Neuroscience And Virtual Reality

[Naomi_Ink]

All righty, hello there! First off, sorry for popping in someplace where I clearly do not belong, but I thought who better to ask this then people such as yourselves? So here's the thing, I want to study the effects of virtual reality in the context of neuroscience. That's about all I know at this point. I'm still in high school, and am planning on starting college a bit late because of various circumstances and needing some time to catch up (Any of you planning on having kids? Quick tip then: don't leave them to teach themselves the entirety of their high school education. Got it? Good.) . Anyway, thought I'd ask a 2 part question. First off: Does any one know what degree would be the most relevant to this? Secondly: If none of you do know what would be the most helpful path to get me started on my way for this one, does anyone know where I can look to find someone who does? Because I am honestly at a loss. Thanks for the help, and again, sorry for showing up in a place obviously not designed for my demographic. 

[HopefulAcademic]

University of Chicago's - PHd in Computational Neuroscience.  Would probably be your best bet haha.

[Edotdl]

You could probably go with either Neuroscience or CS. I doubt many colleges will have a major that is that specific (I'm assuming here you're asking about an undergrad program that will prepare you for a PhD studying "the effects of VR in the context of neuroscience"). I think the important thing is to look at the flexibility of the curriculum and the schools course offerings (eg. if you do CS, can you take VR courses and relevant neuro ones). One thing to note, is that no matter how set you are on a PhD now, you might decide otherwise after 4 years or at the very least change the field you're interested in.

[brainz]

I'm actually working in a neuro lab that's starting to use some VR. I'd prioritize the coding/tech skills (so maybe a major in comp sci or electric engineering), then take neuro/psych on the side as a second major, minor, etc. You'll end up with a useful skill that you can either bring to a lab as something to offer and you can actually get a job if you decide not to do the PhD thing.

Other suggestion: google scholar the topic and see what work is being done, what departments they're in, etc. 

I'm not super familiar with it, but my guess is computational neuroscience is actually probably not what you want, since it's a lot about creating mathematical models (vs actually doing experiments with VR). If you are interested in that, applied math might be a good choice.