What subfield of neuroscience?

[Maryan]

Hi there all. I'm interested in doing research in neuroscience but I'm kind of confused on what subfield of neuroscience I would be pursuing with the career interests I have.

 

I want to do research on how the mind and brain interact, but more specifically on how they tie together with mental illnesses and the process of thinking. I'm intrigued about how certain areas of the brain influence or create specific functions and how the destruction/damage to those areas could cause mental illness; how our process of thinking occurs and how does the brain control/manage it; and pretty much anything that deals with a combination of the brain, mind, and thinking process (along with mental illness, such as schizophrenia and depression).

 

I'm curious in to which field of neuroscience I should pursue. I've heard cognitive neuroscience would be a good one but it seems like that subfield is largely emphasizing on language, perception and memory - things I'm not particularly interested in doing research on. I've also heard of neuropsychology, but I'm not sure if that emphasizes more on the psychology part than the actual neuroscience part (as in, more on treatment than on research involving neuroscience)...

 

 

Does anyone here have any clue as to what subfields of neuroscience I should check out? I'd really appreciate the help, so that I could better figure out which classes I need to take in my undergraduate study and which internships to pursue.

[iNow]

I, too, would have suggested neuropsychology. My experience has been that courses like that focus much more on the neuroscience, but of course it depends on your instructors and the program. Another term you might consider searching for anything that mentions biopsychology, and you might find something related to the biological underpinnings of abnormal psych there. Really, though, these divisions you suggest are somewhat arbitrary and not as crisply defined as you might think. Anything related to neuroscience will cover a lot of this material IMO and you would enjoy it all the same. Ultimately you need to establish a baseline knowledge of all of the various functions and regions of the brain before focusing too much on the specifics you mentioned. The focused stuff tends to happen in grad school. Good luck with whatever you choose or do!

[Maryan]

I, too, would have suggested neuropsychology. My experience has been that courses like that focus much more on the neuroscience, but of course it depends on your instructors and the program. Another term you might consider searching for anything that mentions biopsychology, and you might find something related to the biological underpinnings of abnormal psych there. Really, though, these divisions you suggest are somewhat arbitrary and not as crisply defined as you might think. Anything related to neuroscience will cover a lot of this material IMO and you would enjoy it all the same. Ultimately you need to establish a baseline knowledge of all of the various functions and regions of the brain before focusing too much on the specifics you mentioned. The focused stuff tends to happen in grad school. Good luck with whatever you choose or do!

 

Thank you for the help! I have a question though. My major is currently Psychology and I plan to minor in Biology so that I get at least some intensive classes on bio / chem / math since I'm pursuing the psychology area of neuroscience... Would that be okay? Or would I have to to fully major in Bio because despite my desire for a psych focus, it's still, in the end, neuroscience? That info is kind of crucial in planning my classes accordingly so that I don't waste time in figuring out so late... I talked to a career counselor and advisers but they seem to not have a clue (my uni counselors and advisers are not that great).

 

Sorry if this is too much. I'm just curious and was hoping those who know of the field requirements and such would be able to answer.

[iNow]

You might try reaching out to some of the professors and grad students in the department then. Find their office hours and let them know your story. You're interested, and want to do well. You have interests, but aren't clear how to proceed. What would they recommend given the options available at your school... that sort of thing.

[LimbicLoser]

Greetings from the heart of Japan, Maryan! While I would not counter, per se, the suggestions in post number two, above, I would yet tend to more strongly suggest cognitive neuroscience. Having talked with some of the molecular biology, and bio neuroscience professors in this area (at least), they all seem to deal, well, basically at that level--and that is pretty much intra/inter-cellular, and modal, and never quite getting up to 'mind.' I would tend to think (and could of course be somewhat mistaken, but...) that in order to match with your psychology major, you will want to be dealing with the neuroscientific aspects which work more towards understanding consciousness, mind, and higher-order theories.

 

I find that cognitive neuroscience can be tooled (personal adaptation) to act like a hub; a hub from which the "more rigid" neuroscience is just an arm's length away, consciousness science is just an arm's length away, and psychology (especially 'experimental psychology') can be reached fairly easily too. Cognition (and this is something I am working on [regardless of how almost hopeless it may seem at the moment]) is a bit too often, by a few too many, easily chunked into the bin with linguistics. That is sad. Cognition is the processing which amounts to all the processing above a certain, relatively clarified point. It includes the processing which is pre-conscious as well as that which amounts to acknowledged cognition. Going too far down in reduction is simply non-pragmatic, and is hard to tool, and make application with. Therefore, cognitive neuroscience does not deal only with thinking in the sense of linguistic inner speech, nor visuo-spatial mentalization.

 

It is true, I think (and please correct me if I am too far off the mark here), that probably neurology (and also see post #2) deals more with the problems of brain in the sense of mind affected ailments, and strives to understand and work towards medical remedies. However, I am of the conviction that in a personally adapted cognitive neuroscientific position, with psychology as the main stay, you will be able to at least work in an area, or niche, of the field, that you'd like to. When doing grad work, or post-doc, and such, if you have to work in a lab, you may have to hold what you really want to do, on the back burner for a while, as you get experience and such. I do wish you the best of luck in your choices and actions, and the outcomes they lead to !! Keep up the good work ! (Oh, and one thing I didn't mention, is that maybe by choosing cognitive neuroscience to back your psychology, you may (and it could be my bias, here) have a touch more going for you at hiring time... I mean, we all have to work...) Who knows?!

Edited September 30, 2012 by LimbicLoser