Director's Message

The human mind represents complexity and mystery on a scale unrivaled by any other biological or physical structure, and understanding the mind remains one of humanity’s greatest challenges. The Center for Mind and Brain (CMB) is a campuswide, interdisciplinary initiative that has been dedicated to addressing this challenge for nearly 25 years.

Our approach is to integrate psychology and cognitive science with neuroscience, engineering, computer science, and the broader social sciences, to reveal the nature of thought, knowledge, and consciousness. Using this comprehensive and synergistic approach, our scientists study the brains and behaviors and explore the minds of infants, children, youths and adults.

The members of the CMB are also engaged scholars, and are working in clinical-translational research and applied research to bring new discoveries forward to impact the lives of all members of society, at home and abroad. Whether it is developing new tools to ameliorate hearing loss and communication disorders, developing new protocols for mindfulness and compassion training, or treating patients with epilepsy and dementia, our scholars are deeply committed. Work addressing the health disparities, especially for mental health, that arise from social inequities, goes on in several labs in the CMB.

Embedded in one of the most dynamic mind and brain communities in the US, the CMB pursues research hand-in-hand with the training of undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral trainees. Via a rich program of public lectures, workshops and conferences, our scholars disseminate new findings about the human mind to society at large, thereby informing decision making, and shaping public policy.

We invite you to join us in our mission of discovery at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain.