PsychologyCognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience at Penn encompasses a wide range of questions and methods, all of which are unified by a common goal: To understand the neural basis of human and animal behavior. Training in this area is supported by an NIH training grant in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience. A number of researchers are affiliated with the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience (CCN) and the Center for Functional Neuroimaging (CFN). Our educational programs include a variety of courses in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience as well as workshops, reading groups and patient rounds.
Issues being addressed include the neural basis of perception and object recognition (Rust, Epstein, Brainard, Coslett, Aguirre, Farah, Stocker, Gottfried), attention, learning, and memory (Kahana, Coslett, Thompson-Schill, Gottfried), decision process (Kable), language (Chatterjee, Coslett), energy and fluid homeostasis (Flanagan-Cato and Grill), sex differences and reproductive behavior (Flanagan-Cato), sleep (Dinges), and the neural mechanisms of anti-depressive and anti-anxiety medications (Lucki).
Approaches include computational modeling (Kahana, Rust, Stocker), multielectrode recordings (Kahana, Rust, Gottfried), fMRI (Aguirre, Brainard, Chatterjee, Coslett, Epstein, Farah, Gottfried, Kable, Thompson-Schill), and scalp electro and magnetoencephalography (Kahana). Additional approaches used by researchers at Penn include genetic manipulation (Grill), neuropharmacology (Flanagan-Cato, Grill, Lucki), in vitro signaling assays (Flanagan-Cato, Grill), neural circuitry analysis (Flanagan-Cato, Grill), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (Coslett).
For further information about the behavioral neurosciences at Penn, click here. For information about the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, click here