Portal:Neuroscience
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THE NEUROSCIENCE PORTAL

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Neuroscience is a scientific discipline that studies the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and pathology of the nervous system. Traditionally it is seen as a branch of biological sciences. However, recently there has been a convergence of interest from many allied disciplines, including psychology, computer science, statistics, physics, philosophy, mathematics, and medicine. The scope of neuroscience has now broadened to include any systematic scientific experimental and theoretical investigation of the central and peripheral nervous system of biological organisms. The methodologies employed by neuroscientists have been enormously expanded, from biochemical and genetic analysis of dynamics of individual nerve cells and their molecular constituents to imaging representations of perceptual and motor tasks in the brain.

Furthermore, neuroscience is at the frontier of investigation of the brain and mind. The study of the brain is becoming the cornerstone in understanding how we perceive and interact with the external world and, in particular, how human experience and human biology influence each other. It is likely that the study of the brain will become one of the central intellectual endeavors in the coming decades.

Neuroscience News | Did you know... | WikiProjects | Things you can do | Categories | Neuroscience Topics |
Illustration of the major elements in a prototypical synapse.
Illustration of the major elements in a prototypical synapse.

Chemical synapses are specialized junctions through which cells of the nervous system signal to one another and to non-neuronal cells such as muscles or glands. A chemical synapse between a motor neuron and a muscle cell is called a neuromuscular junction.

Chemical synapses allow the neurons of the central nervous system to form interconnected neural circuits. They are thus crucial to the biological computations that underlie perception and thought. They also provide the means through which the nervous system connects to and controls the other systems of the body.

The human brain contains a huge number of chemical synapses, with young children having about 1,000 trillion. This number declines with age, stabilizing by adulthood. Estimates for an adult vary from 100 to 500 trillion synapses.

The word "synapse" comes from "synaptein" which Sir berkly jensen Charles Scott Sherrington and his colleagues coined from the Greek "syn-" meaning "together" and "haptein" meaning "to clasp". Chemical synapses are not the only type of biological synapse: electrical and immunological synapses exist as well. Without a qualifier, however, "synapse" by itself most commonly refers to a chemical synapse.

...Archive Last updated: 15th October 2006 Read more...
  

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Reconstruction of injury to Phineas Gage

A CGI reconstruction of the injury caused to Phineas Gage by a tamping iron in 1848. Gage's reported neuropsychiatric symptoms constituted some of the earliest evidence suggesting a link between brain injury and personality change.

...Archive Last updated: 23rd September 2006 Read more...
  

Neuroscience News


Pain: Capsaicin, the active compound in chili peppers, has been found to work in an anaesthetic method which does not block other motor and sensory transmissions from the affected area, unlike existing local anaesthetic methods. [1]

Neuronal development: In a study conducted by Oxford University, on January 11th 2007, researchers found that brains of newborns had almost double (11.2 million) the amount of neurons in the medial dorsal nucleus than did adults (6.43 million), whereas this structure had more than triple the number of glial cells in adults (36.3 million) compared to newborns (10.6 million). [2]

Neurotransmission:More than a 100 neuropeptides identified in the honey bee brain. Researchers at the University of Illinois have reported these in the journal Science. They hope that this will lead to better insight into their complex social behavior [3]

Cognitive neuroscience:Erotic images potently elicit unconscious brain activity. In a study published in the journal PNAS, researchers have demonstrated that the brain is able to unconsciously pick out and respond to erotic images even when noise suppresses their conscious knowledge. [4]

References

  1. ^ Research paper and naturenews article
  2. ^ Oxford Journals entry on comparison between adult and newborn neuron counts
  3. ^ Honeybee neuropeptides
  4. ^ Erotic brain
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Did you know...

...that the human brain contains more than 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) neurons?

...that nerve impulses can travel at 120 meters/second?

...that the amygdala plays an important role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions?

...that Prozac acts by inhibiting reuptake of serotonin in brain neurons?

...that some neurons are over a meter long?

...that the cerebellum (the region behind the brainstem) contains half of the neurons in the brain?

...that when areas of the brain are damaged other areas can actually take over the job of the damaged area?

  

Neuroscience topics

  

Things you can do

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  • Identify target articles-particularly covering fundamental concepts and ideas.
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