Neuroscience

Related Topics:
Neuroscience :: Neurosciences

Neuroscience is a field of study that deals with the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and pathology of the nervous system, consisting of the myriad nerve pathways running throughout the body. The study of behavior and learning is also a division of neuroscience.

History

Early views on the function of the brain, regarded it to be a form of “cranial stuffing” of sorts. In Egypt, from the late Middle Kingdom onwards, in preparation for mummification, the brain was regularly removed, for it was the heart that was assumed to be the seat of intelligence. According to Herodotus, during the first step of mummification: ‘The most perfect practice is to extract as much of the brain as possible with an iron hook, and what the hook cannot reach is mixed with drugs.’ Over the next two thousand years, this view came to be reversed; the brain is now known to be seat of intelligence, although colloquial variations of the former remain as in “memorizing something by heart”.

Overview

The biological study of the human brain is an interdisciplinary field that involves many levels of study, from the molecular level through the cellular level (individual neurons), the level of relatively small assemblies of neurons like cortical columns, that of larger subsystems like that which subserves visual perception, up to large systems including the cerebral cortex or the cerebellum, and at the highest level the nervous system as a whole.

At this highest level, neuroscientific approaches combine with cognitive science to create cognitive neuroscience, a discipline first populated mostly by cognitive psychologists, currently becoming a dynamic specialty of its own. Some researchers believe that cognitive neuroscience provides a bottom-up approach to understanding the mind and consciousness that is complementary to, or may replace, the top-down approach of psychology.

The concern of neuroscience includes such diverse topics as

the operation of neurotransmitters at the synapse
the biological mechanisms that underlie learning (both declarative learning and motor learning)
how genes contribute to neural development in the embryo and throughout life
the operation of relatively simpler neural structures of other organisms like marine snails
and the structure and functioning of complex neural circuits in perceiving, remembering, and speaking.

Neuroanatomy

The human nervous system is divided into the central and peripheral nervous systems. The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord, and plays a key role in controlling behavior.

The peripheral nervous system is made up of all the neurons in the body outside of the central nervous system, and is further subdivided into the somatic and autonomic nervous systems. The somatic nervous system is made up of afferent neurons that convey sensory information from the sense organs to the brain and spinal cord, and efferent neurons that carry motor instructions to the muscles.

The autonomic nervous system also has two subdivisions. The sympathetic nervous system is a set of nerves that activate what has been called the "fight-or-flight" response that prepares the body for action. The parasympathetic nervous system instead prepares the body to rest and conserve energy.

Fields within neuroscience

There are many areas of study within neuroscience including:

Neurobiology, which aims to study cells of the nervous system and the organization of these cells into functional circuits that process information and mediate behavior.
Molecular and cellular neuroscience, which integrate neurobiology with neurochemistry with the goal of understanding the cellular and chemical mechanisms of normal and abnormal brain function.
Developmental neuroscience, which studies how the ectodermally-derived central nervous system and mesodermally-derived peripheral nervous system develops into adulthood. Developmental neuroscience uses many different animal models, including the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster , zebrafish Danio rerio, Xenopus laevis tadpoles, and the worm Caenorhabditis elegans.
Cognitive neuroscience, which aims to understand the mechanisms that underlie "higher level" brain functions, usually in humans. These include language, learning and memory, attention, and emotion.
Computational and systems neuroscience, which seek to understand how information is processed by the nervous system. The methods of research combine mathematical and computational models with physiological recordings of single cells, neuronal clusters, and entire brain systems.
Behavioral Neuroscience, which assesses the neural underpinnings of a vast array of behaviors, from primate saccadic eye movements to the complex foraging behavior of bees.
Sensory Neuroscience, which attempts to understand how sensory areas of the brain represent information from the outside world.
Neurology, which is the branch of medicine that deals with the nervous system.
Neurobiology of disease: This field, directly aligned with medical research, is interested in understanding diseases associated with the nervous system.

