Personal Narrative: Another Day, Another Neuron

Neurology is one of the most unexplored fields in medicine; however, more recently there has been a spike in the amount of research being done in this specialty. This is because people are becoming more interested in neuroscience, including myself. I attended a pre-medical vocational high school, which exposed me to a greater amount of knowledge pertaining to the basics of anatomy and physiology, along with hands-on opportunities in a medical setting. It was here where I realized that I wanted to pursue a career in medicine; however, due to the fact medical field is very broad, I had no set specialty. This changed when I was exposed to the cruel manifestations of Parkinson’s Disease. During, sophomore year of high school, my grandfather passed away due to complications of Parkinson’s Disease. The way that a neurodegenerative disease was able to overtake a person in the manner that it did was shocking, and while it brought me great grief initially, it later intrigued me. I took up an interest in neuroscience and began to do my own research which culminated in various projects and applications throughout the remainder of my time in high school. These experiences have culminated in my decision to work toward a Cell Biology and

Become a Licensed Clinical Neuropsychologist: My career goal is to become a clinical neuropsychologist. For that reason, I am enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Clinical Psychology at PAU. In addition, I will be applying for the Neuropsychology track at the end of this quarter. Throughout this year and next year, I will be taking the courses related to the neuropsychology track. Hopefully, in my second and third year I will be doing practicums at the Palo Alto VA and the San Francisco Institute on Aging. Those practicums sites will provide me with assessment hours as well as allowing me to be exposed to the populations I want to work with in the future. Moreover, I will be doing my dissertation in a project related to the neuropsychology field. For that reason, now in my second year, I will be having meetings with my advisor in order to narrow my dissertation project. Additionally, I am planning to do my internship in a neuro site. Afterwards, I am planning to do a post-doc in the field. Eventually, I want to go back to Spain and work as a Clinical Neuropsychologist

What is it that makes choosing a career so difficult? Is it the fact that many people mainly choose a career they live off for the rest of their lives? Or is it just that they are scared of the difficulties and obstacles that will come through their path? Many students choose the usual careers: nursing, doctors, mechanics, or just working at a gas station. It all depends on where and if the student decides to go to college and what degree they are looking forward to earning.

This led me to take additional psychology classes as electives, and eventually this passion to learn more about the brain became so strong that I decided to add a Psychology minor to accent my Medical Laboratory Sciences major. I am very happy with this decision, as it allows me to learn about what I am truly interested in: the human body and human brain, and their endless connections to each other. Neuroscience is a field which encompasses the human body and brain thoroughly, and I am very interested in learning more about it. I am also strongly considering pursuing a career in biomedical research as I recognize its importance for advances in modern medicine, and it is a field which aims to improve lives. On a personal note, I am attracted to entering research as it is intellectually challenging and is constantly evolving. This program is second to none for the experience with researching neurological disorders and stroke that it offers. It would help me solidify my future career plans, as I plan to pursue a Ph.D. in a biomedical field, and have been strongly considering

I have always had a passion and interest in working with the unknown. When I was in high school, I always made sure I was taking science classes that interested me, and would help me decide on what I wanted to major in college. I chose neuroscience as my major because it is a subject that continues to fascinate me. Neuroscience is the study of how the nervous system develops, its structure, and what it does. I want to focus on the brain and its impact on behavior and cognitive functions. I want to go into clinical neuroscience (looking at the disorders of the nervous system) or cognitive neuroscience, which studies the higher cognitive functions and underlying neural bases. With a neuroscience major, I would like to pursue a career in clinical research, do research for the National Institute of Health, work for the CDC and specialize in neurological disease, and/or run a clinical research project in another country. I want to pursue a career in one of these areas because I want to dedicate my knowledge, skills, and time to helping people and the world of science. I want my work to make a positive impact on society and be beneficial for the forthcoming generations. I want to help people and discover new things that will help those in need. I am motivated every day to continue working hard by realizing there are still more things to be discovered and that it could be done by me.

In order to become a neuroscientist an individual is required to obtain a PhD and complete up to two years of postdoctoral training. Most scientists complete a four-year bachelor’s degree in biology, chemistry, or psychology, along with four- or five-year doctoral programs in cognitive, biological, or molecular neuroscience. Graduates usually obtain postdoctoral fellowships at universities, private research institutions or pharmaceutical companies, where they work alongside experience

“Alzheimer’s From A New Angle: A radical new approach to treating the fearful disease is showing promise” by Alice Park, an article found in the February 22/29, 2016 issue of TIME magazine, delves into encouraging new research being conducted to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative condition that destroys the brain. Dr. Frank Longo, from the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University, School of Medicine, is leading the charge. This disease was discovered over 110 years ago by a German physician named, Alois Alzheimer. For so many years now, researchers have focused solely on treating/stopping Alzheimer’s once its devastation has already begun. In the last seven years, over

Thus, I firmly believe that an integration of various academic disciplines is the most accurate approach to psychopathologies. Likewise, neuroscience is a multidisciplinary science that is primarily concerned with the study of the structure and function of the nervous system. Hence, the Neuroscience major seems to fit my passions and ardor very well.

Lisa Genova has her PhD in Neuroscience. She used her background in neuroscience to gain access to the chief of neurology in hospitals as well as genetic counselors and leader’s in Alzheimer’s research

This graduate program is based at the Faculty of Medicine and the Brain Research Centre at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver Campus).Students will be taking courses in different buildings across the campus, and the location of research will depend on the lab location of each student’s supervisor.

First, in the summer of my junior year I was fascinated by one of the most complex organs of the human body, the brain. Whether it was books on Alzheimer’s or studies published on the brain’s capacity, this organ never ceased to amaze me. At this level of excitement I began to proactively look into neurology labs. I emailed over hundreds of researchers who had labs in which I was interested in. After looking

This, I led me too a love of psychology. How wonderful was it that there was a whole science devoted just to that one mystical organ? Studying the brain, we can unlock the doors to human

As of today, I am leaning towards becoming a neurosurgeon, and majoring in science would greatly help improve my ability to do my job better. From a young age, I was always fascinated with the human mind, its capabilities and the extend of its limits. Thus, it was natural for me to choose a major that fits my passion, like neuroscience. Being that I plan to major in neuroscience it didn’t come as a surprise that I would give Natural science 5 stars. To me the natural world is filled with unknowns waiting to be discovered and I have the curiosity to learn about all of them. I want to major in neuroscience as a means of further expounding upon my knowledge and curiosity in a way that works best for me; through research projects. With that being

The advances in neuroscience have come because of the desire to see the brain in action. According to Society of Neuroscience there are three main objective in neuroscience. The first is to understand our brains and how they function. The second is to comprehend how the central nervous system develops, matures, and maintains itself and the third is to analyze and apprehend neurological and psychiatric disorders, and learn methods to prevent or cure them [2]. With the advances they are in fact able to better understand ‘ordinary’ brains as well as those with disorders like autism or Alzheimer’s disease. “As they map the brain in greater detail, they may learn how to diagnose disorders by their effect on anatomy, and perhaps even understand

In modern research scientists, educators, nutritionists, psychiatrists, and geneticists are constantly working together to find out how the mind-body connection affects learning. Scientists are researching how our ability to generate new brain cells affects our abilities to learn. Research has shown that our brain develops new brain cells every day. This continues until we die. According to Palombo-Weiss, R. (1997), “it's our ability to generate new brain cells that accounts for the brain's plasticity-its ability to continue to learn and update its database. Scientists generally agree that each human being has approximately 100 billion neurons, each of