The study of mind, brain, and behavior has grown in recent years with unprecedented speed. New avenues of approach, opened by developments in the biological and computer sciences, raise the hope that human beings, who have achieved considerable mastery over the world around them, may also come closer to an understanding of themselves. The goal of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences is to answer fundamental questions concerning intelligent processes and brain organization. To this end, the department focuses on four themes: molecular and cellular neuroscience, systems neuroscience, cognitive science, and computation. Several members of the department's faculty are affiliated with two major research centers: the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research.
Research in cellular neuroscience deals with the biology of neurons, emphasizing the special properties of these cells as encoders, transmitters, and processors of information. Departmental researchers apply techniques of contemporary molecular and cellular biology to problems of neuronal development, structure, and function, resulting in new understanding of the underlying basic components of the nervous system and their interactions. These studies have profound clinical implications, in part by generating a framework for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Primary areas of interest include the development and plasticity of neuronal morphology and connectivity, the cellular and molecular bases of behavior in simple neuronal circuits, neurochemistry, and cellular physiology.
In the area of systems neuroscience, departmental investigators use a number of new approaches ranging from computation through electrophysiology to biophysics. Of major interest are the visual and motor systems where the scientific goals are to understand transduction and encoding of sensory stimuli into nerve messages, organization and development of sensorimotor systems, processing of sensorimotor information, and the sensorimotor performance of organisms. Also of major interest is neural and endocrine regulation, where the scientific goal is to understand the effects of circulating compounds on brain composition and behavior.
In computation and cognitive science, particularly strong interactions exist between the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and the Center for Biological and Computational Learning, providing new intellectual approaches in areas including vision and motor control, and biological and computer learning. Computational theories are developed and tested within the framework of neurophysiological, psychological, and other experimental approaches. In the study of vision and motor control, complementary experimental work includes single-cell and multiple-cell neurophysiological recording as well as functional brain imaging. In the area of learning, which is seen as central to intelligent behavior, departmental researchers along with members of the Center for Biological and Computational Learning are working to develop theories of vision, motor control, neural circuitry, and language within an experimental framework.
In cognitive science, human experimentation is combined with formal and computational analyses to understand complex intelligent processes such as language, reasoning, memory, and visual information processing. There are applications in the fields of education, artificial intelligence, human-machine interaction, and in the treatment of language, cognitive, and other disorders.
Subfields in cognitive science include psycholinguistics, comprising sentence and word processing, language acquisition, and aphasia; visual cognition, including reading, imagery, attention, and perception of complex patterns such as faces, objects, and scenes; spatial cognition; memory; and the nature and development of concepts. Another key field is the study of perception—developmental and processing approaches focus on human and machine vision, and how visual images are encoded, stored, and retrieved, with current topics that include motion analysis, stereopsis, perceptual organization, and perceptual similarity. Other research includes functional brain imaging in normal subjects as well as studies of neurologically impaired patients in an attempt to understand brain mechanisms underlying normal human sensation, perception, cognition, action, and affect.
Brain science and cognitive science are complementary and interactive in their research objectives. Both approaches examine perception, performance, and intervening processes in humans and animals. Central issues in the discipline include the interpretation of sensory experience; the reception, manipulation, storage, and retrieval of information within the nervous system; and the planning and execution of motor activity. Higher level functions include the development of formal and informal reasoning skills; and the structure, acquisition, use, and internal representation of human language.
The Bachelor of Science in Brain and Cognitive Sciences prepares students for graduate training in neuroscience, medicine, cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, or aspects of artificial intelligence (particularly those aspects concerned with vision) as well as for further work in the area of efficient human-machine interaction.
Methods of inquiry in the brain and cognitive sciences are drawn from molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscience; cognitive and perceptual psychology; computer science and artificial intelligence; linguistics; philosophy of language and mind; and mathematics. The undergraduate program is designed to provide instruction in the relevant aspects of these various disciplines. The program is administered by an Undergraduate Officer and an Undergraduate Administrator, consulting as necessary with faculty members from these disciplines who also serve as advisors to majors, helping them select a coherent set of subjects from within the requirements, including a research requirement. Members of the faculty are available to guide the research.
