Welcome to the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems

The Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS) provides advanced training and research experience for graduate students and qualified undergraduates interested in the neural and computational principles, mechanisms, and architectures that underlie human and animal behavior, and the application of neural network architectures to the solution of technological problems. The department’s training and research focus on two broad questions. The first question is: How does the brain control behavior? This is a modern form of the Mind/Body Problem. The second question is: How can technology emulate biological intelligence? This question needs to be answered to develop intelligent technologies that are well suited to human societies. These goals are symbiotic because brains are unparalleled in their ability to intelligently adapt on their own to complex and novel environments. Models of how the brain accomplishes this are developed through systematic empirical, mathematical, and computational analysis in the department. Autonomous adaptation to a changing world is also needed to solve many of the outstanding problems in technology, and the biological models have inspired qualitatively new designs for applications. During the past decade, CNS has led the way in developing biological models that can quantitatively simulate the dynamics of identified brain cells in identified neural circuits, and the behaviors that they control. This new level of understanding is leading to comparable advances in intelligent technology.

CNS is a graduate department that is devoted to the interdisciplinary training of graduate students. The department awards MA, PhD, and BA/MA degrees. Its students are trained in a broad range of areas concerning computational neuroscience, cognitive science, and neuromorphic systems. The biological training includes study of the brain mechanisms of vision and visual object recognition; audition, speech, and language understanding; recognition learning, categorization, and long-term memory; cognitive information processing; self-organization and development, navigation, planning, and spatial orientation; cooperative and competitive network dynamics and short-term memory; reinforcement and motivation; attention; adaptive sensory-motor planning, control, and robotics; biological rhythms; consciousness; mental disorders; and the mathematical and computational methods needed to support advanced modeling research and applications. Technological training includes methods and applications in image processing, multiple types of signal processing, adaptive pattern recognition and prediction, information fusion, and intelligent control and robotics.

The foundation of this broad training is the unique interdisciplinary curriculum of seventeen interdisciplinary graduate courses that have been developed at CNS. Each of these courses integrates the psychological, neurobiological, mathematical, and computational information needed to theoretically investigate fundamental issues concerning mind and brain processes and the applications of artificial neural networks and hybrid systems to technology. A student’s curriculum is tailored to his or her career goals with an academic and a research adviser. In addition to taking interdisciplinary courses within CNS, students develop important disciplinary expertise by also taking courses in departments such as biology, computer science, engineering, mathematics, and psychology. In addition to these formal courses, students work individually with one or more research advisors to learn how to do advanced interdisciplinary research in their chosen research areas. As a result of this breadth and depth of training, CNS students have succeeded in finding excellent jobs in both academic and technological areas after graduation.

The CNS Department interacts with colleagues in several Boston University research centers or groups, and with Boston-area scientists collaborating with these centers. The units most closely linked to the department are the Center for Adaptive Systems, the Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology, and the CNS Technology Laboratory. Students interested in neural network hardware can work with researchers in CNS and at the College of Engineering. Other research resources include the campus-wide Program in Neuroscience, which includes distinguished research groups in cognitive neuroscience, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, neuropharmacology, and neural modeling across the Charles River Campus and the Medical School; in sensory robotics, biomedical engineering, computer and systems engineering, and neuromuscular research within the College of Engineering; in dynamical systems within the Mathematics Department; in theoretical computer science within the Computer Science Department; and in biophysics and computational physics within the Physics Department. Key colleagues in these units hold joint appointments in CNS in order to expedite training and research interactions with CNS core faculty and students.

In addition to its basic research and training program, the department organizes an active colloquium series, various research and seminar series, and international conferences and symposia, to bring distinguished scientists from experimental, theoretical, and technological disciplines to the department.

The department is housed in its own four-story building, which includes ample space for faculty and student offices and laboratories (active perception, auditory neuroscience, computational neuroscience, visual psychophysics, speech and language, sensory-motor control, neurobotics, computer vision, and technology), as well as an auditorium, classroom, seminar rooms, a library, and a faculty-student lounge. The department has a powerful computer network for carrying out large-scale simulations of behavioral and brain models and applications.

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