The first week of the MSc course in neuroscience I am doing at King’s College London was quite a shock. I had been expecting a gentle introduction: some basics like “what is neuroscience” to lay a foundation, some admin, some meetings with tutors and the like.
There were a couple of
introductory lectures on topics like brain anatomy and neuropathology but the
rest of it was straight in at the deep end. Advanced topics like the pharmacology
of glutamate and excitotoxicity, the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing method, and the physiology
of microglia and oligodendrocytes. Below
are some of the trickier slides presented to give you an idea.
It seems there is rather more assumed knowledge than I had bargained for and I have my work cut out to fill in the gaps. As for “what is neuroscience?”, that was our first essay, 500 words due in by midday on the first Friday. I’ve pasted my attempt below in case you’re interested.
It's also not been straightforward with the Parkinson’s, the main problem being the fatigue. I briefly fell asleep in one lecture, much to the speaker’s annoyance.
I was feeling concerned but then I also had some good extra-curricular conversations this week with people like the professor leading neurodegeneration research at Cambridge University and a leading researcher at Plymouth University. These conversations are are starting to give me ideas about a possible MSc project, and a research direction once I finish the degree. My thinking is not to try and become a neuroscientist, but rather to take a research problem where I can use my technology and data science skills and practical experience to make a difference. And one thing I learnt in the corporate world is that you can achieve so much more with a network of people than working solo.
So, despite feeling sometimes like my head was going to explode, and at other times like I was going to black out, I’m positive about the rest of the course.
Things get more
interesting next week as we get to visit the “brain bank”, a room full of
freezers storing samples from both healthy and diseased brains at -80 degrees. It’s
certainly going to be a memorable year.
What
is neuroscience?
neuroscience n. any or all of the scientific disciplines studying the nervous system and/or the mind and mental behaviour (Landau, 1990)
This dictionary definition of neuroscience sounds simple but actually contains a number of elements that we need to unpick.
Firstly, neuroscience is a scientific discipline, meaning that it is a continuously evolving body of knowledge and practice which is underpinned by the scientific method. This requires that hypotheses are objectively assessed against real world observations and adopted, refined or discarded accordingly.
Secondly, it relates to the nervous system. In humans, this means the brain and spinal cord (the central nervous system) plus other nerve cells in the rest of the body (the peripheral nervous system) as summarised in Figure 1. Whilst most of the focus of neuroscience research is related to humans, it is worth noting that neuroscience can relate to any living organism with a nervous system, and this includes a wide range of vertebrate and invertebrate animals.
Thirdly, neuroscience encompasses not just the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system but also the more nebulous concepts of the mind and mental behaviour, including thorny topics like consciousness and intelligence.
Finally,
neuroscience incorporates a number of sub-disciplines. The main clinical ones
are shown in Table 1
(Bear, 2016).
Table 1 Clinical
disciplines in neuroscience
|
Clinical discipline |
Description |
|
Neurology |
Diagnosis and treatment of nervous system diseases |
|
Psychiatry |
Diagnosis and treatment of behavioural
disorders |
|
Neurosurgery |
Surgery on the brain and spinal cord |
|
Neuropathology |
Understanding changes in the nervous system
caused by disease |
Figure 1. Elements of the human nervous system
In addition, there are many experimental specialisms from neuropharmacology to developmental neurobiology.
The term “neuroscience” is relatively new, though of course the brain and nervous system have been studied since antiquity. For instance, according to Bear (2016), the Society for Neuroscience, a large association for professional neuroscientists was founded only in 1970.
A statement often made is that the human brain is the most complex object we have yet to encounter and, although neuroscience has made great progress in recent years at starting to understand its function at a molecular and cellular level, at a system level several fundamental questions have yet to be answered, including:
·
How does the brain give rise to
consciousness?
·
What role does language play in
human intelligence?
·
Why do animals with a nervous
system need to sleep?
·
What causes certain disorders
of the brain such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s Disease, and how can we
prevent or cure them?
Neuroscience therefore
is not only a fascinating subject, but also one that has the potential to make
a large impact on humanity.
Bibliography
Landau, S. et al
(editors) (1990). Chambers English Dictionary, 7th edition.
Edinburgh: W & R Chambers Ltd.
Bear, M., Connors,
B., & Paradiso, M. (2016). Neuroscience: exploring the brain, 4th
edition, chapter 1. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.
