Establishment Course List
Conditions for completion, and course completion methods
(1) Enrollment and participation in the doctoral course for five years or more. However, as Article 7 of the Doshisha University postgraduate regulations stipulates, students who display academic excellence may be qualified for earlier completion, but no earlier than three years.
(2) Acquisition of a total of 40 or more course credits from the curriculum, including required subjects (17 credits or more), "Basic Experiment in Brain Science Research Ⅰ-Ⅳ" (8 credits), and "Advanced Experiment in Brain Science Research Ｉ - V" (10 credits).
| Lectures | Guided research courses (required) | Doctoral Thesis | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Required lectures | Elective lectures | Basic Experiment in Brain Science Research (Ⅰ-Ⅳ) | Advanced Experiment in Brain Science Research( Ｉ - V) | |
| 17 | ［5 more］ | 8 | 10 | |
| 40 more | ||||
However, completion in less than five years of "Advanced Experiment in Brain Science Research II - V" as per provision (1) will still require comprehensive assessment, including of the doctoral thesis.
(3) Submission of a doctoral thesis and successful defense
(4) Fluency in at least one foreign language required for research
【Establishment Course List】
Lab Rotation１
Lab Rotation２
Students select one or two laboratories within the Graduate School of Brain Sciences and practice experiments for 7 weeks, respectively. Through this lab-training period, students learn various research methods and strategies, and consider their research plan during graduate course.
Safety and Ethics in Research
This course introduces the main ethical issues and principles used when conducting research with animals, chemicals and genes for neuroscience.
Brain Anatomy and histology Lab
This lecture is for the basics of human and mouse brain anatomy through practical training. Specifically, we will acquire the anatomy of the human adult brain, the histology of human neurological disorder, and the basics of mouse brain development from embryo to adult stage.
Scientific Communication
In this course, students will learn communication skills necessary for neuroscientists to thrive in the global research field, particularly slide presentation, writing, and discussion skills, through exercising journal club or research presentations.
Research Strategies in Brain Science
Professors in the graduate school will take rounds to lecture how to formulate a hypothesis, to develop a sound research project, and to form a collaborative research team by presenting their past and current research projects.
Introduction of Neuroscience
You learn basic knowledge of neuroscience in system, behavioral, molecular and cellular levels. Topics of neuronal mechanisms of perception, memory and motor functions and transmission mechanisms in neurons and synapses will be introduced and discussed.
Cell Biology
This lecture is to learn the basic cell biology of brain constituents including neurons, glial cells and vascular cells, which are essential for brain function. It mainly targets who did not sufficiently learn basic biology, especially biochemistry and cell biology at undergraduate level.
Molecular Biology and Genetics
This lecture is to learn the basic molecular biology and genetics, which are essential for understanding biological basis of the brain function. It mainly targets students who did not sufficiently learn basic biology, especially molecular biology and genetics at undergraduate level.
Introduction to Pathological Brain Research
To understand how the pathological brain research has been developed, in this course, the historically important papers for neurological disease research will be selected and assigned to each student to present the content of the paper.
Neurobiophysics
Topic: Biophysical approach used in neuroscience, such as electrophysiology of neurons and neural circuits, signal transduction and transmission in nervous system, and representation of information. It includes experiments and mathematical modeling.
Statistics and Mathematical Models in Neuroscience
Topic: Minimal statistical analysis required for experiments. The course includes practices in various statistical tests and computer simulation.
Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience
Attendees learn higher-order brain functions underlying behaviors in a comprehensive way. From the multifaceted viewpoints based on the psychology, neurophysiology and information science, they learn about cognition, learning, memory, emotion, thought and so on.
Learning and Memory
You learn broad knowledge of brain mechanisms of learning and memory. New topics and methodologies of animal behavioral research, experimental psychology, brain imaging, neurophysiology, and molecular biology related to learning and memory will be introduced and discussed.
Neuroscience and Drug Discovery for Brain Diseases
This course introduces the scientific challenges as follows: mechanisms of disease, target identification and validation, biomarkers for patient stratification for various neurological disease.
Neural Signaling
In this lecture, students learn the mechanisms of signal transduction within neural cells and between neural cells. These include electrical and chemical signaling underlying synaptic transmission and various communications between neurons and glial cells.
Developmental Neuroscience
In this lecture, students learn the relationship between the brain development and the formation of functions such as cognition, emotion, movement and sensation. Based on the latest findings of developmental, molecular biology, neurophysiology, and psychology, students learn the important concepts of brain development and maturation.
Neuroscience of Stress and Aging
This course is planned to learn the molecular mechanism of the stress response, homeostasis and aging of the brain including the dysfunctions of the neurons, those of neural stem cells and neurological disease mechanism.
Basic Experment in Brain Science Reserch Ⅰ
Students acquire the basic methods in their laboratories. In addition, students read the papers reported from their laboratory and understand its contents. Students learn important fundamental concept and knowledge which are necessary to start experiments by themselves.
Basic Experiment in Brain Science Research Ⅱ
Students start their experiment using the method learned in Basic Experiment Ⅰ. First, they make an experiment plans according to the advices from their supervisor and research staff. At the same time, students also consider their future plans by reading related papers and books.
Basic Experiment in Brain Science Research Ⅲ
Students consider the research methods and the direction of future plan to further advance their results of Basic Experiment II according to the advice from their supervisor and research staff. At the same time, students learn the method of various data analysis and improve their experiment based on the contents of the latest paper and text.
Basic Experiment in Brain Science Research Ⅳ
Students summarize their results obtained in Basic Experiments I - III and evaluate their scientific originality by comparing their results to the relevant findings from other laboratories. Also, students publish their findings at academic conferences, seminars, etc. Students start to prepare for the original paper for publication.
Advanced Experiment in Brain Science Research Ⅰ
Students write their findings as original papers in international journals. At the same time, students prepare for the thesis including the experimental methods in detail which does not appear in the original paper, considerations and discussions about experiment results, and direction and policy of their future research.
Advanced Experiment in Brain Science Research Ⅱ
Students search the research theme and design the experiment plans to prepare their thesis. They develop and introduce the technology required for the execution of the plan. Students perform preliminary experiments, review and correct the feasibility of the plans. Visiting laboratories inside and outside the university and receiving advice about research methods are encouraged.
Advanced Experiment in Brain Science Research Ⅲ
Based on the results of preliminary experiments obtained in Special Experiment II, students start their experiments. They analyze and verify their results obtained. They can get their supervisor’s opinion at each experimental step and proceed with evaluation of the importance on the findings. Students also make the plans for experiments considering the logic of the original paper.
Advanced Experiment in Brain Science Research Ⅳ
Based on the results of Special Experiment III, students intensively carry out their experiments to submit an original paper. At the same time, they make their carrier plan for after their graduation. Students submit their original paper including new findings and wait for the responses from reviewers.
Advanced Experiment in Brain Science Research Ⅴ
Students start writing a thesis. Once they got some questions and/or requests from reviewers, students answer to make the paper accepted. Ultimately, they complete the thesis and submit it for review in the Graduate School of Brain Sciences. Students make corrections to the comments from the judges. At the same time, students search their positions in domestic and/or overseas laboratories, or in the companies, which are conducted based on carrier planning by students. Students will apply scholarships and scientific research expenses if necessary.
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Highlights Establishment Course List Research Guidance Process (Model) |