Master of Science (MSc) in Neuroscience

Summary

The Master of Science (MSc) is a two-year degree which encompasses both coursework and research. The first year involves mainly coursework and preliminary research preparation. Students will have the opportunity to contribute to existing fields of research, or to begin to develop new areas.

Why study Neuroscience?

The brain is a final frontier... a last great unknown.

Neuroscientists are its explorers. They try to understand how the brain functions, how it deals with injury or damage, and how it develops and changes over time.

What they find helps neurologists, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists – and provides important models for high-level information processing and robotics.

Knowing how the brain perceives stimuli and controls movement helps those working on human performance from sports science to space medicine.

Neuroscience research

Neuroscientists at the University of Otago are involved in a range of exciting research. Neuroscience students learn about this (and other) research as undergraduates, and can work in the lab with Otago’s neuroscientists as postgraduates.

For example:

Professor Cliff Abraham is interested in the neural mechanisms of memory. His lab is also investigating biomarkers and therapeutic agents for Alzheimer’s disease.

Associate Professor Mike Paulin is investigating how animals use sensory information to move quickly, accurately, and efficiently.

Professor John Reynolds is interested in how we learn and remember skills, with a focus on Parkinson’s disease and stroke.

Professor Colin Brown investigates how the brain controls reproduction and cardiovascular function.

Associate Professor Christine Jasoni is researching how a mother’s health during pregnancy affects the formation of the foetal brain to elevate risk of mental illness.

Associate Professor Beulah Leitch is interested in the changes that occur at synapses (the contacts between brain cells that allow them to communicate with each other) during ageing and various brain disorders including epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Paul Szyszka investigates olfactory search behavior in insects – what are their perceptual limits in olfaction, and what patterns of neural activities are behaviourally relevant?

Duration of the Programme

A candidate achieving the degree by papers and a thesis shall normally follow a programme for the equivalent of not less than two years of full-time study and not more than three years of full-time study, and a candidate achieving the degree by thesis alone shall normally follow a programme of study for the equivalent of not less than one year of full-time study and not more than two years of full-time study. Exceptions shall be permitted only with the approval of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Sciences).

Intake: Anytime for thesis-only option.