This plan for Graduate Training in Psychology and Neuroimaging rests on multidisciplinary collaborations between 23 faculty members in the Psychology Department at Harvard University and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The training program aims to prepare a new generation of scientists whose graduate training concentrates on linking human brain function to cognitive processing through neuroimaging research. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG), electroencephalography (EEG), positron emission tomography (PET), and near-infrared spectrography (NIRS) have emerged as central tools in cognitive neuroscience. By training students to use these neuroimaging methods effectively, our goal is to equip them with the means to answer questions about the neural bases of mental processing with technological competence. A demanding 5-year program of graduate training is proposed to meet this goal. Although the emphasis is on traditional cognitive psychology, it will be readily possible for trainees to address issues of cognitive development, social cognition and psychopathology. Each student will be admitted into a program in the psychology department and will be expected to fulfill the requirements of that specific program, including first-year, second-year and Ph.D. thesis research projects. In addition, every trainee will take two team-taught courses in their first two years: a course in Cognition, Brain and Behavior (taught by all the training faculty in psychology and faculty in cognitive psychology at the Martinos Center) and an intensive introduction to functional brain imaging (taught by training and other faculty from the Martinos Center). In subsequent years, trainees will take a research seminar jointly taught by all faculty. Students will explore particular areas of cognitive and brain function in depth, develop skills for crafting experiments that dissect specific cognitive functions, present their research, and interact with other trainees in the program. The goal of these requirements is to impart knowledge that is broad and deep, both about the human brain and about the cognitive functions that it performs. Throughout their training, students will be co-advised by one Harvard Psychology and one Martinos Center faculty.
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