Introduction course

Period August 22 – September 2, 2016

Location Red Room and other locations, Trigon Building Kapittelweg 29

Educational aims To familiarize students with the overall structure of the CNS programme, get acquainted with CNS management and each other. To have students discover areas in which they might benefit from more formal training.

Contents / Description Research in the domain of the cognitive neurosciences is a multi-disciplinary effort. This is of course evident based on the involvement of lecturers from five different faculties of the Radboud University in the MSc CNS programme. In addition, the multidisciplinary character of the MSc CNS programme is reflected in the student population. Students with many different backgrounds are accepted to the programme, ranging from behavioural sciences such as psychology and cognitive science to natural sciences such as biology and physics. As a result, each student may benefit from more formal training in one area or another. To facilitate a common ground, the MSc CNS programme starts with a two-week introduction course providing an overview of some of the most esssential areas such as professional ethics, experimental methods, neurobiology, mathematics, statistics, and computer programming.

Note that this course does not provide ECs (with the exception of the Neuroanatomy part as this is one of the skill courses; see section 4.3) and is thus not strictly required. Nevertheless, taking part in this course is highly recommended as it serves three main functions: 1) providing an overall structure of the programme 2) serving as a signal function to point out areas in which more formal training may be required 3) as the first course of the MSc CNS programme this course provides an excellent opportunity to get to know your fellow students in the programme. This ‘social’ reason has significant educational benefits, which is why all research master students are expected to follow this course, including the state-of-the-art Neuroanatomy course.

Teaching methods Lectures, assignments, discussions

Materials Lecture notes, suggested readings

Information Prof. dr. A. Roelofs, Dr. A. Koning

Registration Not necessary, except for the Neuroanatomy course (see section 4.3)

Schedule