Brain and Psychopathology

The new Brain and Psychopathology program at the School of Psychology, University of Haifa, is a unique program for studying the neural substrates of psychiatric disorders in humans and animal models. The program focuses on the neural basis of psychological processes in general, and on psychopathology in particular. The MA (approx 2-year) or PhD ( approx 5-year) programs offer a variety of courses from different fields of knowledge in behavioral neuroscience and allow students to experience an interdisciplinary research approach.

The program provides training for inter-disciplinary brain research, and enables students to participate in fascinating, cutting edge science. Research themes include:

• Neural substrates of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and schizophrenia

• Neurobiology of emotion, learning and memory

• Psychopharmacology

• Early intervention and prevention of psychiatric disorders

• Developmental aspects of language, normal brain function and psychopathology

• Effects of cannabis on memory and trauma processes

• Neural substrates of reward mechanisms

• Neural substrates of cognition/emotion interactions

• Emotional regulation of learning

• Stress effects on brain and behavior

• Gene / Environment interactions and epigenetics.

• A special track for students who graduated from life sciences (biology, chemistry, health sciences, etc.). This track is designated for students who do not have a Psychology degree but have a background in life sciences and are interested in the behavioral aspects of neuroscience. Some additional course work from the Psychology BA program is required in this track.

• New! a special track for students with a degree in computer science/ exact sciences (physics, mathematics, statistics). Some additional course work from the Psychology BA program is required in this track.