Video: [1 min 23 sec]

Swarthmore students have direct access to faculty research opportunities. Stephen, a Neuroscience major, explains what it was like for him to collaborate with a Biology professor on her neuron research.

The Departments of Psychology and Biology offer a course major and an honors major in Neuroscience. Applications for this special major must be submitted to both departments. Each Neuroscience major will be assigned a primary advisor from whichever of the two departments best reflects the focus of that student's plan of study.

A. Entry Requirements for the Neuroscience Course Major and Honors Major

The study of Neuroscience involves advanced coursework with the following prerequisites. For admission to the Neuroscience special major, students must

a. complete (or otherwise satisfy) the following required courses (up to two credits of these taken at Swarthmore may be counted as Group B electives for the major), and

b. obtain a minimum GPA of 3.0 (B) for these courses overall, as well as within all Biology courses and within all Psychology courses.

Biology BIOL 001: Cellular and Molecular Biology

BIOL 002: Organismal and Population Biology

Chemistry CHEM 010: General Chemistry

CHEM 022: Organic Chemistry I

Math/Stat MATH 015: Elementary Single-Variable Calculus

STAT 011: Statistical Methods

Psychology PSYC 001: Introduction to Psychology

PSYC 025: Research Design and Analysis

The requirement for BIOL 001 and/or BIOL 002 may be satisfied by credit from the Biology AP exam (score of 5) if at least one credit in Biology has been completed at Swarthmore.

The requirement for CHEM 010 will be satisfied if the student has placed out of it and completed CHEM 022.

The requirements for MATH 015 and STAT 011 may be satisfied by placement out of these courses, as determined by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics

The requirement for PSYC 001 may be satisfied with a Psychology AP exam score of 5.

Provisional admission to the special major will normally be granted based on substantial progress in satisfying these entry requirements at the time of application.

B. Neuroscience Course Major Requirements

A special major at Swarthmore must include at least 10 credits and no more than 12 credits. A Neuroscience major will normally include two (2) Entry Requirement Courses (i.e., any two that have been taken at Swarthmore) and eight (8) Elective credits as specified below, including fulfilling the comprehensive requirement. Up to twelve credits may be included in the major, but only ten are required.

1. Electives

Majors will complete at least eight (8) elective credits from the following lists, to include at least one seminar. At least five (5) elective credits must be from Group A including at least one Foundation course and at least one course from each of Psychology and Biology. The remaining three (3) credits can be from either Group A, Group B, or Group C (see restrictions below). It is possible to substitute or add electives from other universities (e.g., Systems Neuroscience at UPenn), including abroadbut students should seek Swarthmore faculty approval for such courses in advance.

Group A: Neuroscience Electives

PSYC 030 Behavioral Neuroscience[Foundation Course*]

BIOL 022 Neurobiology [Foundation Course*]

BIOL 011 Epigenetics (spring 2015 ONLY)

BIOL 020 Animal Physiology

BIOL 029 Developmental Neurobiology

BIOL 030 Animal Behavior

BIOL 120 Sleep and Circadian Rhythms seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 123 Learning and Memory seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 124 Hormones and Behavior seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 131 Animal Communication seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 134 Evolution of Social Behavior (2 credits)

PSYC 031 Cognitive Neuroscience

PSYC 031A Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience

PSYC 032 Perception

PSYC 091 Advanced Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience

PSYC 130 Behavioral Neuroscience seminar (1 credit)

PSYC 131 Seminar in Cognitive Neuroscience (1 credit seminar)

PSYC 131A Psychology and Neuroscience: The Social Brain (1 credit seminar)

PSYC 132 Perception, Cognition, and Embodiment seminar (1 credit)

*At least one Foundation Course must be included. Both are recommended.

Group B: Course Electives in Related/Overlapping Scientific Areas

BIOL 010 Genetics

BIOL 014 Cell Biology

BIOL 019 Omics

BIOL 021 Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy

BIOL 024 Developmental Biology

BIOL 026 Invertebrate Biology

BIOL 034 Evolution

BIOL/CPSC 068 Bioinformatics

BIOL 110 Human Genetics seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 112 From Cells to Organs (2 credits)

BIOL 125 Frontiers in Developmental Biology seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 119 Genomics and Systems Biology seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 126 Biomechanics seminar (2 credits)

BIOL 136 Molecular Ecology and Evolution seminar (2 credits)

CHEM 038 Biological Chemistry

COGS 001 Introduction to Cognitive Science

CPSC 021 Introduction to Computer Science

MATH 056 Modeling

PSYC 033 Cognitive Psychology

PSYC 034 Psychology of Language

PSYC 035 Social Psychology

PSYC 036 Thinking, Judgment & Decision Making

PSYC 038 Clinical Psychology

PSYC 039 Developmental Psychology

PSYC 133 Metaphor and Mind seminar (1 credit)

PSYC 134 Psycholinguistics seminar (1 credit)

PSYC 138 Clinical Psychology seminar (1 credit)

PSYC 139 Developmental Psychology seminar (1 credit)

Group C: Research Electives

One unit of research (of up to 2 credits) in neuroscience from the following may be counted toward the minimum required 10 credits of the major. Additional research units may be counted for optional credits up to 12. Research electives are one way of fulfilling the comprehensive requirement (see below) for the Neuroscience major.

BIOL 098 Neuroscience Thesis Research

PSYC 096/097 Senior Thesis (2 credits)

PSYC099 Senior Neuroscience Thesis

PSYC 102 Research Practicum in Perception and Cognition

PSYC 103 Research Practicum in Behavioral Neuropharmacology

PSYC 104 Research Practicum in Mind and Language

PSYC 105 Research Practicum in Psychology and Neuroscience

PSYC 110 Research Practicum in Cognitive Neuroscience

2. Comprehensive Requirement

The comprehensive requirement is a Neuroscience Research Thesis, a complete scientific paper based on a research project conducted in Biology or Psychology or some other area related to neuroscience. The Research Thesis may either (1) be a research paper from a Group C elective, or (2) be based on a separate research project, such as might occur during a summer (whether at Swarthmore or at another institution) or as part of a laboratory project in a Neuroscience Elective (e.g., a 2-credit Biology seminar *).

In either case, a proposal will be submitted no later than the beginning of the senior year that explains the student's plan for conducting or completing the comprehensive requirement. If option 2 is selected, the proposal must be detailed. Upon approval of an option 2 proposal, students will register for a 0.5 credit unit of Neuroscience Thesis during either (but not both) semester of the senior year.; a 2-credit thesis will be evaluated by two faculty members, typically from two different departments.

*Students in Biology seminars often work on group projects and sometimes produce multi-authored research papers. Such a project may serve as the basis of a Neuroscience Research Thesis, but the paper must be a unique product of the student who submits it as his/her Thesis.

Neuroscience Research Thesis: Guidelines for content and organization.

The thesis should be organized in the format of a formal scientific paper, including the following sections: abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgments, and literature cited.

The thesis should report new empirical data on a research project that was conducted by the student.

As the comprehensive exercise for an interdisciplinary special major, students should endeavor to explain their scientific question(s) and how their work is related to larger questions or themes in neuroscience in the thesis introduction and/or discussion.

The length of the thesis is to be no more than 20 pages, double-spaced (exclusive of figures, tables, and references).

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Neuroscience :: Biology :: Swarthmore College

A concussion is a brain injury caused by a bump or blow to the head, and is the most common type of traumatic brain injury in both adults and children. Concussions range from minor to major and are usually diagnosed based on symptoms and severity of head trauma.

The Beaumont Concussion Clinic offers comprehensive, specialized acute care for children and adults who experience a concussion.

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Neuroscience - William Beaumont Health System

The Department of Neuroscience is part of Ohio State's multidisciplinary Neurological Institute. The department is closely aligned with the Neuroscience Graduate Program, which includes faculty from Neuroscience who work to advance our understanding of the brain and behavior. Our focus is on cross-disciplinary education and scientific study of nervous systems, including neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Were a top-ranked center for fundamental, translational and clinical research conducted by faculty, fellows and students. Unique research opportunities include a Neuroscience Center Core Program made possible by a grant from the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke. This supports core facilities and services in areas such as mouse and zebrafish genetics, nerve injury, rodent behavior, neurophysiology, muscle physiology, xenografting and small animal imaging.

Department resources include access to more than 25 state-of-the-art medical center research facilities and services. These involve proteomics, microarray, nucleic acid, comparative pathology and mouse phenotyping, analytical cytometry and biostatistics.

Support for clinical and translational research is provided by the Center for Clinical and Translational Science, funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Translational Science Award.

Link:
Department of Neuroscience | Ohio State Neurological Departments

An interdisciplinary program with 50 faculty members from 10 University departments, the neuroscience Ph.D. gives students a strong foundation across key areas of brain science, as well as advanced training in specialized subdisciplines.

Admissions cycles: Fall, Spring Application deadlines: Dec. 15, Sept. 15 Assistantship types available: Contact department Graduate directors: Michael Webster, Grant Mastick, Jim Kenyon

This program aims to develop the next generation of leading neuroscience academics and researchers. Students receive advanced, specialized training to develop their critical thinking and research skills in preparation for a wide range of possible career avenues, either in academia or the public or private sectors.

The program trains students to possess three key abilities:

Students tailor their curriculum to meet their research interests and professional goals. They may select from a diverse variety of courses within the program, including offerings in biology, computer science, electrical and biomedical engineering, microbiology and immunology, pharmacology, philosophy, psychiatry, psychology, physiology and more.

During the first two years of the program, students complete a track of foundation courses and research experience. They then specialize within a chosen subdiscipline for their research and training in subsequent years, culminating in their dissertation.

Program requirements include coursework in:

Possible elective course subjects include:

Neuroscience faculty members at the University of Nevada, Reno encourage the academic and professional development of students as independent researchers. Working closely with advisers and program directors, students develop a specialized, independent program of study in neuroscience research methodologies.

