Neuroscience Minor

Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field that employs methods and theories from biology, chemistry,  computer science, physics, psychology, philosophy, and other fields to understand the brain, behavior, and the mind.  The study of neuroscience can prepare students for graduate studies or professional work in areas such as pharmacology, nursing, medicine, physical therapy, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral genetics, animal behavior, computer science, rehabilitation psychology, and clinical psychology.  

    Dr. Huda Akil, past President of the Society for Neuroscience, has stated that ”being educated about your brain, and how it works, and how it affects how you think and feel and function and interact with others, is very helpful…. It is a nonjudgmental way of helping people understand more about themselves…. This is a great time for neuroscience.”

    The interdisciplinary Neuroscience Minor, implemented in Fall 2004, is designed to be compatible with any Bachelors degree major within the College of Letters and Science.  It requires a minimum of 21 credits, drawing from Biology, Computer Science, Philosophy, and Psychology course offerings.  Courses taken MAY double-count for the chosen major and the Neuroscience minor.  A minimum GPA of 2.00 must be earned in all courses required for the minor.

Required units (crs):  21 minimum.  Note that all courses below have at least one prerequisite that often fulfills General Education requirements (designated by HU, NS, and SS). .

    Until further notice, the faculty advisor for the Neuroscience Minor is Dana Vaughan of the Biology & Microbiology Department.  A member of UW Oshkosh's teaching staff since 1998, Dr.Vaughan earned her PhD in Physiology & Cell Biology from the University of California Santa Barbara and was a postdoctoral fellow in Physiology & Ophthalmology for 3 years at the University of Utah.  During those training years, she studied vertebrate retinal photoreceptors, retinal astrocytes, and retinal second-order neurons, publishing her work in journals such as Visual Neuroscience, Investigative Ophthalmology & Vision Science, the Journal of Cell Biology, and the Journal of Comparative Neurology.  Subsequently, she also studied the medicinal leech's neural circuitry that mediates feeding and has collaborated on studies of transgenic rodent models of blinding human diseases.   Her research models have included rabbit, rat, Xenopus frog, teleost fish, and ground squirrel.

    Dr. Vaughan's office is located in Halsey 249.  Neuroscience minors are also welcome at her office hours, which are posted on her office door each semester.