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About the RECBS

Program overview

A variety of brain and mental disorders, including psychosis, mood disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, neurotic disorders, and developmental disorders, are often difficult to treat, making them a major social problem. In addition, the resolution of brain-related problems such as attention deficits and learning disabilities in children is important not only in terms of diagnosis and intervention, but also in terms of providing effective education. Furthermore, in our hyper-aged society, there is an urgent need to understand the changes in brain function that accompany aging and to develop ways of coping with these changes.

To solve these problems, it is important to promote integrative brain science research beyond existing research areas by sharing knowledge, methodologies, and data accumulated by researchers in the health sciences, life sciences, engineering and informatics, and humanity and social sciences. To sustainably develop these research fields, it is necessary to foster young researchers with integrative knowledge of brain science.

Brain science research at Hokkaido University has a long history. Brain science continues to develop as a research field that leads to new developments through collaboration between researchers in many fields, including education, psychology, and social science as well as medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, health sciences, life sciences, engineering, and information science. The Research and Education Center for Brain Science was established as a virtual organization with concurrently assigned faculty members from various departments, aiming to integrate these resources, promote integrative brain science research, and establish a university-wide educational system. In order to provide a wide range of brain-related education that transcends the boundaries of existing graduate schools, the center has established the Graduate Program of Brain Science and offers a variety of educational opportunities.

Requirements for completion of the program

In order to complete this program, students must meet all of the following requirements.

  1. Acquire at least 14 credits from the prescribed subjects, including at least 8 credits of Compulsory Elective Subjects.
  2. Pass the thesis review conducted by the program faculty
  3. Earn a degree from the graduate school to which the students belong
The 2023 syllabus for the Graduate Program of Brain Science will be distributed on the day of the examination. After receiving guidance in early April, students are required to follow the prescribed procedures for registration. The thesis (dissertation) for the Graduate Program of Brain Science must be the same as the one for your graduate program and must be approved by your supervisor. The thesis will be reviewed by program faculty from multiple departments.

  • The molecular basis of cerebellar synapse formation
  • The development of biological clocks: Their plasticity and critical periods
  • Emotional stress and behavioral changes in critical periods
  • Behavioral sensitization induced by methamphetamine

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