Neuroscience Course Clusters

Neuroscience is a broad, interdisciplinary area of study that spans numerous methodological approaches and scholarly topics. Students are encouraged to sample widely from among Duke’s many neuroscience-related course offerings so that they cultivate a diverse, informed perspective on the field as a whole. Students should feel empowered to explore the neuroscience curriculum freely. In doing so, they can create unexpected opportunities for learning and discover connections among disparate topics of interest.

Nonetheless, students may want to follow up on an introductory course that particularly fascinated them with more advanced lecture, seminar, or methods courses on related topics. To facilitate this kind of strategic course planning, we have assembled below a list of some suggested course clusters centered around broad themes in neuroscience. This list is not intended to be exhaustive or comprehensive in terms of the scope of neuroscience offerings at Duke. Students should treat these clusters as examples of how to build upon their core knowledge in structured ways as they plan their educational curriculum, in consultation with their academic advisors. Students are not required to cluster their electives according to these themes; this list simply serves as a reference guide for course planning. ‘I’ indicates that courses count as ‘Intersection’ electives.

Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

  • NEUROSCI 201 — Fundamentals of Neuroscience
  • NEUROSCI 223 — Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
  • NEUROSCI 350 — Pharmacology: Drug Actions and Reactions
  • NEUROSCI 353S.01 — Neuroplasticity and Disease: Molecules, Cells, and Circuits
  • NEUROSCI 373 — Behavioral Neuroimmunology
  • NEUROSCI 421S — Biology of Nervous System Diseases
  • NEUROSCI 423S — Development of Neural Circuits
  • NEUROSCI 427S — Sensory Biology
  • NEUROSCI 471S — Reward and Addiction
  • NEUROSCI 533 — Essentials of Pharmacology and Toxicology
  • NEUROSCI 685S — Biological Pathways to Psychopathology

 Clinical Neuroscience

  • NEUROSCI 123FS — When the Head’s in Trouble: Language, Lesions and Loss (I)
  • NEUROSCI 153FS — Drugs and the Law (I)
  • NEUROSCI 212 — Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
  • NEUROSCI 277 — Looking Inside the Disordered Brain
  • NEUROSCI 350 — Pharmacology: Drug Actions and Reactions
  • NEUROSCI 353S.01 — Neuroplasticity and Disease: Molecules, Cells, and Circuits
  • NEUROSCI 360 — Drugs, Brain and Behavior
  • NEUROSCI 380L — Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain
  • NEUROSCI 382L — Functional Neuroimaging
  • NEUROSCI 383L — Brain Waves and Cognition
  • NEUROSCI 390S.01 — Special Topics in Neuroscience: Opiate Outreach (Bass Connections) (I)
  • NEUROSCI 421S — Biology of Nervous System Diseases
  • NEUROSCI 471S — Reward and Addiction
  • NEUROSCI 685S — Biological Pathways to Psychopathology

 Cognitive Neuroscience

  • NEUROSCI 155FS — Vision
  • NEUROSCI 212 — Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
  • NEUROSCI 258 — Decision Neuroscience
  • NEUROSCI 280 — Social and Affective Neuroscience
  • NEUROSCI 282 — Neuroscience of Movement and Athletic Performance
  • NEUROSCI 289 — Music and the Brain (I)
  • NEUROSCI 351S.01 — Plasticity and Expertise
  • NEUROSCI 355S — Visual Perception and the Brain
  • NEUROSCI 360 — Drugs, Brain and Behavior
  • NEUROSCI 378 — Perception and the Brain
  • NEUROSCI 380L — Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain
  • NEUROSCI 382L — Functional Neuroimaging
  • NEUROSCI 383L — Brain Waves and Cognition
  • NEUROSCI 425S — Auditory Neuroscience: From Sound to Music
  • NEUROSCI 426S — Visual Processing
  • NEUROSCI 439S — Neuroscience and Multilingualism
  • NEUROSCI 451S — Autobiographical Memory
  • NEUROSCI 462S-01 — Neuroscience Applications for Decision Making
  • NEUROSCI 469S — Cognitive Control/Prefrontal Cortex
  • NEUROSCI 470S — Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory
  • NEUROSCI 510 — Brain and Language

 Computational Neuroscience/Neuroengineering

  • NEUROSCI 103 — Computing and the Brain
  • NEUROSCI 301L — Bioelectricity
  • NEUROSCI 502 — Neural Signal Acquisition
  • NEUROSCI 503 — Computational Neuroengineering
  • NEUROSCI 504 — Fundamentals of Electrical Stimulation of the Nervous System
  • NEUROSCI 517 — Neuronal Control of Movement
  • NEUROSCI 511L — Intermediate Bioelectricity
  • NEUROSCI 515 — Neural Prosthetic Systems
  • NEUROSCI 590-03 — Special Topics in Neuroscience/BME: Biophysics of Neuroscience Tools

 Neurohumanities, Arts and Society

  • NEUROSCI 116FS — Neuroscience and Human Language (I)
  • NEUROSCI 190S-01 — Special Topics in Neuroscience: Neuroscience and Fiction
  • NEUROSCI 237.01 — Religion and Science: Biology, Minds, and Souls
  • NEUROSCI 241.01 — Flaubert’s Brain (I)
  • NEUROSCI 242A — The Creative Brain: Literature, Arts & Cognition (I)
  • NEUROSCI 245A —The Cultured Brain: Neuroscience of Perception and Action (I)
  • NEUROSCI 250 Brains Everywhere (I)  (NEUROSCI 290S.01 — Brains Everywhere (I) S '19)
  • NEUROSCI 288S.01 — Music as Biology (I)
  • NEUROSCI 289 — Music and the Brain (I)
  • NEUROSCI 340S — Educational Neuroscience (I)
  • NEUROSCI 439S — Neuroscience and Multilingualism

 Philosophy of Mind

  • NEUROSCI 193FS — Neurobiology of Mind
  • NEUROSCI 212 — Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
  • NEUROSCI 252 — Philosophy and Neuroscience
  • NEUROSCI 267 — Neuroethics (I)
  • NEUROSCI 469S — Cognitive Control/Prefrontal Cortex
  • NEUROSCI 462S-01 — Neuroscience Applications for Decision Making
  • NEUROSCI 555S — Philosophy of Mind (Topic: Memory & Imagination)

 Systems and Integrative Neuroscience

  • NEUROSCI 201 — Fundamentals of Neuroscience
  • NEUROSCI 211 — Brain and Behavior
  • NEUROSCI 278 — Sex/Gender-Nature/Nurture: Intersections of Biology and Society (I)
  • NEUROSCI 322 — From Neurons to Brain
  • NEUROSCI 350 — Pharmacology: Drug Actions and Reactions
  • NEUROSCI 353S.01 — Neuroplasticity and Disease: Molecules, Cells, and Circuits
  • NEUROSCI 373 — Behavioral Neuroimmunology
  • NEUROSCI 381LA — Sensory Physiology and Behavior or Marine Animals
  • NEUROSCI 385L — Integrative Neuroscience
  • NEUROSCI 423S — Development of Neural Circuits
  • NEUROSCI 427S — Sensory Biology
  • NEUROSCI 461S — Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
  • NEUROSCI 471S — Reward and Addiction
  • NEUROSCI 478S — Motivation, Action, Choice: Neural and Behavioral Mechanisms
  • NEUROSCI 517 — Neuronal Control of Movement