All applicants to the Integrative Neuroscience Graduate Program -- home to neuroscience Ph.D. -- must meet the admissions standards of the Graduate School. Additionally, they must also submit with their graduate application the following materials:

The program accepts applications each fall. The deadline for completed applications is Feb. 1.

Please contact the department.

You can apply now if you are ready to begin at the University. If you would like to learn more about the program, please contact:

Michael Webster, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Co-Director Neuroscience Graduate Program (775) 682-8691 mwebster@unr.edu

Grant Mastick, Ph.D. Professor, Co-Director Neuroscience Graduate Program, Co-Director Cell Biology Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (775) 784-6168 gmastick@unr.edu

Jim Kenyon, Ph.D. Professor, Co-Director Neuroscience Graduate Program (775) 682-8832 jlkenyon@medicine.nevada.edu

More here:
Ph.D. in Neuroscience - University of Nevada, Reno

Neuroscience is the multidisciplinary study of brain function. It examines the complex interactions of multiple neuronal systems that underlie the emergence and rich diversity of cognitive function and the regulation and expression of all forms of behavior, in humans and all other species.

The neuroscience program in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences enables students to focus on the brain from systems-, cellular-, and molecular-level perspectives. The program is excellent preparation for admission to graduate, medical or dental school, or for careers in related biomedical research, industry and allied health science fields. Since research critically underlies our knowledge base for each of these career paths, undergraduate students are challenged to become involved in ongoing neuroscience research at UT Dallas, working side-by-side with graduate students, post-doctoral scientists and faculty researchers. Required courses and guided electives can include the approved pre-medical or pre-dental curriculum and offer a respected and viable alternative to other traditional preparatory science majors.

The BS in neuroscience requires 120 credit hours. The minor requires 18 credit hours.

The UT Dallasundergraduate catalogprovides an overview of the neuroscience program, details the areas of specialization, lists the major and minor requirements, and explains thefast trackprogram, which enables undergraduate students to take up to 12 hours of graduate courses that count toward both UT Dallas bachelors and graduate degrees. To compile all your academic, campus and extracurricular interests into a presentation you can print out, follow the steps tocreate your own guide to UT Dallas.

The Universitys course look-up site will help you find specific classes and times to fit your degree plan and schedule. The CourseBook site includes links to syllabi, class evaluations, and textbooks for all of UT Dallas courses. The School of Behavioral and Brain Sciencesprojected schedule of core classesalso will help in your planning.

Neuroscience BS Major Related Courses

Neuroscience BS Major Related Courses (PreMed)

Students are required to earn tworesearch exposure credits (REC)for each behavioral science core course in which they are enrolled, for a maximum of six total credits each semester.

Visit with an academic advisor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences to create a degree plan. Freshmen must talk with an advisor before registering. All other students should consult an advisor before registering each semester.

To learn more about the BBS advising and mentoring system, visit ouradvising website.

The neuroscience program is designed to prepare students for admission to graduate, medical or dental school, or for careers in related biomedical research, industry and allied health science fields. Students who wish to continue their education in the fields of medicine, dentistry or allied professional areas are advised to register with theHealth Professions Advising Center.

Students are encouraged to design a personalized degree plan of guided electives with their advisor that combines courses from the neurosciences and related disciplines of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, computer science, psychology and speech pathology and audiology in a way that will suit their individual interests and career goals. Students are also strongly encouraged to gain research experience as part of their undergraduate training in neuroscience.

In addition, upper-level students also may be interested in participating in a BBS internship class. Find out more about the internship class.

Research experience is an important component in many students future plans and is critical for those contemplating graduate, medical or dental school training. Individual investigators periodically accept students to work for research credit in their laboratories. The requirements are typically nine or more hours of previous neuroscience courses, a commitment to 10 hours per week for two or more semesters of lab work, and a convergence of research interests with the lab selected.

Students wishing to learn more about research opportunities in the neurosciences at UT Dallas are urged to contact individualneurosciencefaculty members.

The neuroscience travel award supports undergraduate neuroscience or graduate applied cognition and neuroscience students who are thefirst and presenting authoron a presentation at a scientific conference. The individual requesting travel must be currently enrolled and must be in good academic standing. A completed application includes:

Incoming freshman with high standardized test scores and a high school GPA of 3.6 or higher should consider applying toCollegium V, a University-wide honors program.

Majors in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences who have completed at least 12 credit hours with a GPA of 3.5 or higher may apply to earnBBS school honors.

Neuroscience Degree Program The School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences The University of Texas at Dallas 800 W. Campbell Rd., BSB 14 Richardson, TX 75080

Neuroscience BS Fact Facts This document provides a quick, printable overview of the program.

Create Your Own Guide to UT Dallas This site allows potential students an opportunity to learn about what matters most to them.

Health Professions Advising Center (HPAC) Neuroscience Student Association at UT Dallas Society for Neuroscience

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NEUROSCIENCE BS - School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences ...

Neuroscience of free will, a part of neurophilosophy, is the study of the interconnections between free will and neuroscience.

As it has become possible to study the human living brain, researchers have begun to watch decision making processes at work. Findings could carry implications for our sense of agency, moral responsibility, and our understanding of consciousness in general.[1][2][3] One of the pioneering studies in this domain was designed by Benjamin Libet,[4] while other studies have attempted to predict participant actions before they make them.[5]

The field remains highly controversial. There is no consensus among researchers about the significance of findings, their meaning, or what conclusions may be drawn. The precise role of consciousness in decision making therefore remains unclear.

Thinkers like Daniel Dennett or Alfred Mele consider the language used by researchers. They explain that "free will" means many different things to different people (e.g. some notions of free will are dualistic, some not). Dennett insists that many important and common conceptions of "free will" are compatible with the emerging evidence from neuroscience.[6][7][8][9]

...the current work is in broad agreement with a general trend in neuroscience of volition: although we may experience that our conscious decisions and thoughts cause our actions, these experiences are in fact based on readouts of brain activity in a network of brain areas that control voluntary action...It is clearly wrong to think of [feeling of willing something] as a prior intention, located at the very earliest moment of decision in an extended action chain. Rather, W seems to mark an intention-in-action, quite closely linked to action execution.

One significant finding of modern studies is that a person's brain seems to commit to certain decisions before the person becomes aware of having made them. Researchers have found delays of about half a second (discussed in sections below). With contemporary brain scanning technology, other scientists in 2008 were able to predict with 60% accuracy whether subjects would press a button with their left or right hand up to 10 seconds before the subject became aware of having made that choice.[5] These and other findings have led some scientists, like Patrick Haggard, to reject some forms of "free will". To be clear, no single study would disprove all forms of free will. This is because the term "free will" can encapsulate different hypotheses, each of which must be considered in light of existing empirical evidence.

An ancient model of the mind known as the five-aggregate model[13] is useful to shed light on the neuroscience of free will. This model describes that all our experiences involve the moment-by-moment manifestation of material form, feelings, perception, volition, and sensory consciousness. Using this model, the manifestation of experience of both the research subject who participates in such an experiment as well as the experience of the researcher can be analyzed separately. In the participant, when he or she is given instructions to engage in the experimental task (sensory consciousness through auditory or visual sensory stimuli), after the participant understands the instructions (perception), the intention to initiate the activity (volition) happens. In terms of the researchers mind-stream that also manifests from moment-to-moment, first there is planning the experiment followed by conducting the experiment (aggregate of volition). Then, observing the brain cortex activity of the participant happens (visual sensory stimuli), followed by conclusions (aggregate of perception) relating to the activity of the participants brain.[13] Scientific investigations represent third-person level of analyses and the subjective experience represents the first-person level of analyses involving the mind (continuously changing sense impressions and mental phenomena) that manifests from moment-to-moment.

There have also been a number of problems regarding studies of free will.[14] Particularly in earlier studies, research relied too much on the introspection of the participants, but introspective estimates of event timing were found to be inaccurate. Many brain activity measures have been insufficient and primitive as there is no good independent brain-function measure of the conscious generation of intentions, choices, or decisions. The conclusions drawn from measurements that have been made are debatable too, as they don't necessarily tell, for example, what a sudden dip in the readings is representing. In other words, the dip might have nothing to do with unconscious decision, since many other mental processes are going on while performing the task.[14] Some of the research mentioned here has gotten more advanced, however, even recording individual neurons in conscious volunteers.[12] Researcher Itzhak Fried says that available studies do at least suggest consciousness comes in a later stage of decision making than previously expected - challenging any versions of "free will" where intention occurs at the beginning of the human decision process.[8]

It is quite likely that a large range of cognitive operations are necessary to freely press a button. Research at least suggests that our conscious self does not initiate all behavior. Instead, the conscious self is somehow alerted to a given behavior that the rest of the brain and body are already planning and performing. These findings do not forbid conscious experience from playing some moderating role, although it is also possible that some form of unconscious process is what is causing modification in our behavioral response. Unconscious processes may play a larger role in behavior than previously thought.

It may be possible, then, that our intuitions about the role of our conscious "intentions" have led us astray; it may be the case that we have confused correlation with causation by believing that conscious awareness necessarily causes the body's movement. This possibility is bolstered by findings in neurostimulation, brain damage, but also research into introspection illusions. Such illusions show that humans do not have full access to various internal processes. The discovery that humans possess a determined will would have implications for moral responsibility. Neuroscientist and author Sam Harris believes that we are mistaken in believing the intuitive idea that intention initiates actions. In fact, Harris is even critical of the idea that free will is "intuitive": he says careful introspection can cast doubt on free will. Harris argues "Thoughts simply arise in the brain. What else could they do? The truth about us is even stranger than we may suppose: The illusion of free will is itself an illusion".[15] Philosopher Walter Jackson Freeman III nevertheless talks about the power of even unconscious systems and actions to change the world according to our intentions. He writes "our intentional actions continually flow into the world, changing the world and the relations of our bodies to it. This dynamic system is the self in each of us, it is the agency in charge, not our awareness, which is constantly trying to keep up with what we do."[16] To Freeman, the power of intention and action can be independent of awareness.

