Predoctoral Training Program in Behavioral Brain Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of the proposed predoctoral training program is to train the next generation of behavioral science researchers to skillfully incorporate neuroscience perspectives and methods into their programs of research, based on an understanding of brain structure and function that extends across traditional areas of behavioral research. The Behavioral Brain Research Training Program (T32) has the specific aim of providing graduate students committed to research at the interface of the behavioral and brain sciences with foundational training in neuroscience methods and perspectives, through coursework and laboratory-based research experiences in their first two years. Moreover, we will provide trainees with deep training in behavioral science research, via courses and independent programs of research. Finally, we aim for continued infusion of cross-cutting perspectives, through co-mentoring, laboratory rotation experiences, and program forums that foster exposure to behavioral and brain science research. Basic research focused on the interface between behavior and the brain is crucial for understanding the mechanisms and treatment of a large number of human health issues that cut across NIH Institutes. With its broad mission, NIGMS is the natural home of a training program that aims to bridge behavioral and biomedical approaches across traditionally separate lines of inquiry in the behavioral sciences. By focusing upon the brain as a common substrate, significant progress in different subfields of behavioral research can be most effectively integrated, thus leveraging advances in one area into other domains of study. This training program will focus on three major research themes to accomplish integration: Representation and Communication; Evaluation and Control; Learning, Memory, and Plasticity. The training program will be jointly coordinated by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Contiguous to one another and possessing excellence in both behavioral research and neuroscience, the institutions share a long history of collegiality and cooperation in graduate training that can be effectively combined to deepen the neuroscience training of the next generation of behavioral science students and to broaden the behavioral science fields within which neuroscience is integrated.