Neurobiology - why is it an important topic?
Which end do we start at, and why do we start at all?
It may seem self-evident, it's about our most complex organ in a time of rapidly advancing research and new discoveries. Despite this, we still don't know enough to answer questions like "what causes schizophrenia?" or "how does lithium work as a medication for bipolar disorder?" even though psychiatric disorders are far from new. In a relatively short time – around the last 150 years – schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which I mentioned in the examples above, have gone from not even existing as concepts to being introduced as two distinct diagnoses with different prognoses and treatments.
By relatively short time, I mean that 100 years is usually counted as 3 generations, and it is often said that humanity has existed for around 10,000 generations. If you are interested in learning more about psychiatric diagnostics, feel free to listen to this episode of Sinnets Historia (in Swedish) where I host psychologist Michelle Jerkku´s podcast.
But now back to biology, which is actually what I'm supposed to write about here on Substack. As already mentioned, the collective knowledge in the subject is not sufficient to be able to answer (for us doctors and researchers at least) pressing questions about what certain diseases are caused by and why responses to medications can be so different in different patients. And to understand both the research that is currently ongoing in neuroscience, as well as to be able to formulate my own research-related questions, a basic knowledge of neurobiology is first required.
Why do I choose to write about this?
The purpose for me to write here is thus for me to learn about the brain's function and structure, but also because I think the subject is far too interesting for me not to share it. Because what will we be able to understand about the brain in just 10 years, or during my working life (as a 90s kid I'll probably work until I'm 70) in 40 years? You understand what I mean by it being a little too exciting to just not learn more about?
The first post will start with an introduction to neurobiology. The source I will primarily use is Principles Of Neurobiology second edition by Luo, Liqun 2020. The hope is that it will be both comprehensible and interesting to follow along.
Welcome!
Lovisa