What Is Neuroscience?

Neuroscience is a blanket term for all scientific disciplines that relate to the structure and function of the nervous system and the brain. At a basic level, neuroscience is the study of nervous systems. There are many branches of neuroscience and various applications ranging from diagnosing and treating disorders to increasing our understanding of consciousness. Neuroscience even has applications in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

What Is Neuroscience All About?

Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system, the complex network of cells that transmits information throughout the body. Humans and other animals all have nervous systems of varying complexities. Even jellyfish have nervous systems in the form of interconnected neurons called nerve nets, though they lack true brains. Vertebrates, like humans, have complicated nervous systems built around a brain and spinal cord and a peripheral nervous system that collects information from the various senses and sends commands to muscles throughout the body.

Though neuroscience is largely concerned with studying biological systems, it is a multidisciplinary field that includes aspects of biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Some of the purposes of neuroscience are to study and understand the structure and function of the nervous system, the development of the nervous system, and the connections between the nervous system and behavior.

Neuroscience Encompasses Several Major Branches

Since neuroscience is the study of the nervous system, it might seem like neuroscience should be a subdivision of biology. The reality is that neuroscience extends into many more fields than that, with several distinct branches. The branch specifically concerned with the biology of the nervous system is neurobiology, but that’s just one example.

Here are some of the other main branches of neuroscience:

• Neurology is a medical specialty that deals with nervous system disorders. Medical doctors who specialize in this field are neurologists.
• Neuroanatomy involves the study of the physical structure of nervous systems.
• Neurophysiology is the study of the function of the nervous system.
• Neuropsychology looks at the connections between the nervous system and behavior.
• Neuropharmacology studies the effects of drugs on the nervous system.
• Behavioral neuroscience is also referred to as biopsychology and psychobiology, and it studies mental processes and behaviors through the lens of biology.
• Developmental neuroscience studies the underlying mechanisms of brain development, combining developmental biology and neuroscience.
• Neuropsychology involves the study of the brain and nervous system and how they relate to psychological processes, especially conditions that result from brain damage.
• Neurophilosophy combines neuroscience and philosophy to study the nature of the mind and consciousness.
• Computational neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field, with elements of neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, and computer science, that studies how nervous systems process information as in neural networks. 

The Applications of Neuroscience

Since neuroscience is a broad field with many important branches, it has many uses and applications. Neuroscience has applications in medicine, psychology, human performance, understanding the mind, and even the development of artificial intelligence.

Many of neuroscience's primary applications are related to neurobiology, neuropsychology, and neuropharmacology. These applications involve understanding and diagnosing neurological disorders and developing new drugs and therapies to treat those disorders.

Knowledge derived from neuroscience, and a greater understanding of the relationship between the nervous system, behaviors, and emotions, can also help improve human performance in areas like stress reduction, motivation, and cognitive tasks like making decisions.

Neuroscience also has a big impact on the ongoing development of artificial intelligence. Fields like neurophysiology increase our understanding of how the nervous system works, while computational neuroscience looks at how these systems process information. That kind of data forms the bedrock on which technologies like machine learning and deep learning are built.

The Far-Reaching Implications of the Neurosciences

Neuroscience is a diverse field with the potential to increase our understanding of how our brains work and drive advances in several different scientific disciplines. By studying nervous systems, how they work, and impact behavior, neuroscientists can provide treatments for neurological disorders, find ways to improve human performance, drive forward the understanding of consciousness itself, and play a big part in developing artificial intelligence.