Wayne State University

Introduction

The Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Program (BCN) is an interdisciplinary research and training area within the Department of Psychology. The BCN area prepares students for positions in research and teaching in many areas of neuroscience, including functional cognitive imaging, neural physiology, behavioral pharmacology, and neurobehavioral teratology. Training is provided via foundation courses, specialized seminars, and intensive participation in research. Students are mentored in one-to-one working collaborations with the faculty. Our program prepares students for post-doctoral training and employment in academic and non-academic settings, including colleges and universities, industry and government..

It is an exciting time to be a neuroscientist. The study of the brain and behavior is one of the last great frontiers for human investigation. Neuroscientists are discovering how billions of neurons and thousands of chemical and electrical signals result in perceptions of the world around us, memories about our experiences, emotional reactions to the subtle and profound events in our lives, and the dynamics of our behavioral reactions to all these happenings. In understanding how the brain works we can come to understand some part of ourselves. Knowledge of these functions in the normal brain provides a foundation for investigations of the abnormal brain and the psychopathological states that trouble human existence. In this way, behavioral neuroscientists can develop strategies to alleviate these disorders.

It is an especially exciting time for the Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Program (BCN) at Wayne State University. We are a dynamic collaboration of faculty and students who are investigating a broad array of neural and biobehavioral phenomena. These investigations range from studies of cognitive and neurochemical processes associated with aging, drug addiction and neurological disorders to studies of the neural circuits that underlie learning, emotion, and weight regulation, to research on the life-long developmental plasticity of the neurobiological processes of behavior. Graduate study in behavioral and cognitive neurosciences at Wayne State means, learning about behavioral neuroscience at many levels of analysis and having the opportunity to study these phenomena in state-of-the-art laboratories using modern neurobiological techniques.

Curriculum

In addition to the basic Departmental Core, all students take a BCN Core sequence of courses that provides solid fundamentals about the brain and behavior. Core courses include Functional Neuroanatomy, Neurophysiology and Neural Plasticity, Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychopharmacology, and Theories of Learning. These courses form a strong foundation for all other courses that follow in each student’s area of concentration, as well as for their individual research, which begins in their first year. Student training will be complemented by Concentration Coursework selected in consultation with each student's Advisor. Concentration Courses provide flexibility in individual training by offering educational opportunities in areas most relevant to a student’s interests and research. Concentrations include, but are not limited to: Lifespan and Cognitive Neuroscience, Pharmacology and Substance Abuse, Motivated Behaviors, Developmental Psychobiology and Teratology, behavioral and Cellular Mechanisms of Learning, Health Psychology, and Evolutionary Psychobiology.

For a detailed description of the BCN curriculum, please click here.

Research Training

Current students in the Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Program (BCN) conduct research in such areas as neural, behavioral and developmental pharmacology and toxicology; food intake and body weight regulation; neurochemistry; molecular processes underlying learning and synaptic plasticity; biological bases of memory and emotion; substance use and abuse; functional brain imaging of cognitive processes associated with aging; and neurobehavioral teratology. Through these opportunities and experiences, BCN students learn diverse skills and methodologies used in cutting-edge academic and industrial laboratory settings.

Our students can tap into the extensive research facilities in many parts of the large Wayne State University neuroscience community. More than 60 faculty members from the College of Science and the School of Medicine currently participate in neuroscience research. The BCN area has strong ties with the Cellular and Clinical Neurobiology program (CCN) in the School of Medicine that fosters interactions between students and faculty, and provides additional avenues for coursework and research seminars. The Department of Psychology also has long-standing collaborations, with a number of excellent research departments, laboratories and hospitals throughout Wayne State University and the metropolitan Detroit area. In recent years, BCN faculty ahve had active research collaborations and /or BCN graduate students have conducted neuroscience research with scientists at Wayne State University's departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Nutrition and Food Science, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Physiology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, at various research centers such as the Karmanos Cancer Institute, the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth & Development, Brain Imaging Research Division and the Center for Behavioral Medicine, as well as the Henry Ford Hopsital's Sleep Disorders Laboratory and Health Psychology Laboratory.

Laboratory Facilities

A broad spectrum of equipment housed in the Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Program laboratories enhances graduate training and research.

General purpose equipment such as oscilloscopes, infusion pumps, analytical balances, and many computers equipped with software packages for word processing, statistical analysis of data, and graphical representation of data are available to students. Surgical laboratories include stereotaxic instruments, autoclaves, electrolytic and radio frequency lesion makers, and equipment for producing neurotoxic lesions. Histology laboratories are equipped with cryostats, freezing microtomes, compound microscopes, and computer-based imaging equipment for the 3-dimentional analyses of individual neurons or brain sections. Behavioral laboratories are equipped to conduct a variety of experiments.

Specific specialized laboratories, listed alphabetically, include

Behavioral Pharmacology and Toxicology Laboratory (Dr. Bowen): Behavioral test appratuses include operant chambers, activity monitors, various mazes (Morris and Plus), and various motor funciton tests are used to investigate the neurobehavioral mechanisms underlying inhalant tolerance and dependence, and the developmental effects of prenatal inhalant exposure. A state-of-the art gas chromatograph allow sensitive assessment of tissue levels of drugs.

