Neuroscience

Kids Learning

Neuroscience

It is a field of study dedicated to the investigation of our nervous system. The purpose of neuroscience is to explain the activities and behavior inside the brain and mind. The study of our brain is a key aspect to understanding of our perception and experience of the external world. Early researches with brain date back to the ancient Egyptians, who regularly removed brain from the bodies before mummification.

Our brains are estimated to be made up of a hundred billion neurons! A neuron is simply put, a nerve cell.A neuron, apart from having the usual cell properties like nucleus, cytoplasm, mitochondria, etc also have certain projections called Axons and Dendrites. Axons take way information from a nerve cell and Dendrites bring in information. Neurons communicate with each other using electrochemical signals. The places through which the nerve cells signal to each other are called Synapses. Synapses are the junctions through which the nervous system connects to the other body systems, and are considered to be crucial for the computations inside the brain with respect to thought and experience.Inside the nervous system, information travels at various speeds ranging from 0.5m/sec to about 120m/sec! Crudely describes the speed of our thought, doesn’t it?

Neuroscience is a promising field of science, as it offers tremendous potential for study in various fields: medicine, computers, psychology and physics.