The neurosciences research program at MIT and the beginning of the modern field of neuroscience

Abstract

The interdisciplinary field, "neuroscience," began at MIT in 1962 with the founding of the Neurosciences Research Program (NRP) by Francis O. Schmitt and a group of US and international scientists - physical, biological, medical, and behavioral - interested in understanding the brain basis of behavior and mind. They organized and held specialist meetings of basic topics in neuroscience, and the journal and book publications over the next 20 years, based on these meetings, helped establish the new field.