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Major Capstone

The Neuroscience, B.S. is designated as a capstone major. The capstone major at UCLA serves as a project-based culmination to a curriculum (a meaningful, shaped collection of courses typical of a major or minor), bringing together in a coherent way key elements of that curriculum. The acquisition of knowledge should lead to a specialized topic explored in a paper or project. Methodological training should be applied to a specific inquiry. Knowledge integrated across a range of topics and disciplines should provide broader contexts for a topic or project. And specific skills, such as research, discussion, teamwork, project design, performance, oral presentation, and writing, should be employed as appropriate to that inquiry.

Students can select one of the following four options to satisfy the major capstone requirement.

Option 1: Lab Methods

(1) NEUROSC/PSYCH M116A – Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory
OR
PSYCH 116B – Human Neuropsychology Laboratory

As of Winter 2023, NEUROSC M116A has replaced NEUROSC 101L.

(2) Additional major elective

Students who choose the lab methods capstone option must take a total of 4 upper division electives, with at least one from each elective option (see Major Requirements). The fourth elective can come from any of the three elective categories. NEURBIO M169 can be taken as an elective option provided that the student still completes one elective for each of the 3 elective categories.

Option 2: Independent Research

(1) NEUROSC 198A* or 199A

          and

(2) NEUROSC 198B* or 199B

 *Students pursuing Departmental Honors must complete NEUROSC 198A/B instead of 199A/B.

Important Notes on Independent Research:

  • Pre-requisites:
    • NEUROSC M101A (with a grade of C- or higher)
    • At least one quarter of an SRP-99 OR departmental 199 research contract in the same neuroscience-related *research lab under the same **faculty mentor must be completed prior to enrolling in the NEUROSC research contracts
      • *Only UCLA research labs are eligible for the capstone (no outside research labs)
      • **The faculty mentor for your research contract must hold an academic senate title (i.e. Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor, etc.) and be conducting research related to the brain. You can find instructions on how to submit an SRP-99 contract through the Undergraduate Research Center. These contracts are due by 5 p.m. on Friday of Week 2 of each quarter.
  • Limited to neuroscience majors/minors only. Non-departmental students should enroll in 199 research contracts under the department of their faculty mentor. 
  • NEUROSC 198/199 research contracts can solely be taken for the capstone requirement. Students pursuing other capstone options cannot complete these research contracts, and can enroll in 199 research contracts in other departments to earn credit for their research.
  • NEUROSC 199 research contracts are 4 units each. Letter grades are assigned upon completion of NEUROSC 198B/199B, earning the student 8 total units. Grades for NEUROSC 199A/198A will remain as “IP” (in-progress) indefinitely, but the 4 units still count towards study list units. 
  • NEUROSC 199 research contracts are only available in fall, winter, and spring quarters, and must be taken in consecutive quarters (i.e., winter and spring, spring and fall, etc.). NEUROSC 198 research contracts can only be taken in consecutive quarters during the same academic year (i.e., fall and winter or winter and spring). 
  • Students are only able to complete either NEUROSC 199A/B OR NEUROSC 198A/B once. Students who’d like to continue earning credit for neuroscience research can complete NEUROSC 199C, which also may only be taken once (instructions below). 
  • Poster required at the annual Neuroscience Poster during spring quarter.

Please see below for detailed guidelines on enrolling in Neuroscience research courses.

Option 3: Project Brainstorm (NEUROSC 192BX)

  • Project Brainstorm (typically listed as NEUROSC 192BX) is a two-quarter outreach and research project offered to departmental juniors and seniors, in which students have an opportunity to develop teaching lessons on neuroscience that are presented to local K-12 students. Project Brainstorm students also develop a research project and present at the annual Neuroscience Poster Day during spring quarter. 
  • Project Brainstorm meets on Thursdays from 9:00 am – 11:50 am in both the winter and spring quarters. However, there will be additional requirements and an increased time commitment to satisfy the capstone.
  • If you are interested in participating in Project Brainstorm to fulfill the major capstone requirement, please download and submit the application when it becomes available during the fall quarter. 

Important Notes on Project Brainstorm:

  • Admission into the Project Brainstorm capstone option is highly-competitive, with 8-10 students typically being accepted every year. Students who are accepted into the program will be enrolled in NEUROSC 192BX in winter and spring quarter by the neuroscience advisors.
  • Applicants should plan for an alternative capstone option, since admission into this capstone is not guaranteed. Please refer to the other capstone options as alternatives.

Option 4: DOPA-Team (NEUROSC C177 + NEUROSC 192CX)

Beginning in the academic year 2019-2020, students can apply to complete their capstone requirement in an additional option entitled ‘DOPA-Team’. Specifically, successful applicants will enroll in two sequential courses, NEUROSC C177 ‘Drugs of Abuse: Translational Neurobiology’ and NEUROSC 192CX ‘Drug Abuse and Society: Conveying Concepts to High School Students’ as a third capstone research option. The research component will be built into the C177 course. Under the tutelage of the course instructors, students will choose a novel and unique project, such as youth drug trends over time. Public databases will be mined and analyzed. For the outreach component, students will be given the opportunity to choose a drug category and translate the academic knowledge acquired in C177 into an age-appropriate and interactive presentation and hands-on activity for high school students. As with Project Brainstorm and research lab-based options, students will be required to present findings at the annual Neuroscience Poster Day.

