborate in stable cohorts during the 2 years

2-year programme; credits per year: 60 ECTS; most courses are 5 ECTS.

For the complete curriculum, please see: https://www.rug.nl/ocasys/rug/main/programmeSearchResults?keywords=behavioural&faculty=fwn&pLevelRestrictionsState=1&pLevels=4194&pLangRestrictionsState=0&new=1&pOptionsState=block

Exchange: All our science and engineering programmes offer study abroad possibilities at a number of partner institutions. Our partners include top-100 universities in Europe (for example in Germany, UK, and Sweden) and in the USA, China, South-East Asia, and South America. Our exchange programmes have a typical duration of one semester and count toward your final degree.

As a graduate of this programme, you can work as a researcher, both in the academic world and other fields. Because of their multi-disciplinary training, graduates of this degree positively distinguish themselves: you can easily grasp the bigger picture and are able to familiarise yourself with new fields and methodologies quickly.

This programme is characterised by its interactive setting with a strong accent on scientific research, offering the unique chance of a truly multidisciplinary education, while becoming an expert in one specific track.

This research master programme concentrates on three focal and closely related areas of particular strength within Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences (BCN):

Animal and Human Behavioural Neurosciences (B-track)

Designed for students who are familiar with the theoretical foundations and basics of behavioural research. They follow the "four why's" of the evolution, function, causation and development of behaviour.

Thorough evolutionary insight is necessary for guiding the causal analysis of behaviour, just as we cannot understand its evolution without physiological knowledge. Hence we link the functional and physiological analysis of behaviour. This holds also for human behaviour where particular emphasis is placed on evolutionary psychology. Development of behaviour is a further key to understand the complex regulation of behaviour in adulthood, the origins of individuality and the constraints and plasticity in behavioural adaptation.

The coordinator of the B-track is Prof. Anton Scheurink

Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Modelling

This research track focuses on cognitive processing from psychological, neurological and modelling perspectives.

The psychological aspect is covered in expert courses on psychological phenomena such as learning, memory and attention. The neurological aspects entail specialized courses on neuroscience, both from functional, clinical and biological perspectives, and training in different methodologies (e.g., fMRI, TMS, EEG) to study brain processes. The modelling aspect focuses on abstract characterisation of cognitive processing. These characterisations can take the form of statistical or computational models. This enables researchers to establish causal relations between behavioural and neurological phenomena and cognitive theories.

The coordinator of the C-track is dr. M.R. (Mark) Nieuwenstein 

Molecular and Clinical Neuroscience (N-track)

The Neuroscience track is designed for students interested in molecular mechanisms of brain function and of the neuropathology of diseases.

The brain and the central nervous system are the key players in behaviour and cognition. The programme focuses on molecular and functional neurosciences, neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases, neuro-inflammatory processes and stem cell biology. The courses emphasize the anatomy of the nervous system, neurotransmission and transduction cascades, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology and neuropathology. The latest insights in Parkinson's disease, sleep and sleep disorders, obesity, aggression, anxiety, multiple sclerosis, and stroke related pathology will be discussed.

The coordinator of the N-track is dr. Liesbeth Veenhoff