Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour

Program Information
Program and Course Information

The Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour provides facilities for students intending to proceed to the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees.

Enquiries: 905 525-9140 Ext. 23027
Fax: 905 529-6225
E-mail: pnbgrad@mcmaster.ca
Website: https://science.mcmaster.ca/pnb/

Faculty/Fall 2024

Professors

Mel Rutherford, B.A. (Yale), Ph.D. (California, Santa Barbara)/ Department Chair

David Feinberg, B.Sc. (Hons.) (Rutgers), Ph.D. (St. Andrews) / Graduate Chair

Louis A. Schmidt, B.A. (Maryland), M.S. (Baltimore), Ph.D.(Maryland)/ RCT Stream Director

Sigal Balshine, B.Sc. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Cambridge)
Patrick J. Bennett, B.Sc. (Tufts), Ph.D. (California, Berkeley)
Reuven Dukas, B.A. (Hebrew), Ph.D. (North Carolina State)
Paul A. Faure, B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc. (Calgary), Ph.D. (Cornell)
Bruce Milliken, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (Waterloo)
Kathryn M. Murphy, B.A.(Hons.) (Western), M.A., Ph.D. (Dalhousie)
Sukhvinder S. Obhi, B.Sc. (Loughborough), M.Sc. (Manchester), Ph.D. (University College, London)
David I. Shore, B.Sc.(Hons.) (McMaster), M.A., Ph.D. (British Columbia)
Laurel J. Trainor, B.Mus., M.A., Ph.D. (Toronto)

Associate Professors

Paul Andrews, B.Sc. (Arizona), J.D. (Illinois), Ph.D. (New Mexico)
Nicholas A. Bock, B.Sc. (Western), Ph.D. (Toronto)
Steven Brown, M.A., M. Phil., Ph.D. (Columbia)
Deda C. Gillespie, B.Sc. (Yale), Ph.D. (California, San Francisco)
Daniel Goldreich, B.Sc. (California, San Diego), Ph.D. (California, San Francisco)
Karin R. Humphreys, B.A. (Queensland), M.A., Ph.D. (Illinois)
Ayesha Khan, B.Sc., Ph.D. (McMaster)

John Iversen, B.A (Harvard), MPhil.(Cambridge), Ph.D(Massachusetts)
Joseph Kim, B.Sc., Ph.D. (McMaster)
Hongjin Sun, B.Sc., M.Sc. (Peking), M.A. (Western), Ph.D. (Queen’s)
Scott Watter, B.Med.Sc., M.B.B.S. (Queensland), A.M., Ph.D. (Illinois)

James Quinn, B.Sc.(Hon.)(Queen’s), M.Sc.(Brock), Ph.D (Oklahoma)

Elisabet Service, Ph.D (Helsinki)

Joanna Wilson, H.B.Sc (McMaster), M.Sc. (Victoria), Ph.D.(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Anita Acai, B.Sc.(Guelph), M.Sc. (McMaser), Ph.D (McMaster)

Yair Berson

Assistant Professors

Jonathan Cannon, ScB. (Brown), Ph.D. & M.A. (Boston)

Katrina Y. Choe, B.Sc. (Hons.) (Toronto), Ph.D. (McGill)

Lauren Fink, B.M (Cincinnati), MPhil.(Cambridge), Ph.D.(California)
Ali Hashemi, B.Sc. (Hons.), Ph.D. (McMaster)

Taigan MacGowan
Meagan MacKenzie, B.Sc. (Hons.) (Trent), M.A. (Wilfrid Laurier), Ph.D. (Memorial)
Mayu Nishimura, B.Sc. (Hons.) (Queens), Ph.D. (McMaster)
Jennifer Ostovich, B.Sc. (Toronto), M.A., Ph.D. (Pennsylvania)
Nikol Piskuric, B.Sc., Ph.D. (McMaster)
Gabriel (Naiqi) Xiao, B.Mgmt. (Zhejiang Sci-Tech), Ph.D. (Toronto)

