Research master Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience: Neuropsychology

Programme Outline

The specialisation provides an in-depth study of both the cognitive and the emotional-affective aspects of human behavior, and you’ll learn more about how behavior can be influenced through food and medication. The programme also contains several courses that focus on improving your academic skills, such as writing papers and research proposals, providing you with an excellent basis for an academic career. But you will also have the opportunity to combine clinical and research internships, which means that positions in healthcare will also be open to you.

Internships

From November of the second year, you will devote your time to the preparation and execution of your research internship and master’s thesis. You will conduct your own research project (very often as part of a larger ongoing study), including the writing of a proposal, acquiring and analyzing the data. The work is reported in a master’s thesis, written in the style of a scientific journal article. Given the strong multidisciplinary research infrastructure here in Maastricht as well as extensive international networks, you will have ample opportunities for internships related to any aspect of Neuropsychology, either locally or at other top universities throughout the world. We will help you find a topic and location that best fit your own interests and career goals.

If you specialise in Neuropsychology, you may also choose to conduct an optional clinical internship in an approved setting, for at least 13 weeks. This can be done in conjunction with the required research internship or separately. Based on client/patient-based investigations you perform during the clinical internship, you will submit an additional, brief research report: the minor thesis. The length of the research internship and associated credits will be adjusted accordingly so that you can complete both internships within the 2-year timeframe of the curriculum.

Teaching staff and research environment

The research covers a broad range of topics, with a primary focus on understanding cognitive (e.g. memory, perception, attention) and emotional-affective (e.g. mood, motivation, arousal) aspects of human behavior. Starting from the perspective of brain structure and function, neuropsychology investigates the continuum from normal behavior to psychological dysfunctions (e.g. depression, addiction and eating disturbances, schizophrenia, ADHD) across the lifespan. In addition, brain-behavior relationships are studied by pharmacological or dietary manipulation of brain neurochemistry and function, mainly in humans. At Maastricht University, scientists affiliated with the European Graduate School of Neuroscience (EURON) conduct experiments that include the use of psychoactive substances in combination with behavioral, psychophysiological, and functional neuroimaging techniques.