Academic Department

Neurobiology and Behavior

The Department of Neurobiology and Behavior is dedicated to exploring, teaching and understanding the neural underpinnings and evolutionary forces that shape animal behavior. The interests of our faculty and students span all levels of organization, from single neurons to complex circuits to whole organisms and societies thereof, and include the impact of hormones and stress on learning and memory, the emergent properties that define behavioral states and govern complex tasks, and the evolution of cooperation, conflict and communication from solitary to highly social organisms.

The department offers a wide range of research opportunities in cellular and molecular neuroscience, systems neuroscience, computational neuroscience, neuroethology and endocrinology, behavioral, sensory and cognitive ecology, sociobiology, sexual selection, chemical ecology and the evolution of species boundaries. Our teaching mission is to integrate most of these themes into two flagship courses, BioNB 2210 (Introduction to Behavior) and BioNB 2220 (Introduction to Neuroscience), and to explore them in greater depth in our upper level courses. These traditional strengths in research and teaching, combined with the recent hires of exciting new faculty members, have positioned NBB as a leader in the emerging science of the brain.