MSc in Cognitive Sciences and Technologies: From Neuron to Cognition

Program Overview

Our Master's program offers courses in cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuro-modeling. Taken together these disciplines study how memories, emotions, cognition, or consciousness actually work. Students attend lectures in English and practice in leading laboratories of Moscow and of our international partners. Leading scientists supervise students' practical training and writing of Master's thesis during the second year. The program is carried out in close cooperation with the École Normale Supérieure and Aarhus University.

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Cognitive psychology

Modern cognitive psychology is an experimental discipline that studies the origin and functioning of the mind, brain, and intelligence. Our Programme focuses on perception, control of attention and motor responses, the formation of mental representations, dynamics of memory retrieval, learning, cognitive development, and cognitive breakdown, the mechanisms of reasoning, language, and problem-solving.

Cognitive neuroscience

Integration of psychology and neuroscience - Cognitive Neuroscience - examines neural systems underlying complex behaviors like emotions, language, attention, memory, etc. Methods employed in cognitive neuroscience include a wide range of experimental paradigms starting from psychophysics and cognitive psychology, neurology and psychiatry, and ending up with electrophysiological studies of neural systems and, increasingly, cognitive genomics and behavioral genetics. Recent breakthroughs in brain imaging technology allow cognitive neuroscientists to see a live human brain at work using state-of-the-art methods like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magneto- and electroencephalography (MEG, EEG), brain navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS), transcranial direct/alternating current stimulation (tDCS/tACS).

What are the advantages of our Master’s program compared to similar ones?

We are the only English-language Master’s program in cognitive sciences in Russia. Our lecturers are active world-class scientists including the highly cited researchers in the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neuroeconomics, neurolinguistics, and other interdisciplinary areas. Thanks to our international partners’ laboratories students have access to the whole range of neuroimaging techniques which provide a unique opportunity for the development of young researchers.

During your studies

This two-year program is taught in English and covers a wide range of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience subjects. The program begins with introductory courses in psychology, mathematics, and neuroscience. It offers two tracks: Cognitive Sciences and Computational Sciences.

Cognitive Sciences is an integration of psychology and neuroscience that examines neural systems underlying complex behaviors like emotions, language, attention, memory, etc. The program focuses on the following topics:

• Advanced Neuroimaging
• Visual Perception and Attention
• Emotion and Cognition
• Applied Neuroscience

Computational Sciences is an experimental discipline that focuses on modeling the structure and the functions of the cognitive and neural processes.

The Master’s program focuses on the following topics:

• Advanced Computational Neuroscience
• Mathematical Aspects of EEG and MEG Based Neuroimaging

Graduates of the Master’s program in Cognitive Sciences and Technologies: From Neuron to Cognition are able to demonstrate proficiency in signal processing, statistical data analysis, and an interpretation of neuronal mechanisms that underlie various cognitive processes. As such, they have been able to pursue careers in international research laboratories and centers, at private companies focusing on user interface optimization and evaluation projects, as well as at universities and schools. They are also involved with projects on brain-computer interface development and clinical application, including pre-surgery brain mapping, neuromarketing, and usability research.