Some thinkers like neuroscientist and philosopher Adina Roskies think these studies can still only show, unsurprisingly, that physical factors in the brain are involved before decision making. In contrast, Haggard believes that "We feel we choose, but we don't".[8] Researcher John-Dylan Haynes adds "How can I call a will 'mine' if I don't even know when it occurred and what it has decided to do?".[8] Philosophers Walter Glannon and Alfred Mele think some scientists are getting the science right, but misrepresenting modern philosophers. This is mainly because "free will" can mean many things: It is unclear what someone means when they say "free will does not exist". Mele and Glannon say that the available research is more evidence against any dualistic notions of free will - but that is an "easy target for neuroscientists to knock down".[8] Mele says that most discussions of free will are now had in materialistic terms. In these cases, "free will" means something more like "not coerced" or that "the person could have done otherwise at the last moment". The existence of these types of free will is debatable. Mele agrees, however, that science will continue to reveal critical details about what goes on in the brain during decision making.[8]

"[Some senses of free will] are compatible with what we are learning from science...If only that was what scientists were telling people. But scientists, especially in the last few years, have been on a rampage - writing ill-considered public pronouncements about free will which... verge on social irresponsibility.

This issue may be controversial for good reason: There is evidence to suggest that people normally associate a belief in free will with their ability to affect their lives.[2][3] Philosopher Daniel Dennett, author of Elbow Room and a supporter of deterministic free will, believes scientists risk making a serious mistake. He says that there are types of free will that are incompatible with modern science, but he says those kinds of free will are not worth wanting. Other types of "free will" are pivotal to people's sense of responsibility and purpose (see also "believing in free will"), and many of these types are actually compatible with modern science.[17]

The other studies described below have only just begun to shed light on the role that consciousness plays in actions and it is too early to draw very strong conclusions about certain kinds of "free will". It is worth noting that such experiments so far have dealt only with free will decisions made in short time frames (seconds) and may not have direct bearing on free will decisions made ("thoughtfully") by the subject over the course of many seconds, minutes, hours or longer. Scientists have also only so far studied extremely simple behaviors (e.g. moving a finger).[18] Adina Roskies points out five areas of neuroscientific research: 1.) action initiation, 2.) intention, 3). decision, 4.) Inhibition and control, and 5.) the phenomenology of agency, and for each of these areas Roskies concludes that the science may be developing our understanding of volition or "will," but it yet offers nothing for developing the "free" part of the "free will" discussion.[19][20][21][22]

There is also the question of the influence of such interpretations in people's behaviour.[23][24][25] In 2008, psychologists Kathleen Vohs and Jonathan Schooler published a study on how people behave when they are prompted to think that determinism is true. They asked their subjects to read one of two passages: one suggesting that behaviour boils down to environmental or genetic factors not under personal control; the other neutral about what influences behaviour. The participants then did a few math problems on a computer. But just before the test started, they were informed that because of a glitch in the computer it occasionally displayed the answer by accident; if this happened, they were to click it away without looking. Those who had read the deterministic message were more likely to cheat on the test. "Perhaps, denying free will simply provides the ultimate excuse to behave as one likes," Vohs and Schooler suggested.[26][27]

A pioneering experiment in this field was conducted by Benjamin Libet in the 1980s, in which he asked each subject to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while he measured the associated activity in their brain (in particular, the build-up of electrical signal called the Bereitschaftspotential (BP), which was discovered by Kornhuber & Deecke in 1965[28]). Although it was well known that the Bereitschaftspotential (sometimes also termed "readiness potential") preceded the physical action, Libet asked how the Bereitschaftspotential corresponded to the felt intention to move. To determine when the subjects felt the intention to move, he asked them to watch the second hand of a clock and report its position when they felt that they had felt the conscious will to move.[29]

Libet found that the unconscious brain activity leading up to the conscious decision by the subject to flick his wrist began approximately half a second before the subject consciously felt that he had decided to move.[29][30] Libet's findings suggest that decisions made by a subject are first being made on a subconscious level and only afterward being translated into a "conscious decision", and that the subject's belief that it occurred at the behest of his will was only due to his retrospective perspective on the event.

The interpretation of these findings has been criticized by Daniel Dennett, who argues that people will have to shift their attention from their intention to the clock, and that this introduces temporal mismatches between the felt experience of will and the perceived position of the clock hand.[31][32] Consistent with this argument, subsequent studies have shown that the exact numerical value varies depending on attention.[33][34] Despite the differences in the exact numerical value, however, the main finding has held.[5][35][36] Philosopher Alfred Mele criticizes this design for other reasons. Having attempted the experiment himself, Mele explains that "the awareness of the intention to move" is an ambiguous feeling at best. For this reason he remained skeptical of interpreting the subjects' reported times for comparison with their 'Bereitschaftspotential'.[37]

In a variation of this task, Haggard and Eimer asked subjects to decide not only when to move their hands, but also to decide which hand to move. In this case, the felt intention correlated much more closely with the "lateralized readiness potential" (LRP), an ERP component which measures the difference between left and right hemisphere brain activity. Haggard and Eimer argue that the feeling of conscious will must therefore follow the decision of which hand to move, since the LRP reflects the decision to lift a particular hand.[33]

A more direct test of the relationship between the Bereitschaftspotential and the "awareness of the intention to move" was conducted by Banks and Isham (2009). In their study, participants performed a variant of the Libet's paradigm in which a delayed tone followed the button press. Subsequently, research participants reported the time of their intention to act (e.g., Libet's "W"). If W were time-locked to the Bereitschaftspotential, W would remain uninfluenced by any post-action information. However, findings from this study show that W in fact shifts systematically with the time of the tone presentation, implicating that W is, at least in part, retrospectively reconstructed rather than pre-determined by the Bereitschaftspotential.[38]

A study conducted by Jeff Miller and Judy Trevena (2009) suggests that the Bereitschaftspotential (BP) signal in Libet's experiments doesn't represent a decision to move, but that it's merely a sign that the brain is paying attention.[39] In this experiment the classical Libet experiment was modified by playing an audio tone indicating to volunteers to decide whether to tap a key or not. The researchers found that there was the same RP signal in both cases, regardless of whether or not volunteers actually elected to tap, which suggests that the RP signal doesn't indicate that a decision has been made.[40][41]

In a second experiment, researchers asked volunteers to decide on the spot whether to use left hand or right to tap the key while monitoring their brain signals, and they found no correlation among the signals and the chosen hand. This criticism has itself been criticized by free-will researcher Patrick Haggard, who mentions literature that distinguishes two different circuits in the brain that lead to action: a "stimulus-response" circuit and a "voluntary" circuit. According to Haggard, researchers applying external stimuli may not be testing the proposed voluntary circuit, nor Libet's hypothesis about internally triggered actions.[42]

Libet's interpretation of the ramping up of brain activity prior to the report of conscious "will" continues to draw heavy criticism. Studies have questioned participants' ability to report the timing of their "will". Authors have found that preSMA activity is modulated by attention (attention precedes the movement signal by 100ms), and the prior activity reported could therefore have been product of paying attention to the movement.[43] They also found that the perceived onset of intention depends on neural activity that takes place after the execution of action. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied over the preSMA after a participant performed an action shifted the perceived onset of the motor intention backward in time, and the perceived time of action execution forward in time.[44]

Others have speculated that the preceding neural activity reported by Libet may be an artefact of averaging the time of "will", wherein neural activity does not always precede reported "will".[34] In a similar replication they also reported no difference in electrophysiological signs before a decision not to move, and before a decision to move.[39]

Despite his findings, Libet himself did not interpret his experiment as evidence of the inefficacy of conscious free will he points out that although the tendency to press a button may be building up for 500 milliseconds, the conscious will retains a right to veto any action at the last moment.[45] According to this model, unconscious impulses to perform a volitional act are open to suppression by the conscious efforts of the subject (sometimes referred to as "free won't"). A comparison is made with a golfer, who may swing a club several times before striking the ball. The action simply gets a rubber stamp of approval at the last millisecond. Max Velmans argues however that "free won't" may turn out to need as much neural preparation as "free will" (see below).[46]

Some studies have however replicated Libet's findings, whilst addressing some of the original criticisms.[47] A recent study has found that individual neurons were found to fire 2 seconds before a reported "will" to act (long before EEG activity predicted such a response).[12] Itzhak Fried replicated Libet's findings in 2011 at the scale of the single neuron. This was accomplished with the help of volunteer epilepsy patients, who needed electrodes implanted deep in their brain for evaluation and treatment anyway. Now able to monitor awake and moving patients, the researchers replicated the timing anomalies that were discovered by Libet and are discussed in the following study.[12] Similarly to these tests, Chun Siong Soon, Anna Hanxi He, Stefan Bode and John-Dylan Haynes have conducted a study in 2013 claiming to be able to predict the choice to sum or subtract before the subject reports it.[48]

William R. Klemm pointed out the inconclusiveness of these tests due to design limitations and data interpretations and proposed less ambiguous experiments,[14] while affirming a stand on the existence of free will.[49] like Roy F. Baumeister[50] or Catholic neuroscientists such as Tadeusz Pacholczyk. Adrian G. Guggisberg and Annas Mottaz have also challenged Itzhak Fried's findings.[51]

A study by Aaron Schurger and colleagues published in PNAS[52] challenged assumptions about the causal nature of the Bereitschaftspotential itself (and the "pre-movement buildup" of neural activity in general), casting doubt on conclusions drawn from studies such as Libet's[29] and Fried's.[12] See The Information Philosopher[53] and New Scientist[54] for commentary on this study.

A study by Masao Matsuhashi and Mark Hallett, published in 2008, claims to have replicated Libet's findings without relying on subjective report or clock memorization on the part of participants.[47] The authors believe that their method can identify the time (T) at which a subject becomes aware of his own movement. Matsuhashi and Hallet argue that this time not only varies, but often occurs after early phases of movement genesis have already begun (as measured by the readiness potential). They conclude that a person's awareness cannot be the cause of movement, and may instead only notice the movement.

