Major Spotlight: Neuroscience & Behavior

After being diagnosed with a chronic pain condition, I was fascinated by the nervous system. How could nerves get “confused,” transmitting pain signals at the brush of a simple touch? Through this experience, I wanted to learn how other conditions, such as Phantom Limb Syndrome, could occur; how can such a complex and organized system malfunction? These questions sparked my acute interest in neuroscience, a vast and evolving field of science.

The Neuroscience and Behavior major has been offered at Barnard since the early 2000s; however, it was not its own official department until 2019. Since then, neuroscience has been a versatile choice among Barnard graduates due to its compatibility with undergraduate courses required to apply to medical school.

What are the requirements for the Neuroscience & Behavior major?

There aren’t set “tracks” within the neuroscience major, but you can tailor your electives and strategize courses to count for the major requirements. 

As of Spring 2026, the major requires five courses: Introduction to Neuroscience, Laboratory in Neuroscience, Systems & Behavioral Neuroscience, Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience or Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience, and a Statistics-based course (Statistics & Experimental Design, Statistics, Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, Introduction to Statistics, or Calculus-based Introduction to Statistics). These are the current requirements, but they may be subject to change in the future. These core major classes establish a foundation for the neuroscience major, so that they may equip you to tackle advanced coursework.

It also requires three courses from any of the cognate disciplines in biology, chemistry, computer science, physics, and psychology. On top of that, there are three elective courses required, one of which must be an upper-level seminar; these can be any courses of your choosing, as long as they are on the pre-approved neuroscience elective list. Because the neuroscience department counts many courses from other departments to fulfill the elective requirements, there is a lot of flexibility to take courses that you are interested in within the realm of neuroscience. Some fields include cognitive neuroscience, computational neuroscience, animal neuroscience, etc. Due to my experiences with chronic pain, I am particularly interested in genetics and long-term stress and want to research the relationship between chronic stress, autoimmune disease, and genetic inheritance. Though this intersection seems niche, I feel there is a course for every interest, and am planning to take a course called “the Psychobiology of Stress” next semester.

Lastly, a research seminar is required to complete the major, and is usually taken in one’s senior year of college. This can be either completing your own research project, or assisting with a faculty member’s project (i.e. a guided project). For example, the guided senior thesis project collects electrical activity of the brain during “mind wandering,” allowing students to make changes to the experimental procedure to eliminate behavioral confoundings, and independently analyze their findings.

What is the department like?

I have found the neuroscience department to be incredibly supportive. My advisor is personally invested in my success and interest in neuroscience, and I feel that support makes all the difference. The department also collaborates with the biology and psychology departments, meaning that many courses offered through other departments can count towards the neuroscience requirements. Because many neuroscience majors plan to go to medical school, many of the advisors are familiar with the necessary prerequisites. They can guide you on how to best maximize the space in your schedule to fulfill multiple Foundations requirements.

While advisors ensure you are taking the correct major requirements, the faculty at the Barnard Neuroscience Department strengthen your intellectual curiosity. They undertake many research projects, ranging from studying neurobiological changes during adolescence to inform justice policy, to visual perception and attention to better inform health outcomes. The breadth of the research conducted at Barnard is valuable, and it is one of the main reasons that influenced me to declare this major. Barnard students also have access to research labs under the larger Columbia institution, which is a major proponent of neuroscience research. I currently work at a lab under the Biomedical Engineering Department at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science where I analyze data on brain regions’ volume using computational methods.

What have been your favorite classes? What are the types of courses you can take as an elective?

My favorite neuroscience class so far has to be Introduction to Neuroscience with Dr. BJ Casey. I originally took this class as a requirement for the Cognitive Science major, an area of study that I thought I would pursue when entering Barnard as a freshman; however, I found that I was more interested in the associations between brain regions and their functions. Professors are incredibly impactful in influencing your engagement with the subject, and I found Dr. Casey to inspire a love for neuroscience within her students. 

One benefit of the neuroscience major is that it allows its students to explore many intersections with other subjects, such as neurodevelopment and psychology. One class I am very interested in is Molecular and Mendelian Genetics with Prof. Brian Morton. I am taking it because I am interested in epigenetics, which studies how organisms alter which gene to express, and how stress influences genetic expression.

Does it satisfy the “pre-med” curriculum? Is this a pre-med major?

While there is no specific “pre-med” major, the neuroscience major requirements simultaneously satisfy many of the required undergraduate courses for medical school. For example, the neuroscience requirements that are also medical school prerequisites are statistics, biology, chemistry, and physics.

This major is popular among pre-meds at Barnard because of its flexibility. However, not all neuroscience majors intend to apply to medical school. I have met many pre-law and public health neuroscience students, or even those who want to go into academia or pursue a Ph.D. The variety of professional diversity is a testament to the versatility of the major.

Being a neuroscience major has not only strengthened my curiosity within this field, but opened my eyes to other avenues of science that work in tandem with the nervous system; like how the environment (with events such as stress, chemical exposure, and radiation) and genetically-inherited conditions affects the nervous system. This major introduced me to so many of its intersections, leading me to also research human rights in the context of health; in my human rights class, I am researching medical assistance in dying, evaluating the legal safeguards and researching the psychology of mental illness. With the support of the faculty, neuroscience has both broadened and challenged my knowledge.

Learn more about the Neuroscience and Behavior major and its department here.