Neuroscience in a Nutshell

Many people don’t understand neuroscience but the truth is its a huge field that is being studied in many other areas too

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Neuroscience deals with how your nervous system works.

It concentrates on the brain and the nervous system’s structure. By understanding the brain and its nervous system you are beginning to understand the cognitive function and behavior of an individual as a result. As people’s brains can develop and react in different ways to various stimuli, neuroscience creates an understanding of how the brain is linked to your nervous system and how this impacts movement and a person’s life after the brain is exposed to a range of external events, activities, and happenings.

Arising from the basis of biology, neuroscience studies the functional, cellular, molecular, and evolutionary parts of the human brain.

It also looks at how the brain computes its information and transfers it to the rest of your body.

Coming from a proclamation of the former President of the United States of America George Bush along with a sponsored initiative by the Library of Congress and the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health meant that the 1990s was the decade when brain science was thrust into public awareness. That’s when a greater emphasis on research and education came about meaning that there are many sub-divisions of neuroscience today.

Neuroscience can also be subdivided into different sub-areas of understanding too. Affective, cellular, cognitive, behavioral, and molecular neuroscienceare branches of the overall topic of neuroscience. And there are many other branches of neuroscience that seek to establish the brain’s effect on other areas of life too.

Here is a breakdown of the afore mentioned branches of neuroscience and some others as well:

Affective neuroscience studies how our neurons relate to our emotions.

Human emotional networks generally fit under six criteria:

1. The emotions ignite a behavioral-instinctual action pattern.
2. Our emotions can be activated by unconditional stimuli.
3. There can be longer-lasting arousal that comes from the initial circumstances.
4. Various sensory areas of our brains can be regulated by emotional arousals.
5. Our emotions control our learning and our brain activities.
6. Our emotions can be better controlled with the brain matures.

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Cellular neuroscience researches the physiological properties of your brain at the cellular level.

It studies the behavior of neurons at a deeper cellular level. The research covers a wide area from molecular to neuroendocrinology (which studies the interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system) to sensory and motor systems. It deals with single cell techniques to larger-scale computational methods.

• Cognitive neuroscience studies the overall psychology, linguistics, and cognitive science from the behavioral and experimental or the computational and modeling point of view.

It is one of the most significant research areas that have developed over the past couple of decades. Dealing with human development and how cognition interacts with a person’s learning relates to the emotional, social, cognitive, and overall behavior of individuals too. Brain imaging is used to understand the functional mapping of the cognitive processes of the brain by using event-related potentials (ERPs), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).

• Behavioral neuroscience looks at how your brain affects human behavior.

It includes an array of other disciplines, including engineering, economics psychology, and neuroscience. It deals with the neural and biological bases of behavior, including electrical stimulation and electrical activity, hormonal influences genetic factors, and chemical factors, neurotransmitters, and neuroanatomical substrates too.

• Molecular neuroscience delves into the molecules of the human nervous system and how they affect the health of a person.

Cellular and molecular neuroscience utilizes molecular biology to establish how signaling molecules, and cellular morphology d our genes influence the nervous system.

Other specific concentrations of neuroscience are as follows:

• Clinical neuroscience examines the disorders of the nervous system.
• Computational neuroscience looks at how our brains compute information either mathematically, or by applying the rationale of physics and regarding the overall functionality of the brain.
• Cultural neuroscience establishes what cultural values are dictated by the brain’s ability and genetic makeup.
• Developmental neuroscience deals with how from a cellular basis brains’ develop and how the mechanics of the organ help guide the person.
• The study of neuro-engineering attempts to improve neural systems.
• Neuro-imaging is a further branch of medical imaging that concentrates on the brain. It can be used to diagnose diseases and to establish how things affect the human brain too.
• The study of neuro-informatics attempts to understand the brain as well as treat diseases.

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• The neural mechanisms in the brain and how language affects it are studied by using the sub-science of neuro-linguistics.
• Neurophysiology establishes how the brain functions with the body. It uses ion- or voltage-sensitive dyes, electrodes, and light-sensitive channels to establish its findings.
• Paleoneurology is the study of the brain using fossils.
• Social neuroscience looks at how biology influences social occurrences and peoples’ behavior.
• Systems neuroscience looks at how data runs through our nervous system.

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