Matsuhashi and Hallett's study can be summarized thus. The researchers hypothesized that, if our conscious intentions are what causes movement genesis (i.e. the start of an action), then naturally, our conscious intentions should always occur before any movement has begun. Otherwise, if we ever become aware of a movement only after it has already been started, our awareness could not have been the cause of that particular movement. Simply put, conscious intention must precede action if it is its cause.

To test this hypothesis, Matsuhashi and Hallet had volunteers perform brisk finger movements at random intervals, while not counting or planning when to make such (future) movements, but rather immediately making a movement as soon as they thought about it. An externally controlled "stop-signal" sound was played at pseudo random intervals, and the volunteers had to cancel their intent to move if they heard a signal while being aware of their own immediate intention to move. Whenever there was an action (finger movement), the authors documented (and graphed) any tones that occurred before that action. The graph of tones before actions therefore only shows tones (a) before the subject is even aware of his "movement genesis" (or else they would have stopped or "vetoed" the movement), and (b) after it is too late to veto the action. This second set of graphed tones is of little importance here.

In this work, "movement genesis" is defined as the brain process of making movement, of which physiological observations have been made (via electrodes) indicating that it may occur before conscious awareness of intent to move (see Benjamin Libet).

By looking to see when tones started preventing actions, the researchers supposedly know the length of time (in seconds) that exists between when a subject holds a conscious intention to move and performs the action of movement. This moment of awareness (as seen in the graph below) is dubbed "T" (the mean time of conscious intention to move). It can be found by looking at the border between tones and no tones. This enables the researchers to estimate the timing of the conscious intention to move without relying on the subject's knowledge or demanding them to focus on a clock. The last step of the experiment is to compare time T for each subject with their Event-related potential (ERP) measures (e.g. seen in this page's lead image), which reveal when their finger movement genesis first begins.

The researchers found that the time of the conscious intention to move T normally occurred too late to be the cause of movement genesis. See the example of a subject's graph below on the right. Although it is not shown on the graph, the subject's readiness potentials (ERP) tells us that his actions start at 2.8 seconds, and yet this is substantially earlier than his conscious intention to move, time "T" (1.8 seconds). Matsuhashi and Hallet concluded that the feeling of the conscious intention to move does not cause movement genesis; both the feeling of intention and the movement itself are the result of unconscious processing.[47]

This study is similar to Libet's in some ways: volunteers were again asked to perform finger extensions in short, self-paced intervals. In this version of the experiment, researchers introduced randomly timed "stop tones" during the self paced movements. If participants were not conscious of any intention to move, they simply ignored the tone. On the other hand, if they were aware of their intention to move at the time of the tone, they had to try to veto the action, then relax for a bit before continuing self-paced movements. This experimental design allowed Matsuhashi and Hallet to see when, once the subject moved his finger, any tones occurred. The goal was to identify their own equivalent of Libet's W, their own estimation of the timing of the conscious intention to move, which they would call "T".

Testing the hypothesis that 'conscious intention occurs after movement genesis has already begun' required the researchers to analyse the distribution of responses to tones before actions. The idea is that, after time T, tones will lead to vetoing and thus a reduced representation in the data. There would also be a point of no return P where a tone was too close to the movement onset for the movement to be vetoed. In other words, the researchers were expecting to see the following on the graph: many unsuppressed responses to tones while the subjects are not yet aware of their movement genesis, followed by a drop in the number of unsuppressed responses to tones during a certain period of time during which the subjects are conscious of their intentions and are stopping any movements, and finally a brief increase again in unsuppressed responses to tones when the subjects do not have the time to process the tone and prevent an action - they have passed the action's "point of no return". That is exactly what the researchers found (see the graph on the right, below).

The graph shows the times at which unsuppressed responses to tones occurred when the volunteer moved. He showed many unsuppressed responses to tones (dubbed "tone events" on the graph) on average up until 1.8 seconds before movement onset, but a significant decrease in tone events immediately after that time. Presumably this is because the subject usually became aware of his intention to move at about 1.8 seconds, which is then labelled point T. Since most actions are vetoed if a tone occurs after point T, there are very few tone events represented during that range. Finally, there is a sudden increase in the number of tone events at 0.1 seconds, meaning this subject has passed point P. Matsuhashi and Hallet were thus able to establish an average time T (1.8 seconds) without subjective report. This, they compared to ERP measurements of movement, which had detected movement beginning at about 2.8 seconds on average for this participant. Since T like Libet's original W was often found after movement genesis had already begun, the authors concluded that the generation of awareness occurred afterwards or in parallel to action, but most importantly, that it was probably not the cause of the movement.[47]

Haggard describes other studies at the neuronal levels as providing "a reassuring confirmation of previous studies that recorded neural populations"[11] such as the one just described. Note that these results were gathered using finger movements, and may not necessarily generalize to other actions such as thinking, or even other motor actions in different situations. Indeed, the human act of planning has implications for free will and so this ability must also be explained by any theories of unconscious decision making. Philosopher Alfred Mele also doubts the conclusions of these studies. He explains that simply because a movement may have been initiated before our "conscious self" has become aware of it does not mean our consciousness does not still get to approve, modify, and perhaps cancel (called vetoing) the action.[55]

The possibility that human "free won't" is also the prerogative of the subconscious is being explored.

Recent research by Simone Khn and Marcel Brass suggests that our consciousness may not be what causes some actions to be vetoed at the last moment. First of all, their experiment relies on the simple idea that we ought to know when we consciously cancel an action (i.e. we should have access to that information ). Secondly, they suggest that access to this information means humans should find it easy to tell, just after completing an action, whether it was impulsive (there being no time to decide) and when there was time to deliberate (the participant decided to allow/not to veto the action). The study found evidence that subjects could not tell this important difference. This again leaves some conceptions of free will vulnerable to the introspection illusion. The researchers interpret their results to mean that the decision to "veto" an action is determined subconsciously, just as the initiation of the action may have been subconscious in the first place.[56]

The experiment involved asking volunteers to respond to a go-signal by pressing an electronic "go" button as quickly as possible.[56] In this experiment the go-signal was represented as a visual stimulus shown on a monitor (e.g. a green light as shown on the picture). The participants' reaction times (RT) were gathered at this stage, in what was described as the "primary response trials".

The primary response trials were then modified, in which 25% of the go-signals were subsequently followed by an additional signal either a "stop" or "decide" signal. The additional signals occurred after a "signal delay" (SD), a random amount of time up to 2 seconds after the initial go-signal. They also occurred equally, each representing 12.5% of experimental cases. These additional signals were represented by the initial stimulus changing colour (e.g. to either a red or orange light). The other 75% of go-signals were not followed by an additional signal and was therefore considered the "default" mode of the experiment. The participants' task of responding as quickly as possible to the initial signal (i.e. pressing the "go" button) remained.

Upon seeing the initial go-signal, the participant would immediately intend on pressing the "go" button. The participant was instructed to cancel their immediate intention to press the "go" button if they saw a stop signal. The participant was instructed to select randomly (at their leisure) between either pressing the "go" button, or not pressing it, if they saw a decide signal. Those trials in which the decide signal was shown after the initial go-signal ("decide trials"), for example, required that the participants prevent themselves from acting impulsively on the initial go-signal and then decide what to do. Due to the varying delays, this was sometimes impossible (e.g. some decide signals simply appeared too late in the process of them both intending to and pressing the go button for them to be obeyed).

Those trials in which the subject reacted to the go-signal impulsively without seeing a subsequent signal show a quick RT of about 600ms. Those trials in which the decide signal was shown too late, and the participant had already enacted their impulse to press the go-button (i.e. had not decided to do so), also show a quick RT of about 600ms. Those trials in which a stop signal was shown and the participant successfully responded to it, do not show a response time. Those trials in which a decide signal was shown, and the participant decided not to press the go-button, also do not show a response time. Those trials in which a decide signal was shown, and the participant had not already enacted their impulse to press the go-button, but (in which it was theorised that they) had had the opportunity to decide what to do, show a comparatively slow RT, in this case closer to 1400ms.[56]

The participant was asked at the end of those "decide trials" in which they had actually pressed the go-button whether they had acted impulsively (without enough time to register the decide signal before enacting their intent to press the go-button in response to the initial go-signal stimulus), or had acted based upon a conscious decision made after seeing the decide signal. Based upon the response time data however, it appears there was discrepancy between when the user thought they had had the opportunity to decide (and had therefore not acted on their impulses) - in this case deciding to press the go-button, and when they thought they had acted impulsively (based upon the initial go-signal) - where the decide signal came too late to be obeyed.

Kuhn and Brass wanted to test participant self-knowledge. The first step was that after every decide trial, participants were next asked whether they had actually had time to decide. Specifically, the volunteers were asked to label each decide trial as either failed-to-decide (the action was the result of acting impulsively on the initial go-signal) or successful decide (the result of a deliberated decision). See the diagram on the right for this decide trial split: failed-to-decide and successful decide; the next split in this diagram (participant correct or incorrect) will be explained at the end of this experiment. Note also that the researchers sorted the participants successful decide trials into "decide go" and "decide nogo", but were not concerned with the nogo trials since they did not yield any RT data (and are not featured anywhere in the diagram on the right). Note that successful stop trials did not yield RT data either.

Kuhn and Brass now knew what to expect: primary response trials, any failed stop trials, and the "failed-to-decide" trials were all instances where the participant obviously acted impulsively they would show the same quick RT. In contrast, the "successful decide" trials (where the decision was a "go" and the subject moved) should show a slower RT. Presumably, if deciding whether to veto is a conscious process, volunteers should have no trouble distinguishing impulsivity from instances of true deliberate continuation of a movement. Again, this is important since decide trials require that participants rely on self-knowledge. Note that stop trials cannot test self-knowledge because if the subject does act, it is obvious to them that they reacted impulsively.[56]

Unsurprisingly, the recorded RTs for the primary response trials, failed stop trials, and "failed-to-decide" trials all showed similar RTs: 600ms seems to indicate an impulsive action made without time to truly deliberate. What the two researchers found next was not as easy to explain: while some "successful decide" trials did show the tell-tale slow RT of deliberation (averaging around 1400ms), participants had also labelled many impulsive actions as "successful decide". This result is startling because participants should have had no trouble identifying which actions were the results of a conscious "I will not veto", and which actions were un-deliberated, impulsive reactions to the initial go-signal. As the authors explain:

In decide trials the participants, it seems, were not able to reliably identify whether they had really had time to decide at least, not based on internal signals. The authors explain that this result is difficult to reconcile with the idea of a conscious veto, but simple to understand if the veto is considered an unconscious process.[56] Thus it seems that the intention to move might not only arise from the subconscious, but it may only be inhibited if the subconscious says so. This conclusion could suggest that the phenomenon of "consciousness" is more of narration than direct arbitration (i.e. unconscious processing causes all thoughts, and these thoughts are again processed subconsciously).