The Minor in Brain and Cognitive Sciences consists of six subjects arranged in two tiers of study, intended to provide students breadth in the field as a whole and some depth in one of two areas of specialization.
| Tier I | Two subjects: | |
| 9.00 | Introduction to Psychology | |
| and | ||
| 9.01 | Introduction to Neuroscience |
|
| Tier II | Four subjects, three from one area of specialization and one from the other area: | |
| Cognitive Science: 9.10, 9.34, 9.35, 9.56J, 9.57J, 9.59J, 9.65, 9.66J, 9.71, 9.85, 9.URG* |
||
| Computation and Systems Neuroscience: 9.03, 9.04, 9.05, 9.09J, 9.10, 9.14, 9.15, 9.18, 9.20, 9.22, 9.24, 9.29J, 9.31, 9.37J, 9.URG* |
*9.URG may count only once toward the minor program.
The field of psychology is represented at MIT by an interdisciplinary Program in Psychology in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. The Program in Psychology encompasses subjects from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Sloan School of Management, Program in Science, Technology, and Society, and other areas. It administers a HASS Concentration and Minor in Psychology. For information about the concentration or other aspects of the program, contact the BCS Undergraduate Office, Room 46‑2005, 617‑253‑0482. A detailed description of the Minor in Psychology is available under Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Programs and Minors in Part 3.
For a general description of minors, see Undergraduate Education in Part 1.
The Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences offers programs of study leading to the doctoral degree in neuroscience or cognitive science. Areas of research specialization include cellular and molecular neuroscience, systems neuroscience, computation, and cognitive science. The graduate programs are designed to prepare participants to teach and to do original research.
The departmental PhD program can normally be completed with four to five years of full-time work, including summers. Institute requirements for the PhD are given in the section on General Degree Requirements under Graduate Education in Part 1. Formal coursework, described below, is intended to prepare the student to pass the general examinations and do original thesis research. The written general examinations will be given in June of the second year.
All students start with a first-semester intensive core subject that provides an introduction to brain and behavioral studies from the viewpoint of systems neuroscience. In the spring term, students may choose between two core subjects, one covering cellular/molecular neuroscience and one covering cognitive science. Incoming graduate students are encouraged to take all three within the first two years of study. Further coursework will be diversified to give each individual the appropriate background for research in his or her own area.
Coursework in cellular and molecular neuroscience emphasizes the current genetic, molecular, and cellular approaches to biological systems that are necessary to generate advances in neuroscience.
Training in systems neuroscience covers neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and neurotransmitter chemistry, concentrating on the major sensory and motor systems in the vertebrate brain. Specific ties to molecular neurobiology or computation may be emphasized, depending upon the research interests of the student.
Coursework for students in computation is intended to give both an understanding of empirical approaches to the study of the vertebrate brain and animal behavior and a theoretical background for analyzing computational aspects of biological information processing.
Candidates studying cognitive science take coursework covering such topics as language processing, language acquisition, cognitive development, natural computation, neural networks, connectionist models, and visual information processing. Students also choose seminars and coursework in linguistics, philosophy, logic, mathematics, or computer science, depending on the individual student's research program.
Graduate students begin a research apprenticeship immediately upon arrival with lab rotations in the first year, after which time advisor assignments are made based upon a match of interests. These assignments may change as a student's goals become more focused. At the end of the first year, an advisory committee of two to four faculty members is formed. This committee monitors progress and, with membership changing as necessary, evolves into the thesis committee. Thesis research normally requires 24–36 months of full-time activity after the qualifying examinations have been passed. It is expected that the research embodied in the PhD dissertation be original and significant work, publishable in scientific journals.
Financial assistance is provided to qualified applicants in the form of traineeships, research assistantships, teaching assistantships, and a limited number of fellowships, subject to availability of funds. Prospective students are encouraged to apply for individual fellowships such as those sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program to cover all or part of the cost of their education. The department's financial resources for non-US citizens are limited; international students are strongly encouraged to seek financial assistance for all or part of the cost of their education from non-MIT sources.
For additional information regarding teaching and research programs, contact the Graduate Office, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Room 46-2005, 617-253-7403, or visit http://web.mit.edu/bcs/.
