The Systems and Behavioral Neuroscience Group focuses on the neural systems and mechanisms that control behavior. The task of the behavioral neuroscientist is to explain behavior in physiological terms, and he/she must be expert in both behavior and neurobiology. Thus, PhD students in systems and behavioral neuroscience will receive multidisciplinary training in behavioral theory and technique and in a broad range of neuroscience topics, including neurotransmission, neurophysiology, sensory and motor systems, regulatory and reward processes, and higher cognitive functions. Many important areas of research are represented by the faculty and are funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and other agencies. Examples include neural basis of attention, decision making and executive control of behavior, reward, spatial cognition, habit formation, learning and memory, developmental psychobiology, emotion, hormonal regulation of social behaviors, sensory processing, and pain and addiction. Researchers use a variety of complementary and cutting-edge behavioral and neurobiological methods including in vivo single and multi-channel electrophysiology, optogenetics/pharmacogenetics, neuroanatomical and histochemical techniques, neuropharmacology, and sophisticated behavioral analysis. Students also have the opportunity to participate in interdisciplinary research with faculty in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and through collaborations with the Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth.