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Gray Matter Lures Students To Neuroscience Minor
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The new neuroscience minor, devoted to understanding how the actions of the brain
and nervous system determine behavior, is thriving as more students cultivate an interest in the field. |
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Driven by a desire to study the telltale signs of Alzheimer's disease,
and the effects of steroids and anti-depressants on the brain, students
have flocked to the University of San Francisco's neuroscience minor
seeking answers to what makes the mind tick.
Once the domain of a limited number of specialists, neuroscience - devoted to understanding how the actions of the brain and nervous system determine behavior - is now a rapidly growing field that reaches into many of our daily lives, even touching our families, in unexpected ways.
Physical therapists, for example, are using neuroscience to investigate whether stroke patients, with partial paralysis in an arm, recover faster by using robot therapy to assist arm movements, said Karen Francis, assistant professor in USF's the department of exercise and sport science.
"Researchers in this area are interested in examining neural and behavioral mechanisms that underlie motor skill acquisition and learning," Francis said.
Francis is one of about seven USF instructors from a variety of disciplines who teach courses in the neuroscience minor. Truly interdisciplinary, the popular minor incorporates classes from biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, and exercise and sport science in an effort to understand how brain activities produce behavior and how injury, drugs, and aging affect those activities.
From eight students following the minor's launch in spring 2006 to 25 enrolled students for fall 2007, demand for the minor has taken off, according to associate professor of psychology Susan Heidenreich.
Interest in the minor is being driven in part by media coverage of medical and research breakthroughs in areas involving stem cells, strokes, and the aging process, said assistant professor of psychology Ed Munnich.
"I think Time and Newsweek have been doing a lot of our recruiting for us," Munnich said.
Advances in technology have also helped attract students from fields that draw on neuroscience, Heidenreich said. Today's resonance image scanners allow scientists to "see" into the brain and correlate certain behaviors with specific regions of the brain, Heidenreich said.
In the fight to find cures, many of USF's neuroscience minors see an opportunity to not only do important work, but also to make a difference in patients' lives, said Elinor Artsy '06. She graduated with a degree in psychology and minor in neuroscience.
"There were some of us who wanted to delve into the more biological side of behavior, including the connection to pharmaceuticals and new diseases," said Artsy, who works as a cognitive neuroscience researcher for Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Her research focuses on brain activation and behavioral response relating to alcoholism. She also studies neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
In addition to smaller classes and personalized instruction, USF's neuroscience program is set apart from similar offerings at larger universities in that outstanding undergraduates have a chance to do laboratory research and even coauthor papers, Heidenreich said. Typically, graduate students take on those roles at larger schools.
Such experience is more than resume-building fodder; it can give students a "leg up when it comes to applying to medical school or graduate programs," Heidenreich said. 
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