Mriganka Sur, PhD
Paul E. Newton Professor of Neuroscience
Associate Member, Broad Institute
Department Head
Matthew Wilson, PhD
Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neurobiology
Associate Head
Edward H. Adelson, PhD
John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Vision Science
Mark Bear, PhD
Picower Professor of Neuroscience
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Robert Cregar Berwick, PhD
Professor of Computational Linguistics
Emilio Bizzi, MD
Institute Professor
Emery N. Brown, MD, PhD
Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Health Sciences and Technology
Stephan Lewis Chorover, PhD
Professor of Psychology
Martha Constantine-Paton, PhD
Professor of Biology
Suzanne Corkin, PhD
Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience
Robert Desimone, PhD
Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience
Director, McGovern Institute for Brain Research
Michale Fee
Professor of Neuroscience
John D. E. Gabrieli, PhD
Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Cognitive Neuroscience
Director, Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research
Codirector, Clinical Research Center
Edward A. F. Gibson, PhD
Professor of Cognitive Sciences
Ann Martin Graybiel, PhD
Institute Professor
Alan Hein, PhD
Professor of Experimental Psychology
Susan Hockfield, PhD
Professor of Neuroscience
President, MIT
Neville Hogan, PhD
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Nancy G. Kanwisher, PhD
Ellen Swallows Richards Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
MacVicar Faculty Fellow
Earl K. Miller, PhD
Picower Professor of Visual Neuroscience
Associate Director, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Tomaso Armando Poggio, PhD
Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences and Human Behavior
Director, Center for Biological and Computational Learning
Mary Crawford Potter, PhD
Professor of Psychology
Drazen Prelec, PhD
Digital Equipment Corporation Leaders for Manufacturing Professor of Management
Professor of Economics and Brain and Cognitive Sciences
William G. Quinn, PhD
Professor of Neurobiology
Whitman Albin Richards, PhD
Professor of Cognitive Sciences
Peter Harkai Schiller, PhD
Dorothy W. Poitras Professor in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics
Gerald Edward Schneider, PhD
Professor of Neuroscience
H. Sebastian Seung, PhD
Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Physics
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Morgan Hwa-Tze Sheng, MBBS, PhD
Menicon Professor of Neurobiology
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Jean-Jacques Slotine, PhD
Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Information Sciences
Director, Nonlinear Systems Laboratory
Susumu Tonegawa, PhD
Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Li-Huei Tsai, PhD
Picower Professor of Neuroscience
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Associate Member, Broad Institute
Director, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Kenneth N. Wexler, PhD
Professor of Psychology and Linguistics
Richard Jay Wurtman, MD
Cecil H. Green Distinguished Professor of Neuropharmacology
James DiCarlo, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neuroscience
Alan Jasanoff, PhD
Norman C. Rasmussen Career Development Associate Professor of Nuclear Science
and Engineering and Biological Engineering
J. Troy Littleton, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Biology
Christopher Moore, PhD
Mitsui Career Development Associate Professor of Neuroscience
Elly Nedivi, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurobiology
Aude Oliva, PhD
Associate Professor of Cognitive Science
Pawan Sinha, PhD
Associate Professor of Computational Neuroscience
Joshua Tenenbaum, PhD
Associate Professor of Cognitive Science and Computation
Edward S. Boyden, PhD
Benesse Career Development Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Ki Ann Goosens, PhD
