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Meet the Scientist
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Explore This Topic
Check Your Understanding
The following questions accompany this lesson. The answers are given below each question. To reveal an answer, place the cursor over "REVEAL THE ANSWER".
- What is the comparative approach and why do biologists use it?
- What is a combinatorial code for behavior?
- If individual nerve cells are not specialized for specific behaviors, then what explains behaviors, such as how a leech switches from crawling to swimming?
- Is there a “decision-making” center in the human brain? Explain.
Exercise Your Brain
- Choose one of the milestones in neuroscience research and explore it in a bit more detail on the web. What is the milestone? Why was it important, or how did it change the prevailing view at the time? Is the finding consistent with what scientists’ believe today? If not, what is the current state of understanding about the milestone?
- Since the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, many have gone to scientists doing research in areas related to neuroscience. For example, in 2004, Richard Axel and Linda Buck won for their research on how our sense of smell works. For one of the neuroscience-related Nobel Prizes investigate what the scientist(s) found out and how they did it. Try to find an interview with the scientist(s) to learn more about the factors that helped them make their discovery. Did they have a moment of insight where they finally made sense of the puzzle? Or was the process more gradual? Do they have any advice for young scientists hoping to make an exciting discovery?
- New scientific tools make it possible to address new scientific questions. Some of the tools that have revolutionized neuroscience are: electron microscopy; fluorescence; electrophysiology (the ability to record the activity of nerve cells); advanced computing; the availability of purified neurotransmitters from chemical supply companies; the ability to genetically manipulate fruit flies, mice and some other organisms; and the technology to do brain scans (MRI, PET, fMRI, CAT, EEG). Pick one of these technologies. Determine approximately when it was introduced, and how it has changed the way neuroscience research is done.
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