Neuroscience

Neuroscience is a field of study which deals with the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology and pathology of the nervous system, divided most generally into the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), and the peripheral nervous system, consisting of the myriad nerve pathways running throughout the body. The study of behavior and learning is also a division of neuroscience.

Related Topics:
Structure - Development - Genetics - Biochemistry - Physiology - Pharmacology - Pathology - Nervous system - Central nervous system - Brain - Spinal cord - Peripheral nervous system - Learning

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Neuroscience can be subdivided into several levels of analysis:

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? The atomic/molecular level, investigating the ions (such as calcium, sodium, and potassium) that act as neurotransmitters and carriers of electric charge, and the macromolecules (mostly proteins) that make up the cells themselves.

Related Topics:
Atomic/molecular - Calcium - Sodium - Potassium - Neurotransmitters - Macromolecules - Proteins - Cell

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? The cellular, or network level, dealing with individual neurons and nerve cells and their organization into functional groups that allow for higher order perception, association, and population coding, and also the means of communication between them (synapses and connexons).

Related Topics:
Network - Population coding - Synapses - Connexons

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? The modular, or systems level, exploring how large groups of neurons forming specialized modules (such as the hippocampus, the cerebellum, the , et cetera) communicate with one another in massively parallel fashion and organize complex behavior, such as the integration of incoming sensory data with behavioral motor output.

Related Topics:
Systems - Hippocampus - Cerebellum

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? The cognitive, or psychological level, at which the workings of the entire brain as a whole are analyzed to try to explain how a given electrochemical brain state can give rise to a given perception or experience.

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The biological study of the human brain is an interdisciplinary field which 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 like the cerebral cortex or the cerebellum, and at the highest level the nervous system as a whole.

Related Topics:
Brain - Neuron - Visual perception - Cerebral cortex - Cerebellum

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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.

Related Topics:
Cognitive science - Cognitive neuroscience - Cognitive psychologists - Mind - Consciousness - Psychology

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The concern of neuroscience includes such diverse topics as

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• 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.

Spanish histologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal pioneered the field of cellular neuroscience through his research into the microscopic properties of the brain. His discovery that the cortical layers of the brain are composed of millions of individual cells (neurons), and that those cells can become polarized, laid the foundation for the modern understanding of neuronal functioning.

Related Topics:
Spanish - Histologist - Santiago Ramón y Cajal - Cellular neuroscience - Microscopic - Cortical layers - Neurons

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Neuroscience: Fields within neuroscience ►