It covers a large range of topics ranging from perception (how we see things, process sounds, such as speech, hear music); to cognition, or how we think, emotion and social behaviors including how we feel, and how we interact with others are also included.
The study of neuroscience dates back to the ancient Egypt but we can assume that the 18th century is the start of modern neuroscience. Physicists, physiologists, and philosophers wanted to discover the principles of mental functions and to understand about action and thought. We continue to study these very fundamental problems today.
Neuroscience tries to understand not only how the nervous system functions normally, bud what goes wrong in the development of the brain that causes psychiatric and neurological disorders. The scope of neuroscience includes structure, function, evolution, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, circuitry, pathology of the nervous system and much more.
The nervous system has two parts, the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system includes your brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system contains all of your nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord, including those in your arms, legs and trunk of your body.
When the brain and spinal cord work together as the main “processing center” in your nervous system, they control all of the functions of your body.
Many different medical conditions can affect the nervous system such as brain cancer, pain, dementia, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, spine disorders, among many others.
Neuroscientists use tests and imaging techniques to see how the nerves and brain are working together. The science of neuroradiology, which is a branch of neuroscience focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of nervous system problems.
Brain surgery may be needed in some cases to treat patients. Invasive brain surgery requires the surgeon to make an opening in the skull, called a craniotomy. Microsurgery is the use of a microscope and very small instruments. This is another way to do surgery on the brain.
Other treatments consist of medications, deep brain stimulation, rehabilitation or physical therapy after a brain injury or stroke, or spinal surgery.
Psychopathology involves how and why do we behave like we do. Development and evolution helps explain the role of genetics in development in various domains. This also includes how the brain develops and how your experiences influence its development.
Neuroscience is a very complex and interesting field of science with many remarkable discoveries yet to come!
