From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Neuroscience is a field of study which deals with the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology and pathology of the nervous system. The study of behavior and learning is also a division of neuroscience.

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.

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.

Fields within Neuroscience

There are four main areas of study within neuroscience

• Molecular neuroscience - In principle, there is no distinction between cellular and molecular biology of the brain and of any other organ. However, there are so many differences between the nervous system and the rest of the body, both in terms of cellular functions and the goals of the field, that cellular and molecular neuroscience functions as an independent field.
• Development - This field studies the ways in which the ectodermally-derived nervous system gets organized in the adult animal. The primary subjects of investigation are the fruit fly and the zebrafish.
• Cognitive neuroscience and systems neuroscience - These two fields are interested in explaining the link between the mind and the brain. Common methods involve functional imaging, recording of action potentials, and careful analysis of behavior.
• Neurobiology of disease - This field, directly aligned with medical research, is interested in curing any diseases associated with the nervous system.

Other related and overlapping fields include:

• Aphasiology
• Brain imaging
• Computational neuroscience
• Neuroanatomy
• Neurochemistry
• Neuroeconomics
• Neurolinguistics
• Neurology
• Neurophysiology
• Neuropsychology
• Psychopharmacology
• and others; please extend this list

See also:

• List of neuroscience topics

External links

• Society for Neuroscience (http://www.sfn.org)
• Mind-Brain Society (http://mind-brain.com)
• Neuroscience (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/books/bv.fcgi?call=bv.View..ShowTOC&rid=neurosci.TOC&depth=2) by Purves et al (online textbook)
• Neuroscience for Kids (http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html)
• NeuroWiki (http://purl.net/net/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.
• Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, University of California San Diego (http://www.sccn.ucsd.edu/VisionOverview.html)

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