Associate Members

Ben Bolker, Ph.D. / Departments of Biology and Math and Stats
Ian Bruce, B.Eng., Ph.D., P.Eng. / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Benicio Frey, M.D., M.Sc., Ph.D. / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
Andrea Gonzalez, M.A., Ph.D. / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
Sheryl Green, Ph.D., C. Psych / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
Magdalena Janus, Ph.D. / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
Karen Kidd, Ph.D. / Departments of Biology and Earth Sciences
Jelena King, B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D. / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
Victor Kuperman, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. / Department of Linguistics and Languages
Randi McCabe, Ph.D., C. Psych / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
Margaret McKinnon, Ph.D., C. Psych / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
Heather McNeely, Ph.D., C. Psych / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
Karen Rowa, Ph.D., C. Psych / Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
Michael Schutz, Ph.D. / School of the Arts
Graham Scott, Ph.D. / Department of Biology
Ranil Sonnadara, Ph.D. / Department of Surgery

Professor Emeriti

Suzanna Becker, B.A., M.Sc. (Queen’s), Ph.D. (Toronto)

Geoffrey Hall, B.Sc., M.Sc. (Guelph), Ph.D. (McMaster)

Allison Sekuler, B.A. (Pomona), Ph.D. (California-Berkeley) / On Leave, Adjunct Status 2017-2022

Judith M. Shedden, B.Sc. (Hons.) (Alberta), M.Sc., Ph.D. (Pittsburgh)

Facilities for Research

The Department maintains extensive facilities for research in a variety of experimental areas including: Animal Behaviour, Cognition & Perception, Behavioural & Systems Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Social & Evolutionary Psychology. The Department possesses (or has access to) extensive facilities for human and non-human animal research.

The 20,680 square foot state-of-the-art animal facility has a full-time animal care staff with holding rooms for bats, rats, mice, gerbils, fish, cats, quail, and insects. Procedure rooms include a physiological optical imaging laboratory, confocal microscopy, cryostat, transgenic procedure suite, two animal surgery suites, electrophysiology and neurochemistry suites, liquid scintillation counter, and an automated cage washing facility.

The recently renovated 19,700 square feet of human research facilities provide trainees with access to modern computing resources (Macintosh, Windows, and Linux environments) and state-of-the-art systems for eye-tracking (head mounted and remote), virtual reality studies, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and electroencephalography (EEG). Human researchers enjoy access to a 3T fMRI magnet and Imaging Research Centre through ongoing collaborations with faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences and St. Joseph’s Healthcare. As well, in conjunction with Brock University, we have created a mobile human electrophysiology and eye-tracking laboratory. This unique facility is particularly useful in ongoing research with special populations, school-aged children, and seniors-participants for whom access to our Department-based facilities may be difficult.

The most recent infrastructure addition to the Psychology Complex is the LIVE (Large Interactive Virtual Environment) Lab. The central space is a 100-seat concert hall with an array of microphones, loudspeakers, and advanced digital virtual acoustics systems that can mimic the natural acoustics of almost any setting. Some concert seats are wired to measure audience electrophysiological responses to performances. From the stage, dense-array EEG and motion capture systems enable the study of how musicians and other artists interact/synchronize when playing, conversing, or dancing. High precision synchronization between equipment systems enables cutting edge, multi-faceted analyses of complex questions related to music, hearing, vision, movement, learning, and human interaction.

In addition to these facilities, the Department maintains full-time technical staff available to members of the faculty and their students. Department technicians are well equipped to construct specialized laboratory apparatus, maintain computers, and develop/repair instrumentation. Detailed descriptions of the research interests of our faculty and lists of representative publications are available on the Department website.

Programs

Master

Psychology, M.Sc.

Doctoral

Psychology, Ph.D

Course Offerings

Psychology Courses