Neuroscience Core Concepts: Implementation in Varied Courses at Varied Institution Types

Abstract

Consensus core concepts are overarching principles that provide a framework for organizing facts and understanding in higher education curricula. Physiology educators have long benefitted from published core concepts in physiology (Michael and McFarland, 2011; Michael et al., 2017), but neuroscience core concepts were only recently developed (Chen et al., in press). The need for core concepts to structure neuroscience education is particularly pressing given the rapid expansion of neuroscience knowledge, programs, and curricula in recent years. The eight empirically‐developed, consensus neuroscience core concepts are labeled as communication modalities, emergence, evolution, gene‐environment interactions, information processing, nervous system functions, plasticity, and structure‐function. This presentation will review these neuroscience core concepts and demonstrate how they can be implemented in different courses (Human Anatomy and Physiology, Introductory Neuroscience, Advanced Neuroscience, Neuroethics, and Sensation and Perception), for different levels (non‐majors, lower‐division majors, upper‐division majors), and at different institution types (small liberal arts, large state institution).