Perhaps no element of human life inspires as many questions, or holds as much mystery, as the brain.
This vital organ is the control center of the human body, helping us with basic functions like breathing and movement. But it's also the source of everything that makes us human: our actions, emotions, memories, and thoughts. All of that packed into an organ that typically never exceeds three pounds in size.
"Understanding both how cognition came about in the first place, and understanding how this organ the size of your fist sitting in your head can write Shakespearean sonnets - those are among of the deepest questions that human beings face," said Samuel McDougle, assistant professor of psychology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and director of the Action, Computation, and Thinking lab.
Human cognition has long been studied in many fields. Indeed, here at Yale faculty from 30 different departments are part of the Wu Tsai Institute (WTI), the university's home for the study of cognition. But to fully understand the mind's mysteries, these perspectives need to come together.
That's the approach students will learn through a new graduate certificate offered by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) in partnership with WTI. Launching this academic year, the Graduate Certificate in Brains, Minds, and Machines will prepare the next generation of human cognition researchers through interdisciplinary training across biological, psychological, and computational sciences. The new certificate includes all three to equip students with the mindset and skillset to investigate human cognition in all its complexity.