Clinical Psychopharmacology Laboratory (Dr. Kilbey): Cognitive proceses involved in drug use and dependence in humans are studied using computerized equipment measureing retrieval from memory of drug-related stimuli. Equipment is available to measure drug metabolites and numerous personality variables to determine their role as mediators and moderators of memory for drug stimuli.

Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging Lab (Dr. Naftali Raz). Located in the Skillman Building, next to the Institute of Gerontology, Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging Laboratory houses the research program dedicated to exploration of neural underpinnings of cognitive aging, as well its positive and negative modifiers. Currently, we are engaged in the following projects funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging: A longitudinal study of differential age-related changes in brain structure, longitudinal predictors of episodic memory, age-related differences in executive functions and their neural correlates, hypertension as a modifier of cognitive and brain aging. For non-invasive brain imaging we use MRI facilities at Harper Hospital and Children's Hospital of Michigan, the affiliates of Wayne State Unviersity. We also collaborate with the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) on a study of protective effects of exercise and aerobic fitness on the aging brain and cognition.

Feeding & Eating Disorders Laboratory (Dr. Coscina): This laboratory contains state-of-the-art wet-lab, surgical and behavioral testing areas. It houses metabolic chambers that measure energy consumption used to study the neurochemical, neurohormonal and neuroanatomical mechanisms that govern eating and animal modelsof eating disorders. In vivo microdialysis and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipment with computer controls study changes in brain chemistry associated with feeding and related states. Additional apparatus measures exploratory motor activity, wheel-running activity, videotaping of various behaviors and learning in a spatial water task.

Human Pharmacology Laboratory (Dr. Johanson): Located in the Jefferson Avenue Research Clinic, research focuses on biobehavioral mechanisms of human substance abuse. The laboratory consists of 10 test rooms, a monitoring room, and office space for the research team. There are completely automated state-of-the-art systems for recording behavioral and physiological responses, visual and auditory monitoring equipment to observe participants, and a medical support group. In addition to research on cocaine and heroin abuse, ongoing basic and clinical investigations also study nicotine dependence.

Infant and Child Development Lab (Dr. Partridge): The main focus of our research is on the bi-directional influences of limbic system regulation, infant and child temperament, and ecological contexts. Our lab is equipped with an 8 channel physiological signal amplifier for assessing EKG and respiration with real time data analysis software calculating indices such as respiratory sinus arrhythmia. The lab is also set up for behavioral observation child-caregiver interactions for children ranging from newborns to pre-schoolers.

Molecular Mechanisms of Learning Laboratory (Dr. Fischer): This laboratory utilizes advanced neurophysiological techniques (such as current and voltage clamp) in conjunction with behavioral and computational techniques to study molecular and synaptic processes associated with learning.

Neurobehavioral Teratology Laboratory (Dr. Hannigan): Located in the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth & Development, equipment is available for behavioral testing of rodents (various automated mazes and activity monitors), histological preparation (tissue imbedders, microtome, and microscopes, Neurolucida neural image analysis system), basic neurochemical and molecular biological assays, to assess the teratology of prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs. The clinical research component of the lab, located in the University Health Center, assesses neural and behavioral and cognitive outcomes in children with fetal alcohol effects

Neurobiology of Emotion Laboratory (Dr. Borszcz): The neural mechanisms that underlie emotion and studied using specialized audio equipment for the analysis of animal vocalizations, computer-controlled brain stimulators, and electro-physiological equipment for recording multiple- or single-unit neural activity from the brain. Changes in brain chemistry associated with emotional states are studied using in vivo microdialysis and high-performance liquid chromatography.

Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Faculty

George S. Borszcz, Associate Professor 
Ph.D. Dartmouth College, 1987
Interests: The neurobiology of learning and emotion.

Scott E. Bowen, Associate Professor and Area Chair
Ph.D. University of Mississippi, 1993
Interests: Behavioral pharmacology and toxicology, neurobehavioral effects of prenatal toluene exposure.

Donald V. Coscina, Professor
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1971
Interests: Brain neurochemistry and behavior, food intake, body weight regulation.

Thomas Fischer, Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of California, Riverside, 1990
Interests: Synaptic plasticity, neural mechanisms of learning.

John H. Hannigan, Professor
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Ph.D. State University of New York, Binghamton, 1983
Interests: Neurobehavioral effects of prenatal alcohol exposure.

M. Marlyne Kilbey, Professor
Ph.D., University of Houston, 1969
Interests: Psychopharmacology, substance use disorders.

Scott Moffat, Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Western Ontario, 1998
Interests: Cognitive and structural and functional brain changes associated with aging.

Ty Partridge, Associate Professor
Ph.D., Wichita State University, 1998
Interests: Biology-behavioral relationships, child temperament, developmental systems theory, statistical and computational modeling.

Naftali Raz, Professor,
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 1985
Interests: Cognitive Aging, Cognitive Neuroscience, Noninvasive Neuroimaging. (Primary appointment is Institute of Gerontology).

Michelle Tomaszycki, Assistant Professor,
Ph.D., Emory University, 2002
Interests: Integrative, focusing on the neurobiological mechanisms of social behavior.

Faculty with primary appointments in other units

Ernest B. Abel, Professor
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Ph.D. University of Toronto, 1971
Interests: Prenatal determinants of abnormal behavior and reproductive toxicology; effects of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine on offspring behavior and on reproductive behavior of parents.