Medical neuroscience is a highly specialized area of the medical field that focuses on the brain and nervous system. It is most often thought of as a science that studies brain function, but its range extends far beyond that area. In actuality, medical neuroscience encompasses all aspects of the nervous system, nerves, and nerve cells, healthy as well as in disease. It includes the chemistry, pathology, physiology, pharmacology, and anatomy of nerve cells as well as the psychological and behavioral elements that rely on the roles of the nervous system.

There are several clinical disciplines that fall within the medical neuroscience parameters. Neurology, neurobiology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry are three common disciplines. These may fall within actual medical practice, teaching, or research. Cognitive neuroscience is one field that falls into the latter category.

A research-oriented academic discipline of neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, focuses on the behavioral expressions of mental processes stemming from the neural substrates. Another discipline of neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, involves the research and treatment of disorders of the nervous system. These disorders may stem from illness or genetics. This area of medical neuroscience is often populated by neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and neurobiologists.

A doctor or scientist who wishes to pursue a career in the medical neuroscience field must graduate from medical school and have specialized training in the area of neuroscience. Comparatively little is actually known about the human brain, so the field is constantly evolving and paradigms are always shifting as new discoveries are made. It is due to this ever-changing landscape that the neuroscientist must keep abreast of new discoveries and breakthroughs.

A primary reason that this field of medicine is so important is because the brain is the hub for all activity within the body. Operating on electrical impulses, the brain is very powerful and has great influence over the body in many ways. The nervous system controls all involuntary functions within the body, including breathing, keeping the heart beating and digestion. Additionally, it controls every movement, every thought, and every sensation that the body experiences.

When the brain is exposed to something, real or imagined, it evokes a physiological reaction within the body. For instance, if a person has a thought that they are ill, the brain can begin to believe it and manifest that belief within the body by creating a physiological response that causes symptoms of the imagined illness to occur, even though the body is disease free. A common example of that is the woman who wants to be pregnant, so she develops all of the symptoms of pregnancy, including a distended belly, even though she is not with child.

It is this incredible power that entices and astounds neuroscientists, inspiring them to investigate and pursue the great mysteries of the brain. Medical neuroscience is an exciting, ever-changing, and challenging discipline of medicine. Much is known about the area, but it is only the tip of the iceberg. There is still so much yet to learn.