What is neuroscience?
Neuroscience is a scientific field that studies the brain.
Brain is a organ located in the head, as you may know.
Do you know what brain is formed of?
Imagine it for a moment.
It’s made of neurons, a type of cells. However, neurons are vastly different from ordinary cells.
It does have a nucleus and it also has a cell membrane. But they can generate electricity.
yes, electricity. You heard it right!
Neurons form the brain and you know how brains do all the amazing stuff. They can solve complex math (don’t worry if yours still can’t because your brain can get definitely smarter), they can come up with various lies to avoid negative consequence (imagination!), they can switch between sleep and awake, they can sense and distinguish sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami…. and so on. Everything you do in your whole life, from moment to moment, what you do is controlled by your brain. Even your breathe, vommiting, and respiration is all controlled by the brain even if you are not consciously aware of it (don’t worry if you are not very sure of what conscious means, it will be covered soon by us!).
And if your brain is doing all of these, it is the same us your neurons are doing this.
And going back to the story of neurons, neurons make this all possible by internally generating electricity and passing that power to the adjacent neuron (they are not directly passing the electricity to be specific but you don’t have to worry about this just now!) so that the next neuron can also internally generate an electricity. These electric current, or in other words, the continuous activation of neurons, is what is making all the amazing stuff possible in the brain.
Still not convinced?
Well, even the most smartest neuroscientist actually can’t say much more than this! Some scientist, called reductionist, believe that this simple current of electricity is indeed possible of enabling all the amazing stuff the brain does. But some scientist believe that thoughts and activity of these neurons are a separate identity. They believe that yes, the activation of neurons, and consequently the current of electricity is indeed the origin of the “thought” but they believe that thoughts, like how we feel our chocolate cake as “sweet” and how we perceive the “red” as “red”, are something separate and is generated at a more higher level (what this “high level” mean vastly differ from scientists and scientist).
But I take a position of reductionism. Although I do feel that the simple electricity can generate this complex state of consciousness, I simultaneously feel that it is possible.
What do you think?
Whatever you think, neuroscientist take a position of reductionism (or at least temporally ignore the concept of “consciousness”) and conduct research of what regions of the brain are responsible for what function of us and apply that knowledge to treat various neurological and psychological disorders.
Now you know what neuroscience is and what neuroscientist does!
But remember, neuroscience is a very big field and there are lots of unique subfield within neuroscience that is starting to shape the future of the humanity (neurotechnology being the significant one!).
Keep in touch with us to gain knowledge about neuroscience and be at the forntier of the science and your friends with your knowledge!