After the above experiments, the authors concluded that subjects sometimes could not distinguish between "producing an action without stopping and stopping an action before voluntarily resuming", or in other words, they could not distinguish between actions that are immediate and impulsive as opposed to delayed by deliberation.[56] To be clear, one assumption of the authors is that all the early (600ms) actions are unconscious, and all the later actions are conscious. These conclusions and assumptions have yet to be debated within the scientific literature or even replicated (it is a very early study).

The results of the trial in which the so-called "successful decide" data (with its respective longer time measured) was observed may have possible implications[clarification needed] for our understanding of the role of consciousness as the modulator of a given action or response and these possible implications cannot merely be omitted or ignored without valid reasons, specially when the authors of the experiment suggest that the late decide trials were actually deliberated.[56]

It is worth noting that Libet consistently referred to a veto of an action that was initiated endogenously.[45] That is, a veto that occurs in the absence of external cues, instead relying on only internal cues (if any at all). This veto may be a different type of veto than the one explored by Khn and Brass using their decide signal.

Daniel Dennett also argues that no clear conclusion about volition can be derived from Benjamin Libet's experiments supposedly demonstrating the non-existence of conscious volition. According to Dennett, ambiguities in the timings of the different events involved. Libet tells when the readiness potential occurs objectively, using electrodes, but relies on the subject reporting the position of the hand of a clock to determine when the conscious decision was made. As Dennett points out, this is only a report of where it seems to the subject that various things come together, not of the objective time at which they actually occur.

Suppose Libet knows that your readiness potential peaked at millisecond 6,810 of the experimental trial, and the clock dot was straight down (which is what you reported you saw) at millisecond 7,005. How many milliseconds should he have to add to this number to get the time you were conscious of it? The light gets from your clock face to your eyeball almost instantaneously, but the path of the signals from retina through lateral geniculate nucleus to striate cortex takes 5 to 10 milliseconds a paltry fraction of the 300 milliseconds offset, but how much longer does it take them to get to you. (Or are you located in the striate cortex?) The visual signals have to be processed before they arrive at wherever they need to arrive for you to make a conscious decision of simultaneity. Libet's method presupposes, in short, that we can locate the intersection of two trajectories:

In early 2016, PNAS published a paper by researchers in Berlin, Germany, The point of no return in vetoing self-initiated movements, in which the authors set out to investigate whether human subjects had the ability to veto an action (in this study, a movement of the foot) after the detection of its Bereitschaftspotential (BP).[59] The Bereitschaftspotential, which was discovered by Kornhuber & Deecke in 1965,[28] is an instance of unconscious electrical activity within the motor cortex, quantified by the use of EEG, that occurs moments before a motion is performed by a person: it is considered a signal that the brain is "getting ready" to perform the motion. The study found evidence that these actions can be vetoed even after the BP is detected (i. e. after it can be seen that the brain has started preparing for the action). The researchers maintain this is evidence for the existence of at least some degree of free will in humans:[60] previously, it had been argued[61] that, given the unconscious nature of the BP and its usefulness in predicting a person's movement, these are movements that are initiated by the brain without the involvement of the conscious will of the person.[62][63] The study showed that subjects were able to "override" these signals and stop short of performing the movement that was being anticipated by the BP. Furthermore, researchers identified what was termed a "point of no return": once the BP is detected for a movement, the person could refrain from performing the movement only if they attempted to cancel it 200 milliseconds or longer before the onset of the movement. After this point, the person was unable to avoid performing the movement. Previously, Kornhuber & Deecke underlined that absence of conscious will during the early Bereitschaftspotential (termed BP1) is not a proof of the non-existence of free will, as also unconscious agendas may be free and non-deterministic. According to their suggestion, man has relative freedom, i.e. freedom in degrees, that can be in- or decreased through deliberate choices that involve both conscious and unconscious (panencephalic) processes.[64]

Despite criticisms, experimenters are still trying to gather data that may support the case that conscious "will" can be predicted from brain activity. fMRI machine learning of brain activity (multivariate pattern analysis) has been used to predict the user choice of a button (left/right) up to 7 seconds before their reported will of having done so.[5] Brain regions successfully trained for prediction included the frontopolar cortex (anterior medial prefrontal cortex) and precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (medial parietal cortex). In order to ensure report timing of conscious "will" to act, they showed the participant a series of frames with single letters (500ms apart), and upon pressing the chosen button (left or right) they were required to indicate which letter they had seen at the moment of decision. This study reported a statistically significant 60% accuracy rate, which may be limited by experimental setup; machine learning data limitations (time spent in fMRI) and instrument precision.

Another version of the fMRI multivariate pattern analysis experiment was conducted using an abstract decision problem, in an attempt to rule out the possibility of the prediction capabilities being product of capturing a built-up motor urge.[65] Each frame contained a central letter like before, but also a central number, and a surrounding 4 possible "answers numbers". The participant first chose in their mind whether they wished to perform an addition or difference operation (and noted the central letter on the screen at the time of this decision). The participant then performed the mathematical operation based on the central numbers shown in the next two frames. In the following frame the participant then chose the "answer number" corresponding to the result of the operation. They were further presented with a frame which allowed them to indicate the central letter appearing on the screen at the time of their original decision. This version of the experiment discovered a brain prediction capacity of up to 5 seconds before the conscious will to act.

Multivariate pattern analysis using EEG has suggested that an evidence based perceptual decision model may be applicable to free will decisions.[66] It was found that decisions could be predicted by neural activity immediately after stimulus perception. Furthermore, when the participant was unable to determine the nature of the stimulus the recent decision history predicted the neural activity (decision). The starting point of evidence accumulation was in effect shifted towards a previous choice (suggesting a priming bias). Another study has found that subliminally priming a participant for a particular decision outcome (showing a cue for 13ms) could be used to influence free decision outcomes.[67] Likewise, it has been found that decision history alone can be used to predict future decisions. The prediction capacities of the Soon et al. (2008) experiment were successfully replicated using a linear SVM model based on participant decision history alone (without any brain activity data).[68] Despite this, a recent study has sought to confirm the applicability of a perceptual decision model to free will decisions.[69] When shown a masked and therefore invisible stimulus, participants were asked to either guess between a category or make a free decision for a particular category. Multivariate pattern analysis using fMRI could be trained on "free decision" data to successfully predict "guess decisions", and trained on "guess data" in order to predict "free decisions" (in the precuneus and cuneus region).

Contemporary voluntary decision prediction tasks have been criticised based on the possibility the neuronal signatures for pre-conscious decisions could actually correspond to lower conscious processing rather than unconscious processing.[70] People may be aware of their decisions before making their report yet need to wait several seconds to be certain. Such a model does not however explain what is left unconscious if everything can be conscious at some level (and the purpose of defining separate systems). Yet limitations remain in free will prediction research to date. In particular, the prediction of considered judgements from brain activity involving thought processes beginning minutes rather than seconds before a conscious will to act, including the rejection of a conflicting desire. Such are generally seen to be the product of sequences of evidence accumulating judgements.

It has been suggested that sense authorship is an illusion.[71] Unconscious causes of thought and action might facilitate thought and action, while the agent experiences the thoughts and actions as being dependent on conscious will. We may over-assign agency because of the evolutionary advantage that once came with always suspecting there might be an agent doing something (e.g. predator). The idea behind retrospective construction is that, while part of the "yes, I did it" feeling of agency seems to occur during action, there also seems to be processing performed after the fact - after the action is performed - to establish the full feeling of agency.[72]

Unconscious agency processing can even alter, in the moment, how we perceive the timing of sensations or actions.[42][44] Khn and Brass apply retrospective construction to explain the two peaks in "successful decide" RT's. They suggest that the late decide trials were actually deliberated, but that the impulsive early decide trials that should have been labelled "failed to decide" were mistaken during unconscious agency processing. They say that people "persist in believing that they have access to their own cognitive processes" when in fact we do a great deal of automatic unconscious processing before conscious perception occurs.

It should be noted that criticism to Wegner's claims regarding the significance of introspection illusion for the notion of free will has been published.[73]

Some research suggests that TMS can be used to manipulate the perception of authorship of a specific choice.[74] Experiments showed that neurostimulation could affect which hands people move, even though the experience of free will was intact. An early TMS study revealed that activation of one side of the neocortex could be used to bias the selection of one's opposite side hand in a forced-choice decision task.[75] Ammon and Gandevia found that it was possible to influence which hand people move by stimulating frontal regions that are involved in movement planning using transcranial magnetic stimulation in the left or right hemisphere of the brain.

Right-handed people would normally choose to move their right hand 60% of the time, but when the right hemisphere was stimulated they would instead choose their left hand 80% of the time (recall that the right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere for the right). Despite the external influence on their decision-making, the subjects continued to report that they believed their choice of hand had been made freely. In a follow-up experiment, Alvaro Pascual-Leone and colleagues found similar results, but also noted that the transcranial magnetic stimulation must occur within 200 milliseconds, consistent with the time-course derived from the Libet experiments.[76]

In late 2015, a team of researchers from the UK and the US published a paper demonstrating similar findings. The researchers concluded that "motor responses and the choice of hand can be modulated using tDCS".[77] However, a different attempt by Sohn et al. failed to replicate such results;[78] later, Jeffrey Gray wrote in his book Consciousness: Creeping up on the Hard Problem that tests looking for the influence of electromagnetic fields on brain function have been universally negative in their result.[79]

Various studies indicate that the perceived intention to move (have moved) can be manipulated. Studies have focused on the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) of the brain, in which readiness potential indicating the beginning of a movement genesis has been recorded by EEG. In one study, directly stimulating the pre-SMA caused volunteers to report a feeling of intention, and sufficient stimulation of that same area caused physical movement.[42] In a similar study, it was found that people with no visual awareness of their body can have their limbs be made to move without having any awareness of this movement, by stimulating premotor brain regions.[80] When their parietal cortices were stimulated, they reported an urge (intention) to move a specific limb (that they wanted to do so). Furthermore, stronger stimulation of the parietal cortex resulted in the illusion of having moved without having done so.

