Interdisciplinary Programs

The Baker Institute for Public Policy, cited above, is a paragon of interdisciplinary work. In addition, social sciences boasts two interdisciplinary degree-granting programs allied with the Department of Psychology—neuroscience and cognitive sciences.

The former draws faculty from biochemistry and cell biology, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, linguistics, and psychology to team with experts from Baylor College of Medicine to examine the neural basis of human behavior. Researchers in this field use advanced imaging techniques to understand how and where the brain processes information for motor skills, memory, and perception to better help those who have suffered brain injury or conditions such as stroke or schizophrenia. A recent discovery in this area by Geoffrey Potts is that schizophrenics exhibit impaired communication between the frontal lobe of the brain, which controls functions like planning, organization, and motivation, and the visual area at the back of the brain, which detects objects that the eye sees. Findings like this may one day lead to treatments that target affected areas while reducing or even eliminating unwanted side effects of drugs presently in use to treat mental disorders.

Researchers in cognitive sciences, on the other hand, study mental phenomena such as perception, thought, memory, the acquisition and use of language, learning, concept formulation, and consciousness. Some investigators focus on relationships between brain structures and behavior, some work with computer simulation, and others work at more abstract philosophical levels. Randi Martin, for example, has been studying the relation between short-term memory and language processing in aphasics—patients who have a language deficit following brain damage or stroke. Martin suspects that different types of memory problems originate in different parts of the brain, and her studies could provide clues to the best way to treat memory problems arising from various causes.

The School of Social Sciences has two more interdisciplinary programs that have added special value across the board in all fields of study at Rice. One is policy studies, which allows the researchers and leaders of the future to understand the social forces and governmental policies that affect their work and how those policies are implemented. The second is managerial studies, which gives students from various fields the financial and managerial expertise they will need in their professional lives.