Neuroscientists generally work as researchers within acollege,university,government agency,or privateindustrysetting.[3]In research-oriented careers, neuroscientists typically spend their time designing and carrying out scientific experiments that contribute to the understanding of thenervous systemand its function. They can engage in basic or applied research.Basic researchseeks to add information to our current understanding of the nervous system, whereasapplied researchseeks to address a specific problem, such as developing a treatment for aneurological disorder.Biomedically-oriented neuroscientists typically engage in applied research. Neuroscientists also have a number of career opportunities outside the realm of research, including careers in industry, science writing, government program management, science advocacy, and education.[4]These individuals most commonly hold doctorate degrees in the sciences, but may also hold a master's degree.
Neuroscientists focus primarily on the study and research of thenervous system.The nervous system is composed of thebrain,spinal cordandnervecells. Studies of the nervous system may focus on the cellular level, as in studies of theion channels,or instead may focus on a systemic level as in behavioural or cognitive studies. A significant portion of nervous system studies is devoted to understanding the diseases that affect the nervous system, likemultiple sclerosis,Alzheimer's,Parkinson's,andLou Gehrig's.Research commonly occurs in private, government and public research institutions and universities.[5]
The overall median salary for neuroscientists in the United States was $79,940 in May 2014[where?].Neuroscientists are usually full-time employees. Median salaries at common work places in the United States are shown below.[6]
Neuroscientists research and study both thebiologicalandpsychologicalaspects of the nervous system.[6]Once neuroscientists finish their post doctoral programs, 39% go on to perform more doctoral work, while 36% take on faculty jobs.[7]Neuroscientists use a wide range of mathematical methods, computer programs, biochemical approaches and imaging techniques such asmagnetic resonance imaging,computed tomography angiography,anddiffusion tensor imaging.[8]Imaging techniques allow scientists to observe physical changes in the brain and spinal cord, as signals occur. Neuroscientists can also be part of several different neuroscienceorganizationswhere they can publish and read different research topics.
Neuroscience is expecting job growth of about 8% from 2014 to 2024, a considerably greater than average job growth rate when compared to other professions. Factors leading to this growth include an aging population, new discoveries leading to new areas of research, and increasing utilization of medications. Government funding for research will also continue to influence the demand for this specialty.[6]
Neuroscientists typically enroll in a four-year undergraduate program and then move on to a PhD program for graduate studies. Once finished with their graduate studies, neuroscientists may continue doing postdoctoral work to gain more lab experience and explore new laboratory methods. In their undergraduate years, neuroscientists typically take physical and life science courses to gain a foundation in the field of research. Typical undergraduate majors includebiology,behavioral neuroscience,andcognitive neuroscience.[9]
Neurosciencehas a unique perspective in that it can be applied in a broad range of disciplines, and thus the fields neuroscientists work in vary. Neuroscientists may study topics from the large hemispheres of the brain to neurotransmitters and synapses occurring in neurons at a micro-level. Some fields that combine psychology and neurobiology includecognitive neuroscience,and behavioural neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscientists study humanconsciousness,specifically the brain, and how it can be seen through a lens of biochemical and biophysical processes.[10]Behavioral neuroscience encompasses the whole nervous system, environment and the brain how these areas show us aspects of motivation, learning, and motor skills along with many others.[11]Computational neuroscience uses mathematical models to understand how the brain processes information.[12]
Hieroglyphicstating the word, "brain", dated to 1700 BC. This work is considered a copy of an original writing as old as 3000 BC.
