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Neuroscience Areas
Molecular and Cellular
Integrative Systems
Cognitive and Behavioural
Computational and Mathematical
Clincal and Applied
Epidemiology and Population Health
What is molecular and cellular neuroscience?
With more than one hundred billion neurons, one thousand billion glia, and numerous different types and connections in between, the sheer number and variety of cells in the human brain explain why it is often described as the most complex structure in the universe.Moreover vast armies of molecules are needed to build each cell and enable it to perform the tasks of a fully operational nervous system.
To understand the brain therefore requires an understanding of its constituent cells and molecules. This allows us to ask how molecules interact within each cell, how cells work together to create as something as complex as the brain - and how to compensate when its complexity is disrupted by injury or disease.
What is integrative systems neuroscience?
Individual neurons interact to form vast networks of cells which, in turn, work together to perform the functions of the nervous system.Integrative systems neuroscience addresses how these networks are formed and how they behave. It is only by studying neurons in situ, in the whole intact organism, that we start to see how the nervous system functions and what goes wrong in disease.
In short, integrative systems neuroscience reveals how we can analyse sensory information, form memories, execute movements, make decisions, and all the other phenomena our nervous system carries out each day.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
How does the activity of the brain create the mind?Cognitive neuroscience goes beyond basic brain function to higher levels of mental activity, such as self-awareness, visual perception and attention.
Maladapted behaviours and states of mind underlie mental disorders, hence cognitive neuroscience rubs shoulders with clinical psychology and psychiatry. Robotics and artificial intelligence, too, feature in this field of research, applying insights from cognitive neuroscience to technology and machines.
In seeking to understand what links behaviour, brain and mind, cognitive neuroscience therefore tackles some of the ‘big questions’ in science - the basis of intelligent thought, beliefs, and consciousness itself.
What is computational and mathematical neuroscience?
The brain is a very complex system composed of many interacting elements - proteins, neurons, and different anatomical regions. Understanding of how their interactions give rise to sophisticated functions often requires formal mathematical theory.Computational neuroscience uses mathematical models to describe and explain the computations in single neurons, networks of neurons, or a whole system.
Close collaboration with experimental neuroscientists provides real biological data to constrain the models. In turn, formalizing theories of brain function by mathematical modelling generates predictions, which can then be tested in experiments.
This area of neuroscience provides a very powerful approach to studying the brain.
What is clinical and applied neuroscience?
Medicine, robotics, neuroethics, education, sport, animal welfare - neuroscience is around us in numerous different ways. Studying brain science in context can then, in turn, inform fundamental research.Clinical applications have the greatest impact on people lives. Molecular to epidemiological studies all contribute to clinical neuroscience and immense progress has been made in treating neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as epilepsy and depression. But clinical needs, with an aging population and global travel, grow greater each day.
Visual perception in art, computing, artificial intelligence, learning in the classroom, legislation, and farming are just some of the other areas which benefit from applied neuroscience research.
By continuing to translate findings between theory and practice we will gain further benefits and deeper understanding of the brain.
What is epidemiological neuroscience and population research?
Where? Which age groups? What kind of lifestyle, diet, housing, education?Studying populations to see how different factors affect the distribution and frequency of neuropsychiatric disorders provides great insights, both for scientific understanding, and for treatment programs to manage and prevent their future occurrence.
How can their distribution and frequency be changed?
Clinical trials of various interventions can lend weight to a scientific theory, and, importantly, guide health policies, especially in primary care.
Depression, addiction, common mental illnesses, and other disorders associated with subjective diagnosis but high incidence, benefit from the epidemiological approach; such disorders reveal hidden truths about themselves through population statistics. Equally, research into rare neurological diseases also benefits from examining whole populations, rather than just isolated cases.