Neuroscience prereqs

[NeuroPsyStudent]

I wonder if any lab science types might be able to interpret these prereqs for a neuroscience course: "cell biology" and "biochemistry". The standard sequence of college courses in biology seems to be biology I, biology, II. Are there other names for "cell biology"? Would it follow the first year of biology. As for chemistry, a typical series is chemistry I, chemistry II, organic chemistry I, organic chemistry II. Is biochemistry another word for organic chemistry, or is it a course (or series of courses) taught after organic chemistry? If it is the later, it would seem that one would need to be a chemistry major to take this neuroscience class.

Thanks!

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[nobleheart]

Cell bio can also be called cytology...some schools offer a 2000 level intro to cell, but you will want to take a junior or senior level cell course. Most schools have Chem I, Chem II, Organic I as prereqs for Biochem. Biochem is very different from organic...organic is the study of carbon based molecules and their reactions, while biochem is as the name suggests based on the nature of biological molecules.

I would reccomend taking all the basic bio you can get your hands on especially physiology before taking biochem. But, keep in mind that biochem is typically less demanding than organic for most folks.

A substantial understanding of chemistry is necessary for neuroscience, as chemistry is the language of neurology.

I just completed my B.S. in molecular Bio....Tons o' Fun. PM me if you have any other Q's.

 

[LadyInRed]

As nobleheart mentioned, both cell biology and biochemistry are upper level college courses, and aren't the equivalent of any of the bio 1 or 2, chem 1 or 2, or orgo 1 or 2 courses you mentioned. As for biochemistry, I haven't heard of it called by any other name. For cell biology, while not entirely the same thing, a molecular biology class would be fine as a prereq. In fact most classes I've seen in that field are called Molecular & Cell Biology.

If you've taken the college sequence of classes you mentioned, I honestly think you'd be fine taking the neuroscience course as long as it was a more basic grad course as opposed to a very specialized upper level course. You wouldn't know all of the information, but your neuroscience textbook probably gives you more than enough background on the cell bio and biochem side to be fine in the class. Biochemistry is fairly easy to pick up and the amount of cell biology that you need to know for most unspecialized neuroscience courses is also somewhat limited, so you shouldn't have any problems there.