This suggests that awareness of an intention to move may literally be the "sensation" of the body's early movement, but certainly not the cause. Other studies have at least suggested that "The greater activation of the SMA, SACC, and parietal areas during and after execution of internally generated actions suggests that an important feature of internal decisions is specific neural processing taking place during and after the corresponding action. Therefore, awareness of intention timing seems to be fully established only after execution of the corresponding action, in agreement with the time course of neural activity observed here."[81]

Another experiment involved an electronic ouija board where the device's movements were manipulated by the experimenter, while the participant was led to believe they were entirely self-conducted.[82] The experimenter stopped the device on occasions and asked the participant how much they themselves felt like they wanted to stop. The participant also listened to words in headphones; and it was found that if experimenter stopped next to an object that came through the headphones they were more likely to say they wanted to stop there. If the participant perceived having the thought at the time of the action, then it was assigned as intentional. It was concluded that a strong illusion of perception of causality requires; priority (we assume the thought must precede the action), consistency (the thought is about the action), and exclusivity (no other apparent causes or alternative hypotheses).

Lau et al. set up an experiment where subjects would look at an analogue-style clock, and a red dot would move around the screen. Subjects were told to click the mouse button whenever they felt the intention to do so. One group was given a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulse, and the other was given a sham TMS. Subjects in the intention condition were told to move the cursor to where it was when they felt the inclination to press the button. In the movement condition, subjects moved their cursor to where it was when they physically pressed the button. Results showed the TMS was able to shift the perceived intention forward by 16ms, and shifted back the 14ms for the movement condition. Perceived intention could be manipulated up to 200ms after the execution of the spontaneous action, indicating that the perception of intention occurred after the executive motor movements.[44] Often it is thought that free will were to exist, it would require intention to be the causal source of behavior. These results show that intention may not be the causal source of all behavior.

The idea that intention co-occurs with (rather than causes) movement is reminiscent of "forward models of motor control" (or FMMC, which have been used to try to explain inner speech). FMMCs describe parallel circuits: movement is processed in parallel with other predictions of movement; if the movement matches the prediction - the feeling of agency occurs. FMMCs have been applied in other related experiments. Metcalfe and her colleagues used an FMMC to explain how volunteers determine whether they are in control of a computer game task. On the other hand, they acknowledge other factors too. The authors attribute feelings of agency to desirability of the results (see self serving biases) and top-down processing (reasoning and inferences about the situation).[83]

In this case, it is by the application of the forward model that one might imagine how other consciousness processes could be the result of efferent, predictive processing. If the conscious self is the efferent copy of actions and vetoes being performed, then the consciousness is a sort of narrator of what is already occurring in the body, and an incomplete narrator at that. Haggard, summarizing data taken from recent neuron recordings, says "these data give the impression that conscious intention is just a subjective corollary of an action being about to occur".[11][12] Parallel processing helps explain how we might experience a sort of contra-causal free will even if it were determined.

How the brain constructs consciousness is still a mystery, and cracking it open would have a significant bearing on the question of free will. Numerous different models have been proposed, for example, the Multiple Drafts Model which argues that there is no central Cartesian theater where conscious experience would be represented, but rather that consciousness is located all across the brain. This model would explain the delay between the decision and conscious realization, as experiencing everything as a continuous 'filmstrip' comes behind the actual conscious decision. In contrast, there exist models of Cartesian materialism that have gained recognition by neuroscience, implying that there might be special brain areas that store the contents of consciousness; this does not, however, rule out the possibility of a conscious will. Other models such as epiphenomenalism argue that conscious will is an illusion, and that consciousness is a by-product of physical states of the world. Work in this sector is still highly speculative, and researchers favor no single model of consciousness. (See also: Philosophy of mind.)

Although humans clearly make choices, the role of consciousness (at least, when it comes to motor movements) may need re-conceptualization. Only one thing is certain: the correlation of a conscious "intention to move" with a subsequent "action" does not guarantee causation. Recent studies cast doubt on such a causal relation, and so more empirical data is required.

Various brain disorders implicate the role of unconscious brain processes in decision making tasks. Auditory hallucinations produced by Schizophrenia seem to suggest a divergence of will and behaviour.[71] The left brain of people whose hemispheres have been disconnected has been observed to invent explanations for body movement initiated by the opposing (right) hemisphere, perhaps based on the assumption that their actions are consciously willed.[84] Likewise, people with 'alien hand syndrome' are known to conduct complex motor movements against their will.[85]

A neural model for voluntary action proposed by Haggard comprises two major circuits.[42] The first involving early preparatory signals (basal ganglia substantia nigra and striatum), prior intention and deliberation (medial prefrontal cortex), motor preparation/readiness potential (preSMA and SMA), and motor execution (primary motor cortex, spinal cord and muscles). The second involving the parietal-pre-motor circuit for object-guided actions, for example grasping (premotor cortex, primary motor cortex, primary somatosensory cortex, parietal cortex, and back to the premotor cortex). He proposed that voluntary action involves external environment input ('when decision'), motivations/reasons for actions (early 'whether decision'), task and action selection ('what decision'), a final predictive check (late 'whether decision') and action execution.

Another neural model for voluntary action also involves what, when, and whether (WWW) based decisions.[86] The 'what' component of decisions is considered a function of the anterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in conflict monitoring.[87] The timing ('when') of the decisions are considered a function of the preSMA and SMA, which is involved in motor preparation.[88] Finally, the 'whether' component is considered a function of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex.[86]

Martin Seligman and others criticize the classical approach in science which views animals and humans as "driven by the past", and suggest instead that people and animals draw on experience to evaluate prospects they face, and act accordingly. The claim is made that this purposive action includes evaluation of possibilities that have never occurred before, and is experimentally verifiable.[89][90]

Seligman and others argue that free will and the role of subjectivity in consciousness can be better understood by taking such a "prospective" stance on cognition, and that "accumulating evidence in a wide range of research suggests [this] shift in framework".[90]

Continued here:
Neuroscience of free will - Wikipedia

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Neuropathic pain(neuralgia) is a pain that comes from problems with signals from the nerves. It was mainly classified into peripheral neuropathic pain and central neuropathic pain which includesspinal cordinjuryand central disorders. Pain is a significant public health problem that costs society at least and560-and635 billion annually. Women were more likely to experiencepainin comparison to men. According to the recent survey, Chronic Pain affects 47% of USA Adults. The main intent of this session is to understand Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) that is associated with dysregulation ofCentral Nervous System(CNS) and Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The current session on clinical neurology and pain focuses on: Neurological conditions affecting people and treatment of neurological or personality disorders.

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11thWorld Congress on Neurologyand Therapeutics, March 27-29, 2017 Madrid, Spain, 6thWorldNeurologicalConferenceSeptember 28-30, 2016 Toronto, Canada, 2nd InternationalConference onBrain Disordersand Therapeutics October 26-28, 2016 Chicago, USA, InternationalConference on Neuro Oncologyand Brain Tumor, July 21-22, 2016 Brisbane, Australia 7thGlobal NeurologistsAnnual Meeting on NeurologyandNeuro Surgery, August 22-24, 2016 Vienna, Austria, 2ndInternationalConference on Epilepsyand Treatment, October 20-21, 2016 Rome, Italy, Internationalconference on Bipolar Disorders, Schizophrenia and Mental Disorders, October 26-27, 2016 Chicago, USA, Neuro Informatics, Alicantae, Spain, 12th Congress of theEuropean Association ofNeuro-Oncology, Germany, 9th InternationalSymposium onNeuroprotectionandNeurorepair2016,Germany, 12th Congress of theEuropean Association ofNeuro-Oncology, Germany,Brain Aneurysm FoundationandBrain InjuryAssociation of America, Inc.,EpilepsyFoundation and Epilepsy Institute,Huntington's Disease Society of America and Hydrocephalus Association,International Dyslexia Association and International Essential Tremor Foundation,International Rett Syndrome Foundation and IntracranialHypertensionResearch Foundation.Children'sBrain DiseaseFoundation,Myelin Repair Foundation and Myositis Association.