Some of the first writings about the brain come from theEgyptians.In about 3000 BC the first known written description of the brain also indicated that the location of brain injuries may be related to specific symptoms. This document contrasted common theory at the time. Most of the Egyptians' other writings are very spiritual, describing thought and feelings as responsibilities of theheart.This idea was widely accepted and can be found into 17th centuryEurope.[13]
Platobelieved that the brain was the locus of mental processes. However,Aristotlebelieved instead the heart to be the source of mental processes and that the brain acted as a cooling system for the cardiovascular system.[14]
In the Middle Ages,Galenmade a considerable impact onhuman anatomy.In terms of neuroscience, Galen described the sevencranial nerves' functions along with giving a foundational understanding of thespinal cord.When it came to the brain, he believed that sensory sensation was caused in the middle of the brain, while the motor sensations were produced in the anterior portion of the brain. Galen imparted some ideas onmental healthdisorders and what caused these disorders to arise. He believed that the cause was backed-up black bile, and that epilepsy was caused by phlegm. Galen's observations on neuroscience were not challenged for many years.[15]
Medievalbeliefs generally held true the proposals of Galen, including the attribution of mental processes to specific ventricles in the brain. Functions of regions of the brain were defined based on their texture and composition:memoryfunction was attributed to the posterior ventricle, a harder region of the brain and thus a good place for memory storage.[13]
Andreas Vesaliusredirected the study ofneuroscienceaway from the anatomical focus; he considered the attribution of functions based on location to be crude. Pushing away from the superficial proposals made by Galen and medieval beliefs, Vesalius did not believe that studying anatomy would lead to any significant advances in the understanding of thinking and the brain.[13]
Research in neuroscience is expanding and becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. Many current research projects involve the integration of computer programs in mapping the human nervous system. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsoredHuman Connectome Project,launched in 2009, hopes to establish a highly detailed map of the human nervous system and its millions of connections. Detailed neural mapping could lead the way for advances in the diagnosis and treatment ofneurological disorders.
Neuroscientists are also at work studyingepigenetics,the study of how certain factors that we face in our everyday lives not only affect us and our genes but also how they will affect our children and change their genes to adapt to the environments we faced.
Neuroscientists have been working to show how the brain is far more elastic and able to change than we once thought. They have been using work that psychologists previously reported to show how the observations work, and give a model for it.
L-phenylalanine
One recent behavioral study is that ofphenylketonuria (PKU),a disorder that heavily damages the brain due to toxic levels of theamino acidphenylalanine.Before neuroscientists had studied this disorder, psychologists did not have a mechanistic understanding as to how this disorder caused high levels of theamino acidand thus treatment was not well understood, and oftentimes, was inadequate. The neuroscientists that studied this disorder used the previous observations of psychologists to propose a mechanistic model that gave a better understanding of the disorder at the molecular level. This in turn led to better understanding of the disorder as a whole and greatly changed treatment that led to better lives for patients with the disorder.[16]
Another recent study was that ofmirror neurons,neurons that fire when mimicking or observing another animal or person that is making some sort of expression, movement, or gesture. This study was again one where neuroscientists used the observations of psychologists to create a model for how the observation worked. The initial observation was that newborn infants mimicked facial expressions that were expressed to them. Scientists were not certain that newborn infants were developed enough to have complex neurons that allowed them to mimic different people and there was something else that allowed them to mimic expressions. Neuroscientists then provided a model for what was occurring and concluded that infants did in fact have these neurons that fired when watching and mimicking facial expressions.[16]
Neuroscientists have also studied the effects of "nurture" on the developing brain. Saul Schanberg and other neuroscientists did a study on how important nurturing touch is to the developing brains in rats. They found that the rats who were deprived of nurture from the mother for just one hour had reduced functions in processes likeDNA synthesisand hormone secretion.[16]
Michael Meaneyand his colleagues found that the offspring of mother rats who provided significant nurture and attention tended to show less fear, responded more positively to stress, and functioned at higher levels and for longer times when fully mature. They also found that the rats who were given much attention as adolescents also gave their offspring the same amount of attention and thus showed that rats raised their offspring similar to how they were raised. These studies were also seen on a microscopic level where different genes were expressed for the rats that were given high amounts of nurture and those same genes were not expressed in the rats who received less attention.[16]
The effects of nurture and touch were not only studied in rats, but also innewborn humans.Many neuroscientists have performed studies where the importance of touch is shown in newborn humans. The same results that were shown in rats, also held true for humans. Babies that received less touch and nurture developed slower than babies that received a lot of attention and nurture. Stress levels were also lower in babies that were nurtured regularly and cognitive development was also higher due to increased touch.[16]Human offspring, much like rat offspring, thrive off of nurture, as shown by the various studies of neuroscientists.
Charles SherringtonandEdgar Adrian(1932) for their discoveries of the general function of neurons, including excitatory and inhibitory signals, and the all-or-nothing response of nerve fibers.[19]
Erwin NeherandBert Sakmann(1991) for the development of thepatch-clamprecording technique, allowing, for the first time, the observation of current flow through individual ion channels. Neher and Sakmann additionally characterized the specificity ofion channels.[28]
