<p>Hi. Currently my prospective major is neuroscience, so I am looking at a lot of schools that offer it. However, some schools offer a major entitled "Cognitive Science" or there about. From what I understand, Neuroscience is more bio and cog sci is more psych. However, I do not understand the specific differences and what topics each major studies and researches. Could anyone explain to me specifically what the difference is between the two?</p>
<p>Neuroscience is the physiological basis of nerve conduction and the anatomy of the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. The idea in neuroscience is to understand the biological mechanism of how neurotransmission occurs. </p>
<p>Cognitive science is a hybrid program which involves studies in philosophy, psychology, computer science and sometimes linguistics. Cognitive science programs usually have more than one stream. For example, one stream could be on artificial intelligence which would have a computer science focus, another in linguistics, another in attention etc etc. The idea in cognitive science is to understand and apply how thinking occurs. Cognitive science is a newer field, so each university will have a different take on the field and different courses in it. </p>
<p>Beyond that, be sure to look into the specific programs because neurosci/cogsci programs tend to vary between schools. At CMU, for example, cogsci is heavily geared toward AI.</p>