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Neuroscience

Neuroscience is a field of study which deals with the structure, function,
development, chemistry, pharmacology and pathology of the central or
peripheral nervous system.

The biological study of the brain is an interdisciplinary field which
involves many levels of study, from the molecular level through the cellular
level (individual neurons), the level of relatively small assemblies of
neurons like cortical columns, that of larger subsystems like that which
subserves visual perception, up to large systems like the cerebral cortex or
the cerebellum, and at the highest level the nervous system as a whole.

At this highest level, neuroscientific approaches combine with cognitive
science to create cognitive neuroscience, a discipline first populated
mostly by cognitive psychologists, currently becoming a dynamic specialty of
its own. Some researchers believe that cognitive neuroscience provides a
bottom-up approach to understanding the mind and consciousness that is
complementary to, or may replace, the top-down approach of psychology.

The concern of neuroscience includes such diverse topics as

   * the operation of neurotransmitters at the synapse;
   * the biological mechanisms that underlie learning;
   * how genes contribute to neural development in the embryo and throughout life
   * the operation of relatively simpler neural structures of other
     organisms like marine snails;
   * and the structure and functioning of complex neural circuits in
     perceiving, remembering, and speaking.

Other related and overlapping fields include:

   * neurology
   * psychopharmacology
   * aphasiology
   * neurolinguistics
   * computational neuroscience

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