Neuroscience

About this opportunity

Neuroscientists seeks to understand how the brain and nervous system function to control bodily function, behavior and our internal mental states. The field of neuroscience is truly interdisciplinary, spanning all levels of biological analysis and encompassing many other disciplines such as computation, psychology, philosophy, medicine, law and engineering.

Barrett Honors students in the Neuroscience BS program will receive rigorous, in-depth training in the interdisciplinary foundations of neuroscience (biology, chemistry and psychology) along with a breadth of training across four main areas: Behavioral, Cellular & molecular, Cognitive; and Systems Neuroscience. Supervised research opportunities are available within all these areas.

Thesis

A Neuroscience thesis for the Barrett Honors College generally involves research in an area of interest to the student that overlaps with research on campus. The Thesis Director may closely guide the research or, more occasionally, they may primarily provide general guidelines for the independent research of the student. Empirical projects may involve the collection of new data or the use existing data sets to answer to new research questions. Ideally the thesis will yield publishable results that will greatly benefit a student in their future career in graduate school, and beyond.

The first thing to consider as you embark on your project is to find an ASU faculty member with Neuroscience expertise to serve as your Thesis Director. Our list of Neuroscience research labs will help you find a range of faculty members whose interests are relevant to your own. Neuroscience faculty who are not yet included in this list may also be appropriate Thesis Directors, but you should first confirm their eligibility with the Faculty Honors Advisor. Prior to approaching specific faculty, we strongly encourage you to spend some time familiarizing yourself with their research so that you can convey in your communication with them why their research is of specific interest to you. Your second committee member can be faculty or anyone with sufficient expertise in the thesis topic, as approved by your Thesis Director. Inclusion of a third committee member is highly recommended, but not mandated by our program. Completing your thesis successfully and on-time will require careful planning, preparation, and time management. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to have begun planning your thesis by the fall of your junior year.

Academic Preparation

To be prepared for research on Neuroscience, students should have completed foundational coursework in the major, including the NEU 290 course in Data Science.  Specific research domains will require more advanced knowledge, for example in computation or molecular/cellular neuroscience. This is another reason to plan ahead: Some faculty will consider such advanced academic preparation as a prerequisite for conducting research in their labs.

Students may enroll in 3 credits of NEU 492: Honors Directed Study and 3 credits of NEU 493: Honors Thesis. Registration for NEU 492 requires the consent of the student’s proposed Thesis Director. Registration for NEU 493 establishes the makeup of the student’s full committee and requires a brief abstract of the proposed project. Registration questions should be directed to the Neuroscience Academic Advisor: psych.advisor@asu.edu.

Recommended Timeline

As early as possible, but no later than the first semester of your junior year:

• Complete the Barrett Honors College online or live thesis preparation workshop.
• Find a Thesis Director and, with their approval, form your thesis committee

Please consult Barrett Honors College’s list of due dates for achievement of specific milestones leading up to submission and acceptance of your final thesis.

Other Honors Opportunities

We have several opportunities for students (especially ASU Online students) to participate in Neruoscience research through the Online Undergraduate Research Scholars (OURS) program.