Why the brain? Why neuroscience?

do I come from a family of neuroscientists no my father was a vicar my mum was a schoolteacher absolutely no neuroscience and and family at all in fact no science in the family at all my mum she brought up children for living before having her own and then my dad he makes concrete rocks for living my dad was a business man my mum was a teacher my sister's a teacher a lot of people think that they have to have grown up among scientists or have always had science around them to become a scientist and that definitely isn't the case you don't have to be a scientist to be interested in the brain at some point we've all thought why did I think that why did I do that well I was always interested in how the brain works always even when I was on TV and I'd interview somebody I try to put their mind together like a loop executes and to figure out what made them them I first was inspired to start thinking about the brain when I was a school teacher and it was then that I really became interested and enthusiastic about learning and I wanted to know more about how learning occurs and then of course you begin to realize that you can't really understand learning without thinking about the brain neuroscience is really important because it's all about understanding the nervous system and the brain and really it's the nervous system that enables us and all animals to interact with the world around us without the nervous system we wouldn't be able to hear other people we won't be able to see the world around us we wouldn't have relationships and so neuroscience helps us understand how that works and it's also really important because of course when it goes wrong it has all sorts of impact on people through say stroke or Parkinson's disease or chronic pain in relation to Parkinson's in particular many many people see Parkinson's Geist ISM and old person's disease and there are so many younger people developing the disease now in your a science is selling tips from people in educating people so this is that I always think it's so bizarre that if if the brain goes down or you have a mental illness people send you any other organ they'll send you sympathy cards and flowers but if the brain goes down nothing and you think well this is the mothership everything is a trickle effect I can't understand it and they say oh it's mental like it's an air bubble but this is Who I am there any other part it's just a piece of meat the study of neuroscience is so important partly because we still know so little about the brain the notion that the brain develops in adolescence is a new phenomenon when I was an undergraduate at 25 years ago I was taught that the brain mostly develops in early childhood the human brain undergoes very substantial and protracted development right throughout childhood but also throughout adolescence and even into the 20s and 30s it develops both in terms of its structure so for example how much gray matter and white matter it contains and also function so its activity during various different cognitive tasks changes with age between adolescence and adulthood as well when you're a science I would see as the the queen of the sciences it's you know challenging and intellectually demanding of all science the brain is the most complex organ in the whole universe responsible for this amazing culture we have good humanity but it's really very complicated fascinating can go wrong in so many different ways just so much to know so much to understand so much to research my research at present falls into the category of neuroscience psychology and translational science and if you think about the fact that mental health disorders for example which is just sort of one area of neuroscience research you know one in six people suffer from mental health disorders and that's really a massive number of people that are affected by these conditions I think that treating these conditions is so important and neuroscience helps us to understand the brain so that we can treat the mind physical is mental mental is physical and if you fix that everything like addiction obesity infertility certain cancers diabetes - crying why do you think that happens we'll fall into place other things I find fascinating about neuroscience I think I would everybody should find fascinating that is trying to find out more about myself how my brain works how my mind works what it is that makes people tick I'm always astonished that people don't find the nervous system the most amazing thing because basically is everything it's everything you feel it's everything you say it's everything you do and and it's all of your emotions and and it actually creates narratives about what's going on it's just extraordinary well I refer to all brains as the mothership because it runs everything if something breaks unless a meteorite falls on your head it usually has to do with something up here I would encourage people to study neuroscience because neuroscience is absolutely key to understanding how we think how we learn and how we behave and who amongst us has not been fascinated by the human behavior of ourselves and others I would like to change myself I would like to improve myself I would like to be a better person and I don't know how to do that and I'm looking for science to actually give me some hints it is just the most fascinating subject it is not only the most complex part of the body but it's the part that it explains to you why we are who we are why we do what we do I mean what could be more interesting if someone wants to study neuroscience I would celebrate with them say fantastic right decision what's exciting life caution tape it'll be hard it'll be difficult it's gonna be challenging you'll never understand it all but just by getting into this field starting engaging in this activity you will really discover a lot that you've never even imagined [Music]

Channel: British Neuroscience Association

Views: 17,961

Rating: 4.9623528 out of 5

Keywords: neuroscience, brain, british neuroscience association, study, why study neuroscience, why is the brain important, sarah-jayne blakemore, uta frith, stafford lightman, paul howard-jones, bna2019, ruby wax, georgina hazell, anne cooke, alex collcutt, matt eagles, david nutt

Id: a2dVtvYT2_k

Length: 6min 30sec (390 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2019