MSc Neuroscience of Mental Health

Overview of course aims

This course provides you with a deep understanding of the brain mechanisms that malfunction in individuals with mental health conditions, and an ability to link this understanding to treatments for mental illness. You'll study how the brain, neurochemistry and genetics contribute to the behavioural patterns that we observe in different mental illnesses. You’ll also examine how the understanding and treatment of psychiatric disorders has been improved by the advent of modern neuroscientific techniques, including neuroimaging and brain stimulation.

An improved understanding of the underlying brain and biological impairments in mental health disorders will enhance the chances of employment in a number of research and mental health related roles. Students who have completed similar courses in the past have gone on to fully funded research PhD and clinical doctoral training programmes.

Overview of the MSc Neuroscience of Mental Health programme

Overview of content

This MSc consists of four core modules at 20 credits each:

An Introduction to Mental Health - Introduces key mental health issues like depression, anxiety, psychosis, and eating disorders. It will define the key features of each issue, how it impacts on people, it will explore important issues in assessment, management and treatment.
Research Design and Statistics - Provides a solid foundation in common study design and statistical techniques used in experimental psychology.

· Data Analysis in Neuroimaging - Provides a practical understanding of how neuroimaging experiments are analyzed, hands-on with neuroimaging data and the York Neuroimaging center’s specialist computer systems.

· Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience - Introduces the field of cognitive neuroscience, its key methods, delving into the theoretical basis of two key methods fMRI and MEG and giving you the chance to begin designing your own experiments.

You will also complete two optional modules (20 credits each). Options might include:

· The Cognitive Neuroscience of Anxiety and Trauma – The aim of this module is to allow students to understand how threats and anxiety are processed, both cognitively and neurobiologically, and how threat processing may go awry.

· The Neurobiology of Depression – This course has two aims. Firstly, we will seek to understand the biological mechanisms that malfunction in individuals with depression. Secondly, we will investigate how understanding these biological mechanisms can lead to better treatments.

· Understanding Mental Health and Its Disorders: A Transdiagnostic Approach – This module explores the emerging and growing consensus that transdiagnostic approaches (i.e., focusing on commonalities across different mental health diagnoses, rather than differences between them) are necessary to improve understanding, classification and treatment of psychiatric conditions.

· Adult Mental Health: Schizophrenia and Psychoses - The aim of this module is to offer a balanced and nuanced overview of the different approaches used in the understanding and treatment of schizophrenia and related psychoses.

Empirical project (MSc requirement)

Students will undertake a substantial piece of empirical work (including secondary data analysis), on a novel topic at the cutting-edge of research in mental health and/or mental illness, supervised by experts in the field including clinical psychology, eating disorders, trauma, anxiety disorders, psychosis and bipolar disorders. Students will gain an understanding of statistical and analytic techniques used in current mental health research and carry out their project in a scientifically robust manner. Students will be asked to select four project titles from a list provided by the department. Students will then be allocated a project based on their selections. These projects are usually group based (2 - 4 students per project) but an option to complete an individual project on a separate topic may be possible depending on supervisor availability. Students who wish to do this should discuss their ideas with the department and their potential supervisor. While the summer period is allocated to project work, please note that students will be expected to engage in project work throughout the year, for example arranging for ethical review and developing materials. Exceptional projects may be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Literature Review (Diploma Only)

The opportunity to work towards a Diploma qualification is offered to students whose work does not reach the standard of a MSc qualification. For these students, a literature review is required in place of an empirical project. The literature review aims to teach Diploma students to critically appraise and write about a specific issue in the neuroscience of mental health. Through this assignment, students will demonstrate an ability to think and write about an issue in their chosen field of study in an insightful and educated way. The literature review takes place during the Summer Term. The 6000 word final essay accounts for 100% of the Literature Review module mark.