行为神经科学将生物学原理应用于人类和其他动物行为的生理，遗传和发育机制的研究。作为神经科学的一个子领域，它为各种疾病提供了重要的治疗数据，包括帕金森氏病，亨廷顿氏病，阿尔茨海默氏病，自闭症，酒精中毒和药物滥用，抑郁症，精神分裂症和焦虑症。行为神经科学的许多文献都研究了各种动物模型共有的心理过程和行为，例如动机行为（饥饿，口渴，性爱），感觉和知觉，身体控制，学习和记忆，生物节律（包括睡眠），和情感。行为神经科学家还对心理学，哲学和语言学的其他主题领域做出了贡献，包括语言，意识，推理和决策。
Behavioral neuroscience applies the principles of biology to the study of physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior in humans and other animals. As a subfield of neuroscience, it has contributed important therapeutic data on a variety of conditions, including Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, autism, alcoholism and substance abuse, depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety. Much of the literature in behavioral neuroscience examines mental processes and behaviors that are shared across various animal models, such as motivated behavior (hunger, thirst, sex), sensation and perception, physical control, learning and memory, biological rhythms (including sleep), and emotion. Behavioral neuroscientists also contribute to other topic areas of psychology, philosophy, and linguistics, including language, consciousness, and reasoning and decision-making.