Neuroscience: A look inside the expansion of the field
by Dr. Brittany Martinez
The nervous system is one of the most complex systems that we know of, and the brain plays a role in everything we do. It’s fascinating that something as small as a neuron can have such a significant role in our lives. From physical activities like running, swimming, and jumping to mental processes such as thinking, making decisions, and processing emotions, the nervous system underlies each of these.
The study of the nervous system is called neuroscience. One of the cool things about neuroscience is that it is an interdisciplinary study that brings numerous fields together in order to understand the brain and the nervous system. Scientists in fields such as physics, computer science, engineering, radiology, genetics, medicine, psychology, and biology all come together to study the intricacies and networks of the nervous system.
“Educational opportunities in the field of neuroscience also seem to be increasing as the field continues to expand…”
Our understanding of the nervous system has made exponential strides in the past few decades and continues to make incredible progress. This exciting progress has implications, not only for our understanding of the brain, but also for fields like healthcare, society, and economics (Altimus et al., 2020). Simultaneously, educational opportunities in the field of neuroscience also seem to be increasing as the field continues to expand (Rochon et al., 2020). The increase in the number of these programs provides more opportunities to train students to become researchers and contributors to the field of neuroscience. As such, we are excited to be actively developing a course in neuroscience to be offered to students very soon.
As the field of neuroscience is interdisciplinary, a neuroscience course can be a helpful addition for students interested in either going fully into neuroscience or in any neuro- or psychology-related field. Furthermore, recent projections state that there is a shortage of individuals with a specialty in neurology, so this could also drive demand for a neuroscience course (Majersik et al., 2021).
In summary, neuroscience is a rapidly growing field with many avenues for innovations and wide-ranging applications in numerous fields. The upcoming neuroscience course that Portage Learning will offer provides students with a strong foundational understanding of the nervous system and neural network processes and will introduce students to a variety of neuroscience research techniques. Neuroscience is an innovative, collaborative, and exciting field and this course is a great opportunity to delve into the fascinating aspects of the nervous system!
References:
Altimus, C. M., Marlin, B. J., Charalambakis, N. E., Colón-Rodríguez, A., Glover, E. J., Izbicki, P., Johnson, A., Lourenco, M.V., Makinson, R.A., McQuail, J., Obeso, I., Padilla-Coreano, N., & Wells, M. F. (2020). The next 50 years of neuroscience. Journal of Neuroscience, 40(1), 101-106.
Majersik, J. J., Ahmed, A., Chen, I. H. A., Shill, H., Hanes, G. P., Pelak, V. S., Hopp, A.O., Kluger, B., & Leslie-Mazwi, T. (2021). A shortage of neurologists–We must act now: a report from the AAN 2019 Transforming Leaders Program. Neurology, 96(24), 1122-1134.
Rochon, C., Otazu, G., Kurtzer, I. L., Stout, R. F., Jr, & Ramos, R. L. (2019). Quantitative indicators of continued growth in undergraduate neuroscience education in the US. Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education: JUNE: a publication of FUN, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, 18(1), A51–A56.