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Yingxi Lin, PhD
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Carlos Lois, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Rebecca R. Saxe, PhD
Fred and Carole Middleton Career Development Assistant Professor of Cognitive
Neuroscience
Laura Schulz, PhD
Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science
Weifeng Xu, PhD
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Merritt Christian Brown, PhD
Thomas Byrne, MD
John Growdon, MD
Timothy J. Maher, PhD
Henry Hall, SB
Carol J. Watkins, MA
Sonal Jhaveri, PhD
Ruth Rosenholtz, PhD
Edward Tehovnik, PhD
Narcisse Bichot, PhD
Jill Crittenden, PhD
Natalia Denissenko, PhD
Gadi Geiger, MS
Chen Chen Gong, MMus
Noah Goodman, PhD
Zhou Guan, PhD
Julius Hedden III, PhD
Arnold Heynen, PhD
Lingfei Hou, PhD
Dan Hu, PhD
Myung Jung Kim, PhD
Yasuo Kubota, PhD
Thomas J. McHugh, PhD
Toshiaki Nakashiba, PhD
Akiyo Ogawa, MS
Ken-ichi Okamoto, PhD
Jefferson E. Roy, PhD
Jitendra Sharma, PhD
Warren Slocum III, PhD
Lisa Sultzmann-Knopf, MS
Christina Triantafyllou, PhD
Kuan Hong Wang, PhD
Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, ABD
Jun Yamamoto, PhD
Akira Yoshii, PhD
Jean-Ping Zhao, PhD
Huihui Zhou, PhD
Robert Ajemian, PhD
Yulia Akbergenova, PhD
Evangelos Antzoulatos
Ken-ichi Amemori, PhD
Hicham Atallah, PhD
Daniel Baldauf, PhD
Peter Battalgia, PhD
Marina Bedny, PhD
Gabriel Belfort, PhD
Daniel Bendor, PhD
Asha Bhakar, PhD
Joseph Biedenkapp, PhD
Miguel Bosch Pita, PhD
Scott Louis Brincat, PhD
Emile Bruneau, PhD
Derek Buhl, PhD
Anthony Burgos Robles, PhD
Eric Burguière, PhD
Timothy J. Buschman, PhD
Froylan Calderón, PhD
Eva Carlen, PhD
Leigh Carmody, PhD
Jorge Castro, PhD
Yelin Chen, PhD
Richard Cho, PhD
Vincent Cheung, PhD
Alexander Chubykin, PhD
Jasmin Cloutier, PhD
Samuel F. Cooke, PhD
Susana dos Santos Correia, PhD
Jason Cromer, PhD
Gishnu Das, PhD
Daniel Dilks, PhD
George Dragoi, PhD
Ronen Eavri, PhD
Marianna D. Eddy, PhD
Evelina Fedorenko, PhD
Paula Feinberg-Zadek, PhD
Maria Ledia Fernández Hernández, PhD
Andre Fischer, PhD
Eveline Geiser, PhD
Joanne Gibson, PhD
Jesse Goldberg, PhD
Ji Song Guan, PhD
Hiroki Hamanaka, PhD
Xue Han, PhD
Oliver Hinds, PhD
Mark Histed, PhD
Po-jang Hsieh, PhD
Ji Hu, PhD
Inbal Israely, PhD
Elias Issa, PhD
Frank Jaekel, PhD
Manoj Jaiswal, PhD
Beata Jarosiewicz, PhD
Micah Johnson, PhD
Ramon Jorquera, PhD
Olivier Joubert, PhD
Hae-Yoon Jung, PhD
Wolfgang Kelsch, PhD
Dohoon Kim, PhD
Fabian Kloosterman, PhD
Kami Koldewyn, PhD
Dilja Krueger
Rogier Landman, PhD
Liora Las, PhD
Hysong Lee, PhD
Ji Hye Lee, PhD
Anna Leonova, PhD
Melanie Leussis, PhD
Monica Linden, PhD
Mingna Liu, PhD
Xu Liu, PhD
Sven Loebrich, PhD
Michael Long, PhD
Najib Majaj, PhD
Rong Mao, PhD
Yingwei Mao, PhD
Michael McEvoy, PhD
Konstantinos Meletis, PhD
Tora Mitra Ganguli, PhD
Joe Moran, PhD
Yasunobu Murata, PhD
Kevin Neville, PhD
Noa Ofen, PhD
Emily Osterweil, PhD
David Page, PhD
Ling Pan, PhD
Petti Pang, PhD
Soojin Park, PhD
David Pitcher, PhD
Frida Polli, PhD
Maria Victoria Puig Velasco
Corey Puryear, PhD
Reza Rajimehr, PhD
Elizabeth Redcay, PhD
Damien Rei, PhD
Armando Miguel Remondes, PhD
Sophie Renaudineau, PhD
Jason Ritt, PhD
Avital Rodal, PhD
Andrii Rudenko, PhD
Nicole Rust, PhD
Ruslan Salakhutdinov, PhD
Sridevi Sarma, PhD
Virginia Savova, PhD
Joost Schulte, PhD
James Schummers, PhD
Kenjiro Seki, PhD
Katherine Sepp, PhD
Thomas Serre, PhD
Won Mok Shim, PhD
Hideki Shimazu, PhD
Markus Siegel, PhD
Karuna Singh, PhD
Kyle Smith, PhD
Sen Song, PhD
Hiroki Sugihara, PhD
Junghyup Suh, PhD
Patrick Tierney, PhD
Daniel Tropea, PhD
Carmen Varela, PhD
Tarciso Velho, PhD
Sarah Weigelt, PhD
Audra Van Wort, PhD
Gil Westmeyer, PhD
Nathan Wilson, PhD
David Wingate, PhD
Julie Yoo, PhD
Jeannie Young, PhD
Lianne Young
Hungbo Yu, PhD
Xiao-an Zhang, PhD
Ying Zhang, PhD
Zhe Chen, PhD
Antoine Ezzat, PhD
Federico Girosi, PhD
Maureen Holden, PhD
Albert Hung, PhD
Gabriel Kriman, PhD
Lorenzo Rosasco, PhD
Atsushi Sato, PhD
Richard Held, PhD
Professor of Experimental Psychology, Emeritus