Track 2:Neurodegenerative Disorders and Stroke

Neurodegeneration or neuron death is the progressive loss of structure or function ofneuronswhich includes disorders like Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease etc. In the United States, near about 60,000 cases of Parkinsons disease are diagnosed per year. The 3rd leading cause of death after cancer and heart disease is Stroke, thereby focusing on the epidemiology ofstrokeand risk factors. The main classification of stroke is haemorrhage stroke and ischemic stroke. The areas highlighted for discussion in this session are: Motor neuron diseases and Ataxias,Alzheimers Disease, Mechanism and Diagnosis, Novel Insights and Therapeutics for Parkinsons disease and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Further we will discuss more about the various diagnosis procedure,Imagingtechnique, and acute stroke management,Migraine Research Foundationand MitoAction,NBIA Disorders AssociationandNeurofibromatosisNetwork,Brain Injury Resource Center and Brain Trauma Foundation,Epilepsy Therapy Project and Exceptional Parent Magazine,Huntington's Disease Society of Americaand Hydrocephalus Association,Multiple Sclerosis Association of America Multiple Sclerosis Foundation,Multiple System Atrophy Coalition, The MUMS National Parent-to-Parent Network

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11thWorld Congress on Neurologyand Therapeutics, March 27-29, 2017 Madrid, Spain, 6thWorldNeurologicalConferenceSeptember 28-30, 2016 Toronto, Canada, 2nd InternationalConference onBrain Disordersand Therapeutics October 26-28, 2016 Chicago, USA, InternationalConference on Neuro Oncologyand Brain Tumor, July 21-22, 2016 Brisbane, Australia 7thGlobal NeurologistsAnnual Meeting on NeurologyandNeuro Surgery, August 22-24, 2016 Vienna, Austria, 2ndInternationalConference on Epilepsyand Treatment, October 20-21, 2016 Rome, Italy, Internationalconference on Bipolar Disorders, Schizophrenia and Mental Disorders, October 26-27, 2016 Chicago, USA,9th InternationalSymposium onNeuroprotectionandNeurorepair2016,Germany, 12th Congress of theEuropean Association ofNeuro-Oncology, Germany,Neuropathy Associationand Nevus Outreach, Inc,Brain Injury Resource Center and Brain Trauma Foundation,Epilepsy Therapy Project and Exceptional Parent Magazine,Huntington's Disease Society of America Hydrocephalus Association,Multiple Sclerosis Association of Americaand Multiple Sclerosis Foundation,Multiple System Atrophy Coalition, Theand MUMS National Parent-to-Parent Network

Track 3:Neuropediatrics and Neurorehabilitation

Paediatricneurologyevaluates children with disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems. A large proportion in US population suffers from autism, mental retardation, dyslexia, seizures and other developmental disabilities. Approximately 1,300 U.S children experience severe or fatalbraintrauma from child abuse.Epilepsyis the fourth commonneurological disorderin the US after migraine, stroke, and Alzheimers disease. So there is a need to take into account, the following diseases to dissertate: congenital hydrocephalus,Autism, Neonatal encephalopathy, Paediatrics tumour, Neurodevelopment disorder, Epilepsy and Child psychological disorders.

Neurorehabilitation is a complex medical process which aims to aid recovery from a nervous system injury. Rehabilitation is an access to reduce brain abscesses thereby increasing the Neural Repair. Neurological rehabilitation program is aimed to create awareness about the neural disorders and its diagnosis.Physiotherapyand remediation is a novel approach that remediates impairments and promotes mobility. Conference on Neurology and Therapeutics is an effort to address all areas towardsNeurorehabilitationand Neural Repair.

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11thWorld Congress on Neurologyand Therapeutics, March 27-29, 2017 Madrid, Spain, 6thWorldNeurologicalConferenceSeptember 28-30, 2016 Toronto, Canada, 2nd InternationalConference onBrain Disordersand Therapeutics October 26-28, 2016 Chicago, USA, InternationalConference on Neuro Oncologyand Brain Tumor, July 21-22, 2016 Brisbane, Australia 7thGlobal NeurologistsAnnual Meeting on NeurologyandNeuro Surgery, August 22-24, 2016 Vienna, Austria, 2ndInternationalConference on Epilepsyand Treatment, October 20-21, 2016 Rome, Italy, Internationalconference on Bipolar Disorders, Schizophrenia and Mental Disorders, October 26-27, 2016 Chicago, USA,Autism, ADHD and Developmental Disabilities New Zealand Cruise 2016, Sydney, Australia,11thFENS Forum ofNeuroscience2016, Copenhagen, Denmark,Society forNeuroscience2016, California, USA, 9thInternational Symposium onNeuroprotectionandNeurorepair2016,Germany,Brain Aneurysm FoundationandBrain InjuryAssociation of America, Inc.,EpilepsyFoundation and Epilepsy Institute,Jain Foundationand John Douglas FrenchAlzheimer'sFoundation,Children'sBrain DiseaseFoundation,Myelin Repair Foundation and Myositis Association,Migraine Research Foundationand MitoAction,NBIA Disorders AssociationandNeurofibromatosisNetwork

Track 4:Neuroinfections and Neuroimmunology

Neuroimmunology is a field of neuroscience, combining immune system and thenervous system. The immune system administer defence against these organisms, inefficiency of the same results in Infections. The condition is much worse in developing countries; it has been a significant health problem in Australia. Some 350,000 to 500,000 patients suffer from multiple sclerosis (MS) in the United States .The conference onneurologyis a platform to put our heads together and thrash out the cause of Multiple sclerosis and auto immune neuropathies,Neuroimmunologicalinfectious disease, Neuromicrobial disorders and Neurological Lyme diseases, Neuroinflamation, Neuroimmuno genetics. This session also includes to group think the alteration inneuromodulationand psychiatric diseases and the recent Drug development in the field of Neuro immunology.

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11thWorld Congress on Neurologyand Therapeutics, March 27-29, 2017 Madrid, Spain, 6thWorldNeurologicalConferenceSeptember 28-30, 2016 Toronto, Canada, 2nd InternationalConference onBrain Disordersand Therapeutics October 26-28, 2016 Chicago, USA, InternationalConference on Neuro Oncologyand Brain Tumor, July 21-22, 2016 Brisbane, Australia 7thGlobal NeurologistsAnnual Meeting on NeurologyandNeuro Surgery, August 22-24, 2016 Vienna, Austria, 2ndInternationalConference on Epilepsyand Treatment, October 20-21, 2016 Rome, Italy, Internationalconference on Bipolar Disorders, Schizophrenia and Mental Disorders, October 26-27, 2016 Chicago, USA, InternationalConference onNeuroprotectionandNeurorepair2016,Germany, Copenhagen, Denmark, Society forNeuroscience2016 Annual, California, USA, EANS2016: 16th European Congress ofNeurosurgery, Athens, Greece,NationalNeurotraumaSociety Symposium2016, Kentucky, USA,Muscular Dystrophy Associationand Musella Foundation forBrain TumorResearch and Information,Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, Inc.and Myelin Project, Myotonic Dystrophy Foundationand Narcolepsy Network, Inc.,Neuropathy Associationand Nevus Outreach, Inc,National Organization on Disability and NationalParkinsonFoundation, National Patient Travel Centerand NationalRehabilitationInformation Center

Track 5:Alzheimers Disease and Dementia

The brain immediately confronts us with its great complexity.Alzheimer'swhich is a type of Dementia is: An Underlying Disease that causes problems with memory,behaviourand thinking. As estimated,5.3 million Americans of all ages haveAlzheimer's diseasein the recent survey. AD is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and the fifth leading cause of death in Americans of age 65 and older. The etiological factors, other than older age includesgeneticsusceptibility. so it is important to exchange views on Causes and Prevention of Alzheimers, Alzheimers Disease Diagnosis and Symptoms, Alzheimers Disease Pathophysiology and Disease Mechanisms, Care Practice and Awareness. we are also going to analyse the Alzheimers Disease Imaging , Mechanisms for Treatment andTherapeuticTargets.

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11thWorld Congress on Neurologyand Therapeutics, March 27-29, 2017 Madrid, Spain, 6thWorldNeurologicalConferenceSeptember 28-30, 2016 Toronto, Canada, 2nd InternationalConference onBrain Disordersand Therapeutics October 26-28, 2016 Chicago, USA, InternationalConference on Neuro Oncologyand Brain Tumor, July 21-22, 2016 Brisbane, Australia 7thGlobal NeurologistsAnnual Meeting on NeurologyandNeuro Surgery, August 22-24, 2016 Vienna, Austria, 2ndInternationalConference on Epilepsyand Treatment, October 20-21, 2016 Rome, Italy, Internationalconference on Bipolar Disorders, Schizophrenia and Mental Disorders, October 26-27, 2016 Chicago, USA, AmericanAssociation ofNeuromuscularand Electrodiagnostic Medicine, Hawaii, USA,NeuromuscularCare Conference, Nottingham, UK, 9thNeuromuscular Translational Research Conference, 2016, Oxford, United Kingdom,Neuromuscular Disorders,2016, London, UK,Muscular Dystrophy Associationand Musella Foundation forBrain TumorResearch and Information,Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, Inc.and Myelin Project, Myotonic Dystrophy Foundationand Narcolepsy Network, Inc.,Neuropathy Associationand Nevus Outreach, Inc,National Organization on Disability and NationalParkinsonFoundation, National Patient Travel Centerand NationalRehabilitationInformation Center

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Track 6:Neuromuscular Disorders

Neuromuscular disorders is known to affect the nerves that control the voluntary muscles. One of the causes is thegeneticand immune system disorder. More than a million people in the United States are affected by some form ofneuromusculardisease, and about 40 percent of them are under age18.Diagnosis includes a multi-step process like muscle biopsy, NCV test, biochemical, genetic test etc. The goal of this session is to understand the origin of spine muscular atropies,Musculardystrophy, Lambert-Eaton syndrome and other neuromuscular junction disorder. Further there will be an interactive conversation on Spasticy, Hyper reflexia and its prevention. In addition a talk will be deliberated on Is it true that High dose ofantibioticsleads to neuromuscular junction mal function and the findings in the field of neuromuscular medicine.

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Track 7:Neuroimaging and Brain Engineering

What seems astonishing is that engineering techniques likebrainengineering, or Neural tissue engineering can be used to understand, repair, replace, enhance, or otherwise exploit the properties of neural systems and Neurocomputing is the study of brain function in terms of the information processing properties of the structures that make up the nervous system. current researches in the field of neuroengineering include: Neural imaging and neural networking,Biomoleculartherapies in neural regeneration,Neurorobotics, Biological neural networking, Neuro hydrodynamics and clinical treatment, Engineering strategies for repair, Computational clinical neuroscience, biological-neuronmodelling, Behaviors of networks and advanced therapies. People will also be enlightened on Advancement in brain computer interface and deep brain stimulation.