Important Notes on DOPA-Team:

  • Admission into the DOPA-Team capstone option is highly-competitive, with 12-16 students typically being accepted every year. Students who are accepted into the program will be enrolled in NEUROSC C177 in winter quarter and NEUROSC 192CX in spring quarter by the neuroscience advisors.
    • Accepted students should not enroll themselves in NEUROSC C177, as seats are held for those completing this capstone option.
    • Additionally, NEUROSC C177 cannot satisfy a major elective for DOPA-Team students, so they will need three (3) major electives aside from this.
  • Applicants should plan for an alternative capstone option, since admission into this capstone is not guaranteed. Please refer to the other capstone options as alternatives.
  • Interested in DOPA-Team? Check out this article based on the experience of a past year’s capstone course that will be published in the Mind, Brain and Education Journal! 

How to Enroll in Neuroscience Research Contracts

NEUROSC 199A/198A

STEP 1. Download NEUROSC 199A or 198A contract from MyUCLA. For assistance, please use the MyUCLA contract tutorial.

NOTE: NEUROSC 198A contracts are for students who are pursuing departmental honors with the neuroscience department.

STEP 2. Complete supplemental outline – 198A/199A Supplemental Outline Instructions

  • STEP 2A. Include proof of completion of the laboratory safety fundamental concepts course if your contract requires it (it will say “safety training” at the top of your MyUCLA contract)
  • STEP 2B. Faculty advisor directory information from http://directory.ucla.edu/ (click here for an example) 

STEP 3. Fill out the faculty sponsor form

STEP 4. Have your faculty mentor sign both the MyUCLA contract and the faculty sponsor form (e-signatures are acceptable). (Please leave the Chair Signature line blank on the MyUCLA contract as this will be signed by the uNSIDP Vice Chair).

If your major GPA is below a 3.0, please include or have your faculty mentor email the Neuroscience advisors (neurosci@ucla.edu) a brief 2-3 sentence statement of support for your lab participation. You will not be enrolled until this support statement is included or emailed. 

STEP 5. Submit the MyUCLA contract, faculty sponsor form, and supplemental outline as one (1) PDF document to the Bruin Learn website by 4 p.m. on Friday of Week 1.

* If you are completing SRP-99, NEUROSC 199A/B or NEUROSC 198A/B through a UCLA Health Sciences Lab, please note that UCLA Health Sciences now requires that you are dual processed through the UCLA Health Science Volunteer Office (though you do not need to send these documents to the URC or the Neuroscience IDP). For UCLA Health Sciences processing steps, please visit: https://www.uclahealth.org/Volunteer/ucla-health-sciences-volunteer-program.

A status report is due by Friday of finals week – see report directions at the bottom of the page. 

NEUROSC 199B/198B

STEP 1. Download NEUROSC 199B or 198B contract from MyUCLA. For assistance, please use the MyUCLA contract tutorial. 

STEP 2. Get faculty mentor to sign the MyUCLA contract. Under Course Proposal, please include as much detail as possible regarding your project and how you will be evaluated at the end of the quarter (i.e., final lab report or honors thesis and Neuroscience Poster Day presentation).

If your major GPA is below a 3.0, please include or have your faculty mentor email the Neuroscience advisors (neurosci@ucla.edu) a brief 2-3 sentence statement of support for your lab participation. You will not be enrolled until this support statement is included or emailed. 

STEP 3. Submit the MyUCLA contract to the Bruin Learn website by 4 p.m. on Friday of Week 1.

Important Notes:

  • A final report is due by Friday of finals week – see report directions at the bottom of the page. 
  • Students must present a poster at the annual Neuroscience Poster Day in May
  • Students will receive an 8-unit letter grade at the end of the quarter, reflecting the work in the lab for the past two quarters and the quality of both reports. 

NEUROSC 199C

Do you want to continue with upper division research units?

Enroll in NEUROSC 199C ← 199C faculty form located here

STEP 1. Download the NEUROSC 199C contract from MyUCLA. Under Course Proposal, please include as much detail as possible regarding your project and how you will be evaluated at the end of the quarter.

STEP 2. Get faculty mentor to sign the MyUCLA contract.

STEP 3. Submit the MyUCLA contract and faculty sponsor form as one (1) PDF document to the Bruin Learn website by 4 p.m. on Friday of Week 1. 

For NEUROSC 199C, students will receive a 4-unit letter grade at the end of the quarter. These units will count towards the university’s upper division requirement, but will not count for the Neuroscience major. 

Quarterly Deadlines

A report is due by Friday of finals week (a status report for NEUROSC 199A/198A, and a lab report or honors thesis for NEUROSC 199BC/198B, respectively) – click here for report directions.

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