Dr. Benedetta Leuner, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, has been named director of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Major program, effective September 1. The Undergraduate Neuroscience Major, a joint venture between the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Medicine, allows students to investigate the organization, development and function of the nervous systems and their relationship to behavior, cognition and disorders. The Undergraduate Neuroscience Major program is home to more than 1,000 students pursuing the neuroscience major, pre-major or minor. 

Dr. Leuner is a behavioral neuroscientist, and her laboratory is primarily interested in the parental brain and behavior. Specifically, her research program seeks to identify the neurobiological mechanisms underlying changes in emotional, cognitive, parental and motivational functioning during motherhood.