“There are more than one billion people in the world with problems with the central nervous system, including Parkinson’s disease, dementia, developmental disorders, autism, cerebral palsy, stroke, schizophrenia and many others,” says Professor Doug Crawford, Canada Research Chair in Visuomotor Neuroscience and coordinator of the new diploma program. “One in three Canadians will be affected at some point in their lives. These diseases aren’t just fatal; they often ruin what should have been the most productive years of your life. Neuroscience research holds out hope to these people.”

Students clearly are interested in the rapidly-growing field of neuroscience, Crawford says; many York graduate students are already conducting research in the field. However, the new diploma program, which will begin in September, will give them a more broad-based, interdisciplinary education in neuroscience while they complete Masters and PhD degrees in biology, kinesiology and health sciences, and psychology.

York’s greatest strengths in neuroscience are in systems/cognitive research, with applications to neurology, rehabilitation and neuropsychology. Neuroscientists in York’s Centre for Vision Research are studying visual perception – for example, how we process faces and scenes in our brains, and where this occurs – as well as visual-motor control such as eye-hand coordination. There is also a great deal of research at York in cognition and neuropsychology, examining the neural mechanisms underlying schizophrenia, or how bilingualism affects cognitive development and scholastic performance. Some York psychologists are studying topics such as the neural basis of empathy and personality, part of the new field of social cognitive neuroscience.

While brain disease has huge implications for society, it is often the science itself that attracts students to study neuroscience, says Crawford.

“Students are fascinated with neuroscience because it affects everything about us, from psychology, to biology to physical health. The brain completely controls our bodies – our muscles, heartbeat, breathing, even hormones – everything is under the control of the brain.”

Graduate students who complete the diploma program will take their knowledge about neuroscience into careers as doctors and dentists, therapists and researchers, and may even apply what they learn to the world of computers, Crawford says, because the human brain is still the world’s most powerful computer.

For further information on this program, see: Neuroscience at York.

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 190,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 24 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.

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Media contact:

Janice Walls, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x22101 / wallsj@yorku.ca