Neuroscience: The Study of the Brain and Nervous System

“The brain is my second favorite organ” the comedian, Woody Allen, is reputed to have said. We can only speculate which organ is his favorite, but for the rest of us, the brain is undoubtedly at the top of the list. Take away your brain and you lose not only everything that makes you human, but also everything that makes you alive! As you are staring at this page your brain is directing and controlling virtually everything that occurs in your body, from understanding the words in front of you, to maintaining your body temperature, to digesting your most recent meal and remembering what you ate at that meal.

The human brain is the most complex structure known to science. Those of us who study the brain and nervous system (neuroscientists) are continually awed and amazed by its exquisite complexity and power. While we don’t yet understand how imagination, creativity or self-awareness arise from the 3 pound piece of meat that sits in our skulls, neuroscientists have made tremendous progress in understanding how networks of nerve cells in the brain work together to perform specific tasks like seeing, hearing or moving. In addition, medical scientists are beginning to understand the causes and develop treatments for a growing number of the neurological and psychological disorders that afflict humans.

Who is a neuroscientist?

Neuroscience is the perfect example of 21st century science. Because it is defined by the questions that researchers ask (How does a memory form? How does the brain move the hand?), rather than the scientific techniques that are used, neuroscience is inherently interdisciplinary. A biologist, a physicist, a physician, a computer scientist - anyone who studies the brain or nervous system is a neuroscientist. Also, because the brain is so complicated and difficult to study, neuroscience is collaborative.Scientists from different disciplines and with different areas of expertise will work together on a single scientific problem.

Neuroscience encompasses many sub-disciplines from those that focus on the most reduced level of analysis - cells or molecules - to those that study the behavior of animals or people.

Some examples of neuroscience specialties are:

- cognitive neuroscience - study of the biology of thought
- behavioral neuroscience - study of how the brain controls behavior
- behavioral genetics - study of how genes control behavior
- clinical neuroscience - study of brain and nervous system disorders
- computational neuroscience - mathematical modeling of brains, nerve cells and neuronal networks
- neurophysiology - study of how nerve cells function
- cellular/molecular neuroscience - study of the behavior of neurons and the proteins they are made of
- social neuroscience - studying how biological systems implement social processes and behavior

What can neuroscience do for you?

Rising rates of depression and suicide suggest that in our fast-paced, technology-driven world it may be easier to maintain a healthy body than a healthy mind. Moreover, as medicine gradually conquers heart disease, cancer and other killer diseases, more people will live long enough to fall victim to strokes or serious neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. Neuroscience wasn’t recognized as a separate scientific discipline until the 1970’s. Since then, the monetary, technical and human resources focused on neuroscience research has grown dramatically and continues to grow. We are just beginning to reap the benefits of this research as the last 10 – 15 years have seen significant advancement in our understanding of the workings of the brain and nervous system - knowledge that will eventually pay off in better prevention and treatment for neurological and psychiatric disorders. Neuroscientists in Delaware are working hard and forming novel collaborations in order to make new discoveries in basic science and clinical research and improve our understanding of the function of the nervous system and its disorders.