Neuroscience 2009

Benefits of exercise on the brain, gender specific attributes of cognition, and mechanisms of facial feature processing in social situations: finally, research in neuroscience can be understood by all. Or can it? In the early nineteenth century when Phineas Gage shed a frontal lobe, people started to notice the brain had much to do with our every day selves. Centuries later, a field has evolved that strives to understand every last detail of the human mind. Some may recall the Star Trek: Next Generation episode in which Captain Picard has a headache and the doctor is surprised: by that time man had mapped the brain and headaches were shelved next to polio on the old-disease list. Such a thought is a dream for every mind here at Neuroscience 2009, the world’s largest annual meeting for all things brain. Something like 30,000 neuroscientists gather here to share their newest discoveries. But while banners boast the big ideas of how thinking in men differs from that of their better counterpart, the minutiae make up the guts of the conference. Insert Latin phrase for “Lay people stay clear”. As an engineer in a field where Molecular Biology is King, I often struggle to translate findings into terms I understand (binary, preferably). But while I’m normally able to understand basic ideas of such topics, the vast majority of the research presented here goes under the radar of the public eye. Not because there isn’t press to gobble them up, and not because their research isn’t hot enough: most scientists struggle to show how the single molecule they study in species no one has heard of actually applies to humans. So I'll just stand up for everyone here: it all matters. Their research may be decades from translation into a vaccine or cure, but these are the building blocks that are required to reach any goal, no matter how lofty. I am reminded of a wonderful quote from Jill Tarter, director of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, saying “ ‘Are we alone? Humans have been asking [this question] forever. The probability of success is difficult to estimate, but if we never search, the chance of success is zero." Such a mindset resonates in the sciences. We don’t know if we can map the human mind. We certainly don’t know what to expect in the instance we do. But let’s keep the comb fine and make some space on that shelf.