Neurosciences

The neurosciences gather all the Science S necessary to the study of the Anatomie and the operation of the Nervous system. The Nervous system gathers different Organe S of which the Cerveau, the Spinal-cord, the Nerf S, the Organe S of the direction and the autonomous Nervous system which controls the Homéostasie. The beginnings of the use of the term of neurosciences are very recent with the result that the current regrouping of former facts this use of this word can appear arbitrary.

Disciplines constitutive of the neurosciences

See also: History of the brain

Historically, the neurosciences initially emerged as a branch of the Biologie and Médecine. With the evolution of the scientific knowledge and methods the Chemistry, the Psychology, the Data-processing and the Physique amply contributed thereafter to progress of this discipline. In addition, one should not forget the Philosophie which had and, which still has, an significant impact on the way of approaching the neurosciences in particular through what is called the cognitive Sciences. An example of most famous of confrontation between philosophy and neuroscience is the search of a localization of the heart in the brain. Thus, at the XVIIe century, the philosopher Rene Descartes used an argument neuroscientific to make pineal Body the seat of the heart: whereas the various structures of the brain have each one symmetrical in other half of the brain, it is not the case of pineal body. If the terms of this question are exceeded today, philosophy continues to play a big role on the Paradigme S implemented in the neurosciences.

Today, the study of the nervous system passes by multiple approaches which follow two great directions:

an ascending approach (or bottom-up ) which studies building blocks of the Nervous system to try to reconstitute the operation of the unit;
a downward approach ( signal-down ) which, by studying the external demonstrations of the operation of the Nervous system, tries to include/understand how it is organized and how it functions.

These two types of approaches give place to various under-disciplines whose borders are relatively fuzzy:

the Neurophysiologie studies physiological operation units constitutive of the nervous system which are the Neuron S,
the Neuroanatomie characterizes the anatomical structure (morphology, connectivity…) nervous system,
the Neurologie is the branch of the Médecine being interested in the clinical consequences of the Pathologie S of the nervous system and in their treatment,
the Neuropsychologie is interested in the clinical consequences of pathologies of the nervous system on the Cognition, the Intelligence and the emotion S,
the Neuroendocrinologie studies the bonds between the nervous system and the hormonal system,
the cognitive Neurosciences seeks to establish the bonds between the nervous system and the Cognition,
the computational Neurosciences seeks to model the operation of the nervous system by means of Simulation S Data-processing S,
the Neuroéconomie and the Neurofinance are interested in the decision-making processes of the economic agents, and in particular the study of the respective roles of the emotions and cognition in those. These branches are related to the behavioral economy and the behavioral Finance.

Methods

These two steps, ascending for the first and downward for the last, start today to meet with a crossroads formed by the cerebral Imagerie and more generally the cognitive Neurosciences. Indeed, the techniques of cerebral imagery make it possible to determine how a cognitive function precise is fulfilled in the nervous system by measuring various corrélats neuronal activity (vascular for functional IRM, electric for EEG…) when the subject (human or not) carries out a given task (to listen to a sound, to memorize information, to read a text…).

Applications

One of the médiatisées activities of the neurosciences is the neuro-functional atlas of the Cerveau. Another in full rise is the Neuropsychologie. A better knowledge of the neuronal Pathologie S is also a field considered crucial. One can also quote the development of the Neuroéconomie.

In this last field, research would have shown that certain decisions in supposed fields being rational (purchases and sale out of purse) would be often related to strong excitations and emotions, bringing into play zones of the brain associated with the pleasure or the suffering. That opens the way with the exploration of the role of the emotions in the decision-making process whatever the field.

Famous researchers

Gerald Edelman (Nobel Prize of medicine)

Criticisms

Paul Valéry

Paul Valéry showed skeptic with regard to those which affirmed to see - at its time - the spirit at the end of their lancet : thus Veuillez to suppose that the largest scientists who existed until the end of the XVIIIème century, Archimedes and Descartes, being assembled in some place of the Hells, a messenger of the Earth brings a dynamo to them and theirs gives to examine with leisure (...). They make it dismount, question some and all the parts measure some. They all in all do all that they can… But the current their is unknown, induction their is unknown; they hardly have the idea but mechanical transformations. Thus all the knowledge and all the human genius joined together in front of this mysterious object fail to guess the secrecy, and to guess of it the new fact which was brought by Volta (...), Ampère, Oersted, Faraday, and the others (...) what ourselves do weighing it when we question a brain, dissecting it, outputting it out of mean cuts and subjecting these plates fixed at the examination histologique (Variety III, the assessment of the intelligence ).

Others critical

For their ambition to include/understand the mechanisms of the Thought according to a vision drawn from the anthropological Monisme, the neurosciences make the object of criticism which gather around a step antireductionnist: according to these criticisms, the neurosciences underestimate the difference of scale between their discipline and the phenomena which concern up to now other scientific fields like the Linguistique, the Anthropologie, the Psychologie, the Sociologie or the Psychiatrie. Thus for example what Jean-Pierre Changeux names the neuronal Man Concept in remains still an extension of the Percept, very distant still from the concepts of the level studied in philosophy. Without blaming the interest of the step, these critics explain that the neurosciences shout right victory still a little early.

So the neuroscientifiques ones as Changeux seem to fall indeed into a rather reductionistic approach, others like the philosopher Daniel Dennett denounce this Réductionnisme like which can correspond to mercantile motivations. The cognitive Neurosciences contemporary in any case try to trace bridges between the exploration of the cerebral mechanisms and the richness of some cognitive phenomena simple. No one does not dispute that it remains much to establish before being able to explain a control or a state of heart to the means of these new scientific tools, while admitting even that this technique is simplest for that (we do not need for example to know in detail the brain of a cat to know that it will start to run after a mouse, not more than to know the solid state physics to evaluate the robustness of a stool).

Another criticism relates to ethical , social and technological dimension of the neurosciences. The problem of the social responsibility of the scientific activity is not specific to the neurosciences but it is exacerbated by the Média tisation of the projections made in this field and by fascination related to the idea to not transform the body envelope of the man (on this subject to see the article Clonage) but the operation of sound Esprit (see Transhumanisme). Some worry thus about the emergence of a neuromarketing whose objective is to use the neurosciences to improve the effectiveness of the campaigns of Marketing: this research finds financings, but one does not know the motivations of financial of this investment, nor which return they hope of it, and not more if they are justified only by pure knowledge.

There is however opposite the wish to better include/understand the mental human one. The choice of applications to the discoveries is related to any scientific progress and is of nothing specific to the neurosciences. A capacity Politique controlled well by the Citoyen can try to put parapets ethical S at the technological or social uses of scientific progresses without to block research. One returns from there then to the well-known dilemma between the citizens and the holders of financial power - who are sometimes the same ones.

See too

Classification set of themes of the neurosciences

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