The Cognitive-Neuroscience Education & Research-Valued Experience (C-NERVE) is an innovative program that provides students hands-on experiences with psychophysiological technologies and methods used to study brain-behavior relations. An adaptation of St Olaf's project to give college and high-school students investigative psychophysiology laboratory experiences, C-NERVE accomplishes three main objectives: it creates an integrated, multidisciplinary, technology-based, undergraduate experience in cognitive-neuroscience; it provides a supportive environment for students and faculty interested in learning about and carrying out research on brain-behavior relations, in the form of a learning community devoted to cognitive neuroscience; and it reaches out to underrepresented populations, who rarely have access to cutting-edge research experiences. To achieve its objectives, C-NERVE is updating 5 courses with digital psychophysiological data acquisition equipment. Over 130 students each year are taking the C-NERVE courses and participating in cognitive-neuroscience research conducted by faculty, who mentor the students and sponsor field trips to regional neuroscience labs. In addition, the C-NERVE program offers exciting cognitive neuroscience experiences for over 160 high school students, who participate in UW-Stout's pre-college program for minority and disadvantaged junior high and high school students.
