UCL Postgraduate Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience 2016/2017

Hey, I thought it'd be a good idea to make a thread for postgraduate psych/cog neuro at UCL since it's all part of the same department (Psychology & Language Sciences).

I studied BSc Psychology at UCL (2010-2013) and I'll be doing the MRes Cognitive Neuroscience course (2016-2017).

Also, since I'm familiar with UCL and the psychology department, let me know if you have any questions (although I'm not a representative!).

Cheers,
Adam

Hi Adam,

Cheers for making this thread. I'll be starting the MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience this September. So I am guessing that we will be having some classes together.

I studied for a BSc in Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience at The University of Nottingham - Malaysia Campus (2012-2015) and have been working as a research assistant at the same institution for the past year.

What are your research interests?

Regards,
Azrin

Hi Azrin, I'm glad you come across the thread! I'm very interested in memory, imagination, and decision-making, as well as cognitive biases. So in terms of brain areas, mainly hippocampus and PFC. What about you?

I'm broadly interested in attention and memory. Not too sure yet what I want to look into specifically but generally I'd like to utilize a multimodal approach to understanding cognition (experimental, neuroimaging and computational methods). Also interested to see how big data approaches will play a role in the future of cognitive neuroscience.

Do you know whether we are allowed to sit in for different modules outside of our course? The course structure is pretty rigid, and I'm not sure what the policy is like at UCL.

I suppose Nilli Lavie and Neill Burgess from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (ICN) would be relevant supervisors.

It's usually okay to sit in for other modules, provided you email the lecturer beforehand. Are there any external modules in particular you have in mind?

Sorry for the late response, been a bit swamped with work. Thanks for the heads up. I've taken a cursory look at their profiles before but will go through their publications in more detail this time around. Have you thought about who you would like to work with when you are there? Also, do you know whether it is possible to work with people who are not in the ICN?

I was thinking about taking more advanced fMRI modules and some computational modelling/neuroscience modules.

Dr. Gilbert at the ICN said he was willing to supervise me for an MRes project on episodic memory/prospection and intertemporal choice, but he also said that if my interests shift slightly (e.g. to work on memory and consciousness) then I can still choose a different supervisor before the course starts.

It should be okay to have a supervisor from outside the ICN. Which department were you thinking of? I've heard that there's a cognitive neuroscience student who's currently doing a project for Peter Dayan from the Gatsby Unit. If you're interested in supervision from there, then presumably they'd expect you to have strong programming skills before starting the master's.

If you're interested in the computational neuroscience modules at the Gatsby, then it might be worth you e-mailing Maneesh Sahani to ask to sit in the lectures. I emailed him earlier this year and he said it was okay, so I guess he's generally open to students sitting in.

Hi Adam,

I was just thinking it would be nice to be able to consider supervisors from Psychology / Computational Neuroscience / Wellcome Trust Neuroimaging

Which modules will you be taking as past of the MRes btw?

Are you planning to sit in for the computational neuroscience modules this coming semester?

Cheers
Azrin

Hey, I thought it'd be a good idea to make a thread for postgraduate psych/cog neuro at UCL since it's all part of the same department (Psychology & Language Sciences).

I studied BSc Psychology at UCL (2010-2013) and I'll be doing the MRes Cognitive Neuroscience course (2016-2017).

Also, since I'm familiar with UCL and the psychology department, let me know if you have any questions (although I'm not a representative!).

Cheers,
Adam