The Program is organized into a single training curriculum but is characterized by the significant interdisciplinary nature of its approach. It integrates basic training in neuroscience and experimental psychology with studying mental activities and cognitive functions in the psychophysiological, neurobiological, neuropsychological, psycholinguistic, computational, social, philosophical, logical, ethical and educational fields. 

Furthermore, in line with the multidisciplinary nature of the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, the Ph.D. Program promotes the study of the psychophysiological correlates of cognitive functions and human behavior with particular attention to questions of a transversal, translational and clinical nature. Recently, in the context of a dialogue with the economic, social, engineering and humanities sciences, the introduction of neuroscientific methodologies and themes has led to a greater valorization of the experimental approach and an innovative characterization of the neurobiological correlates of human behavior, integrated with social, computational and data analytics aspects. The didactic and experimental organization of the Ph.D. program has been built and revised over the years precisely to adopt this multidisciplinary approach, aiming to offer a broad educational overview, fundamental in the field of modern neuroscience both for pursuing an academic and experimental research career, and for open up to new labor markets that increasingly require transversal figures.

The central teaching and research topics within the Program concern perception through the sense organs, cognitive functions, the study of emotions and social interactions, the sleep-wake cycle, language and conceptual representation. On this basis, the Program opens up to advanced methods of processing electrophysiological and neuroimaging data, the study of the psychophysiological correlates of decision-making processes in the economic and social fields, the application of neurosciences in forensic and juridical areas, the study of the cognitive aspects of the visual arts, to the translational applications of neuroscience in the bioengineering and neurorehabilitation fields. In this way, the Program intends to address current problems and challenges of great social and strategic importance and solid relevance in a long-term perspective.

To this end, the Program promotes a strong integration of concepts, analytical techniques and methodological skills from other disciplinary sectors to provide students with complete mastery of the most advanced analytical tools, aiming to train the new generation of researchers who face the complexity of mental functions and human behavior with specific skills of analysis and interpretation combined with complementary and integrated tools.

In the first year, students will attend multiple courses. After completing the required courses in the curriculum, students engage in their research under the guidance of the faculty members from one of the research groups.

All students are encouraged to spend part of their studies abroad, both within the Erasmus+ framework and through ad hoc mobility agreements.

Teaching is mostly carried out by members of the MOMILAB research unit, with significant 'contaminations' from members of AXES, NETWORKS, SYSMA and LYNX.