Facilities
The Center for Neural Science offers state-of-the-art facilities for training and research in several areas in neuroscience. The main research facilities of the Center comprise 26,000 square feet of newly renovated laboratory and office space at 4 Washington Place, adjacent to the Departments of Physics and Psychology. Facilities include laboratories for the 16 core faculty, and shared laboratories for histology, microscopy, cell and molecular biology, digital imaging, and computing. Associates of the Center with adjacent laboratories in the Departments of Physics and Psychology have an additional 12,000 square feet of laboratory space; associates with laboratories in other departments have use of a further 19,000 square feet. The Center incorporates modern vivarium facilities operated by the University's Office of Laboratory Animal Services, which provides suitable support personnel to assist researchers and students in animal research, including work with nonhuman primates. The Center jointly operates an electronic and machine shop with the Department of Psychology; the shop provides modern facilities for the development of specialized electronic and mechanical devices.
The Center's research laboratories contain an unusually comprehensive array of modern research instrumentation. A centrally supported network of superminicomputers and microcomputers guarantees the availability of the most modern computing facilities for experimental work, data analysis, and modeling. Individual laboratories are fully equipped with modern instrumentation and computers and provide facilities for advanced research in neurochemistry, neurophysiology, biophysics, behavioral neuroscience, visual science, auditory science, mathematical biology, computational neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. In addition, the Center stresses the shared use of advanced facilities in areas such as computer-aided neuroanatomy, molecular and cellular neurobiology, and computer graphics and image processing, thereby making available research tools of a caliber not usually encountered in individual research laboratories.
A 1,500-square-foot teaching laboratory, used for laboratory courses in both the doctoral and undergraduate programs, provides a high-quality environment for hands-on training in the techniques of modern neuroscience. The laboratory provides outstanding facilities for topical experimentation in neurophysiology and biophysics, neurochemistry, experimental neuroanatomy, and behavioral neuroscience. A separate computer laboratory provides modern facilities for laboratory instruction in computational and theoretical neuroscience.