Welcome to Pop Synaptics!

So you’re interested in Neuroscience. You’ve come to the right place. The brain has been called The Last Frontier, and Pop Synaptics can be your covered wagon for the trail, your Santa Maria to the ocean of cognitive functioning, your Apollo 11 to the moon of the nervous system–am I being overly dramatic? Probably. But despite my histrionics, it’s true that in many ways the brain and really the whole study of neural structure and functioning (which we call Neuroscience) is one of the most dramatic, romantic and mysterious scientific pursuits of today. Few other fields of study are so inescapable—our neural functioning is the framework of our identities, our activities, our relationships, our desires, even, some might say, our souls. There is a vast unknown residing right here inside our bodies and minds, and we want to know more about how we know, to ponder how and why it is we think.  It’s science mixed with metacognitive poetry, and it’s enchanting.

But while our brains and nervous systems are intrinsic, the study of them is often inaccessible. Try to sift through the latest brain-breakthroughs without a PhD or two and you’ll be facing some major cranial cramps. That’s why I’m starting Pop Synaptics—to give those who are interested in the field of Neuroscience a foundation in the field, no matter what they keep as their day job. Think of Pop Synaptics as a survey course with a lot more kick-ass, a blogger’s smorgasbord of the fundamentals and highlights of Neuroscience.  You don’t need to be a trained scientist to learn from and enjoy Pop Synaptics, although I hope that scientists will enjoy this blog alongside beauticians, landscapers, engineers, students and anyone else who simply possesses an interest in the workings of the brain and nervous systems. Because many of the blogs all ready on the web focus primarily on Neuropsychology or take a complex, technical approach to Neurobiology, Pop Synaptics will focus mostly on making Neurobiology fun and easy to understand while incorporating elements from her sister study of Neuropsychology from time to time. As we move through the field of Neuroscience together, I’ll try to bring you a mixture of the newest, coolest breakthroughs as well as basic tenets of Neuroscience. Above all, my goal is to make Pop Synaptics fun and understandable because in the end, the last frontier should be open to anyone who wants to make the trek.

~ by mia27 on September 26, 2009.