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The Psychology and Neuroscience REU Program is structured upon four fundamental educational components—mentored research, didactic experiences, ethics training, and research dissemination—to maximize learning, academic, and professional development, and scholarly fellowship among REU participants and the Brooklyn College scientific community.
REU students dedicate approximately 12 to 15 hours per week toward laboratory research activities and an additional five to six hours a week toward didactic seminars/colloquia. Students complete a one-week ethics training curriculum toward the end of the 15-week program. The culmination of each participant’s semester-long research experience results in a professional scientific poster to be presented at Brooklyn College’s annual, campus-wide Science Day.
A $3,100 stipend is awarded to REU students.
Our program provides the opportunity for each student to work closely with his or her mentor on both an independent project as well as on existing projects in the mentor’s lab. This immersive approach exposes students to a broad range of neuroscience interests and related skills and a diversity of contemporary approaches and techniques.
Independent research projects are designed by both students and mentors to investigate well-defined scientific questions and hypotheses within the scope of 12 to 15 weeks. During this time frame, students may generate stimuli and/or pilot test experiments, recruit and test participants, execute experiments, collect data, and analyze and interpret results. Mentors teach students the skills and instrumentation necessary to carry out their projects effectively as well as provide opportunities for students to present their work in writing or orally throughout the semester, such as in lab meetings, talks or other events.
This 15-week research experience culminates in the presentation of each student’s project in poster form at Brooklyn College’s Science Day, an annual campus-wide science fair featuring work by undergraduate and graduate students. REU students spend the latter part of the semester in preparation for this event.
Visit our REU faculty for potential mentors and projects.
REU students spend approximately five hours each week engaged in structured didactic experiences, which include the Neuroscience Seminar, REU Journal Club, and statistics. These lectures and activities are intended to increase students’ exposure to and understanding of neuroscience research, create opportunities for students to share research ideas with faculty and peers, and enable students to communicate more effectively about their work.
This weekly 240-minute seminar series developed for REU participants provides:
The overview touches upon the organization of the central nervous system, cellular biology and physiology, sensory and motor systems, brain development/neural plasticity, brain structure-function, chemical control of the brain, and motivation and reward circuitry. As the semester progresses, the focus turns toward in-depth coverage of domain-specific special topics relevant to research conducted in laboratories of core REU faculty and their expertise. Topics and research methods reviewed may include: non-invasive psychophysiological approaches (e.g., electrodermal activity, event-related potential) toward identifying markers for aggressive, antisocial, psychopathic, and criminal behavior (Gao Lab; Clinical Neuroscience); neural and cognitive underpinnings of memory and metamemory using functional neuroimaging and eye tracking (Chua Lab; Cognitive Neuroscience).
Another component of the seminar series highlights professional issues, such as CV preparation, the graduate school application and admissions process, preparation for the GRE, soliciting letters of recommendation, applying for fellowships, interviewing, attending conferences, research writing, American Psychological Association formatting, presentation skills, building relationships with faculty, and exploring career paths.
Each week three or four REU participants update faculty and peers about their research activities, new skills learned, progress made toward implementing their study, and any problems or questions that have arisen. Seminar members provide constructive feedback.
REU participants meet weekly for a 90-minute journal club led by a Brooklyn College doctoral student. All articles are assigned in advance. REU students voice their views about the studies presented, particularly their thoughts on the appropriateness of the design and data collection procedures, statistical methods employed, interpretation of findings, applied value and generalizability of findings, limitations, and possible future directions.
In addition, over the course of the semester each student presents one to two articles. Student peers evaluate the article, debate any controversial issues, and reflect upon the relative merits or limitations of the research. The final 10 to 15 minutes of each week’s journal club is spent discussing the colloquium from the previous week.