"Neuroscience" refers to all the fields that study the nervous system. In some sense, psychology is a sub-field of neuroscience, although some mind/body theorists argue that the definition goes the other way. One of the largest related fields which shares many features of both psychology and neuroscience is neuropsychopharmacology. Neurobiology is sometimes used interchangeably with neuroscience, but it refers specifically to the study of the biology of the nervous system. Below is a list of related and overlapping fields:

Neurolinguistics
Neuromarketing
Neuropharmacology
Neurophenomenology
Neurophilosophy
Neurophysiology
Neuroproteomics
Neuroprosthetics
Neuropsychiatry
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychopharmacology
Neurotheology (also Biotheology)
Psychiatry
Psychopharmacology
Psychobiology (also Biopsychology, also Biological psychology)
Visual neuroscience

References

Textbooks

Squire, L. et al. (2003). Fundamental Neuroscience, 2nd edition. Academic Press; ISBN 0126603030
Byrne and Roberts (2004). From Molecules to Networks. Academic Press; ISBN 0121486605
Sanes, Reh, Harris (2005). Development of the Nervous System, 2nd edition. Academic Press; ISBN 0126186219
Siegel et al. (2005). Basic Neurochemistry, 7th edition. Academic Press; ISBN 012088397X
Rieke, F. et. al. (1999). Spikes: Exploring the Neural Code. The MIT Press; Reprint edition ISBN 0262681080

Online textbooks

Neuroscience 2nd ed. Dale Purves, George J. Augustine, David Fitzpatrick, Lawrence C. Katz, Anthony-Samuel LaMantia, James O. McNamara, S. Mark Williams. Published by Sinauer Associates, Inc., 2001.
Basic Neurochemistry: Molecular, Cellular, and Medical Aspects 6th ed. by George J. Siegel, Bernard W. Agranoff, R. Wayne Albers, Stephen K. Fisher, Michael D. Uhler, editors. Published by Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 1999.

Popular works

Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York, Avon Books. ISBN 0399138943 (Hardcover) ISBN 0380726475 (Paperback)
Gardner, H. (1976). The Shattered Mind: The Person After Brain Damage. New York, Vintage Books, 1976 ISBN 0394719468
Goldstein, K. (2000). The Organism. New York, Zone Books. ISBN 0942299965 (Hardcover) ISBN 0942299973 (Paperback)
Luria, A. R. (1997). The Man with a Shattered World: The History of a Brain Wound. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0224007920 (Hardcover) ISBN 0674546253 (Paperback)
Luria, A. R. (1998). The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book About A Vast Memory. New York, Basic Books, Inc. ISBN 0674576225
Ramachandran, V.S. (1998). Phantoms in the Brain. New York, New York Harper Collins. ISBN 0688152473 (Paperback)
Sacks, O. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Summit Books ISBN 0671554719 (Hardcover) ISBN 0060970790 (Paperback)
Sacks, O. (1990). Awakenings. New York, Vintage Books. (See also Oliver Sacks) ISBN 0671648349 (Hardcover) ISBN 0060973684 (Paperback)
Sternberg, E. (2007) Are You a Machine? The Brain, the Mind and What it Means to be Human. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

Notes From Related Classes

Intro to Neuroscience - Smith College Spring 2005

External links

Applied Neuroscience, Austria
Neuroscience Graduate Program, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA
Neuroanatomy is an annual journal of clinical neuroanatomy.
High-Resolution Cytoarchitectural Primate Brain Atlases
Society for Neuroscience
American Society for Neurochemistry
Neuroscience News Neuroscience news, forum, job listings, labs...
Neurotransmitter.netNeuroscience resources and news
Neuroanatomy & Neuropathology on the InternetHigh quality links
Neuroscience. 2nd ed. by Purves et al (online textbook)
Nature Reviews Neuroscience ( journal home)
Neuroscience for Kids
NeuroWiki, a wiki website for Neuroscience related topics. All content (unless explicitly proclaimed otherwise) is published to the public domain thus can be relocated to the Wikipedia.
Dana.org for information about brain research, immunology and arts education
Neuroscience Methods and Techniques
Behavioral Neuroscience Links

Neuroscience | Interdisciplinary fields | Psychology

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