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Track 8:Neurosurgery and Neural Circuits

While the topic sounds pretty small, but we needs more speciality and critical care in this discipline. An estimated 69,720 new cases of primarybrain tumorsare expected to be diagnosed in 2013, that includes both malignant (24,620) and non-malignant(45,110) brain tumors. Basing on the prevalence of diseases, the conference focuses on Post-surgical neuralgias, Brain tumour and metastatis, Oncologicalneurosurgery, Spine neurosurgery, Neuroanaesthesia and surgery and Vascular malfunctions and surgery . The neurons are organized into ensembles called Anatomical and functionalneuralcircuits. Current researches identify disorders that affect different components of that neural circuit and a set of neural circuits that are critically involved in a specific disorder. Highest incidence rate of primary intracranial tumor was in Europe and the lowest rate in Africa. So it is requisite to enhance our knowledge on Currentneurosurgerymethod.

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Track 9:Neuropharmacology

Increase in technology and our understanding of the nervous system has lead to the development ofdrugsand medicines in the two main branches i.e. molecular and behavioural beyond our imagination that has continued to rise with an increase in drug specificity and sensitivity. current topic to be discussed are New pharmacological approaches for treatment ofneuraldisorders, drug development in cell signalling and synaptic spasticity, and the latest advancement in neuropharmacologcaltherapyand drug development in this particular sector. The present conference also aims to educate the researchers on Neuroimmuno pharmacology and Interfearance of pharmacological agents in neural disorder mechanism.

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Track 11:Neurogenetics

Genes affect the wiring and workings of thebrain, which is the authority of all our rides. It is ultimately and solely the genes that give rise to a particular type of protein that may be beneficial or harmful that reflects the need of research in this particular field. 6000 and more emerginggenetic disordersaccount for a significant portion of human disease and conditions. Nearly 4 percent of the approximately 4 million babies born each year have a genetic disease or major birth defect. Around 15,000 Americans are diagnosed to haveHuntingtonsdisease (HD).Keeping the same in view the following sub tracks are designed to enlighten the thoughts related to Huntington's disease (HD) and related genetic disorder, Genetic engineering to overcome neurological problems, The genes as a link between the brain andneurologicaldiseases, Gene defect and diseases, studies on genome wide association and disease diagnostics, sequencing of gene as a tool in determining the abnormal gene loci, Mutation of gene and neuronal migration defect.

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Track 11:Autonomic and Central Nervous System

Autonomic disorders may result from other disorders that damage autonomicnervesor they may occur on their own. Progressive autonomic failure usually becomes apparent in the sixth decade of life. The Working of the central nervous system has proved to be more and more extensive and more and more fundamental as experiment has advanced in examining it. CNS disorder can be eithermyelopathyor encephalopathy.

Specified disorders to be discussed under this category are: Bipolar disorder, Migraine and Neuropathic pain syndromes, Accessory nerve disorder, Autonomic dysreflexia and neuropathy, CNS disorder and structural defects, Facial nerve paralysis andMeningitis.

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Track 12:Clinical Neurology and Neuropsychiatry

It is admirable to discuss about clinical neuroscience as this focuses on the fundamental mechanisms of diseases and disorders of the brain and central nervous system and seeks to develop new ways of diagnosing such anarchy, leading to the development of novelmedication. As per the estimates by the World Health Organization, neural disorders affect over 1 billion people worldwide, constitute 12% of the burden of disease globally, and cause 14% of global annihilation.

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Track 13:Neurotherapeutics, Diagnostics and Case Studies

Various neurology conferences are held all over the world like world congress ofneurology2015 Chile in order to enhance and empower the knowledge of neuroscience. The 5th International conference on neurology and therapeutics that will be held at Madrid in March 2017, addresses all areas pertinent to this endeavour concentrating on NovelTherapeuticsand Diagnostics at the cellular and molecular level. There is a profound increase in the diagnostics procedure and drug discovery in the field of Neurology.

In order to accelerate the discovery of novel diagnostic therapy, the gathering of researchers is encouraged in order to discuss on the themeStem cellsin neurological disorder and treatment, Nerve injury and repair, Sleep disorders and headache,Neurogenesis, and last but not the least new therapeutics evolved for neurological disorders

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Track 14:Neurological Nursing

Neurological Nursing is a very challenging nursing specialty dealing with assessment, nursing diagnosis, and management of many neurological disorders in which nurses provide patient care. A Neuroscience Nurse assists patients with brain andnervous systemdisorders which includes trauma,brain injuries, stroke,seizures, tumours, headaches, infections, and aneurysms, as well as a host of other neurological complexities.

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Neurology Conference - Neuroscience event | Madrid | Spain

L.NEU-145: Introductory Neuroscience This course will introduce students to the fundamental topics and concepts that are critical to understanding the biological and psychological components of Neuroscience. Topics to be covered include the biochemistry of action potentials, the functioning of ion channels, a brief overview of systems neuroscience (vision, audition, etc.), neurotransmitters and peripheral endocrine systems, learning and memory, the effects of neurotransmitters on behavior, the biology underlying several psychiatric disorders, and basic neuroanatomy. Prerequisites: L.BIO-115 or L.PSY-101. 3 credits.

L.NEU-211: Techniques in Neuroendocrinology This course will introduce students to techniques relevant to the field of neuroendocrinology, both in terms of the theory that describes the techniques and in terms of practicing the techniques with biological samples. Students will read and discuss primary literature sources from work with both human and non-human models. Extensive laboratory work will teach students laboratory techniques including sterile technique, radioimmunoassay, and enzyme immunoassay. Part of the term will be spent at the University of Nebraska, Omaha (UNO). 3 credits. Prerequisite: L.NEU-145. Instructor permission required. January term.

L.NEU-281: Exploring the Brain through TBI It is difficult to fully understand how the brain functions under completely normal working conditions. One technique used to investigate brain functioning through clinical cases where there has been trauma in a specified region of the brain. Thus, in people with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) neuroscientists can locate the region of trauma and any change in functioning of the individual. This course is designed to explore the brain through various historical cases and provide a deeper understanding of neuro-functioning from resulting deficits in dissociated brain regions. Clinical cases will be provided as we travel from the frontal lobe to the temporal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe and beyond. Prerequisite: L.NEU-145 or L.BIO-345. 3 credits.

L.NEU-301: Neuropsychiatric Diseases This course will explore how translational research applies neuroscience knowledge to inform, prevent, treat, and cure brain diseases. Some topics will include the role of the blood brain barrier in preventing disease, the role of both central and peripheral cytokines in the manifestation of psychiatric disorders, how genetic and environmental factors influence susceptibility to psychiatric conditions, and several psychiatric conditions including Parkinsons, Huntingtons, and Alzheimers Diseases, anxious and depressive disorders, and multiple sclerosis.Prerequisites: L.NEU-145 and L.BIO-115. 3 credits.

L.NEU-311: Hormones and Behavior This course will introduce students to several topics within the field of neuroendocrinology. Topics to be discussed will include the blood brain barrier, synthesis and release of neurotransmitters relevant to behavior, psychosomatic interactions, and the effects of various monoamine, peptide, and steroid hormones on sexual, reproductive, affiliative, aggressive, parental, and reward-seeking behaviors. In addition to readings from the text, students will read and discuss primary literature sources from work with both human and non-human models. Laboratory work will teach students several research skills and laboratory techniques including study design, behavioral observation and scoring, blood sampling, processing and storage, and data set management. Prerequisite: L.NEU-145. 3 credits.

L.NEU-390: Research Experience This experiential class will require students to either 1) propose a novel neuroscience research study or 2) conduct neuroscience research and write up a report of their findings. Students will meet weekly with the course instructor and students may take this course up to 3 times (with 1 credit given each semester). This course will give students a clear understanding of the scientific method and skills needed to conduct research in the field of neuroscience from conception to implementation to presentation. Prerequisite: L.NEU-145. Open to declared Neuroscience majors only. Instructor permission required. 1 credit.

L.NEU-490: Senior Seminar I This course will serve as the first semester of a capstone series for all students completing a major in Neuroscience. The course will meet once per week, and majors will enroll in the course during the fall semester of their Senior year at Loras College (exceptions (e.g. for study abroad programs, etc.) will be made at the discretion of the Neuroscience faculty). Restricted to senior Neuroscience majors only. Prerequisite: L.NEU-145. 1 credit.

L.NEU-491: Senior Seminar II This course will serve as the second semester of a capstone series for all students completing a major in Neuroscience. The course meetings will occur once per week, and majors will enroll in the course during the spring semester of their Senior year at Loras College (exceptions (e.g. for study abroad programs, etc.) will be made at the discretion of the Neuroscience faculty). Restricted to senior Neuroscience majors only. Prerequisite: L.NEU-145. 1 credit.

RELATED COURSES: Biology, Chemistry, Criminal Justice, Psychology, Social Work

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Neuroscience - Loras College

This confocal image shows a cortical region of a Somatostatin-Cre+/; Floxopatch+/ mouse. Somatostatin antibody (red) colocalizes with Floxopatch GFP expression (green), indicating a tight Cre-loxP system in this conditional mouse line. The recordings show optically induced action potentials from in vitro cultured dorsal root ganglia with voltage sensor QuasAr2 (red trace) and whole-cell patch clamp (white trace). The close correlation of the two traces indicates the high fidelity of the voltagesensitive fluorescence protein and the voltage activities. Cover image produced by Shan Lou. For more information, see the article by Lou et al. (pages 1105911073).

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Journal of Neuroscience

The University of Tennessee Interdisciplinary Program for Neuroscience brings together Neuroscience research and education from all corners of the campus. It includes faculty from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Nursing, Veterinary Medicine; the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology; and the Graduate School of Medicine/UT Medical Center. This diversity of backgrounds and research perspectives within the program reflects the interdisciplinary nature of Neuroscience itself. To learn more about the resources, research capabilities, and clinical expertise available in the area, please visit the NeuroNET (Neuroscience Network of East Tennessee) website.

Building on the existing curricula in biology, psychology and engineering, this program provides a strong foundation in the neurosciences that emphasizes hands-on research training. Beyond the core classes, students can choose from a diverse array of more specialized courses that focus on a variety of basic, clinical and applied Neuroscience topics. Thus, students have the opportunity to tailor their Neuroscience degree to best suit their career goals, whether they include entering a graduate program or a health profession degree program, or getting a job in teaching or working in a research setting.

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Neuroscience Program | College of Arts & Sciences