- Joined
- Oct 3, 2017
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Rising M3. Loving all aspects of neurology so far: lecture material/basic science (neuroanatomy, pathology, pharmacology), clinical science (neuro exam, localizing lesions, management of neurovascular and neurodegenerative diseases), ethics (discussing brain death determination, long-term management of disability), etc. It's all so enjoyable and interesting. I've even gotten involved in a few clinical neurology research projects and shadowed both IP and OP neurology, love all of it.
The part where I get hung up is interacting with people and topics in pure neuroscience. Whenever someone says they studied neuroscience as an undergrad and comes at me with their research on nuanced topics in "cognition, memory, sleep, neural networks, processing, fMRI, rats and reward systems, behavior, brain-computer devices, playing games on computers to improve XYZ", unless it has a very concrete and applicable clinical application, it rarely ever appeals to me, if at all. I'll read articles on glycemic control in post-tPA stroke patients all day, but if you ask me to read an article on mice stepping on buttons to get some cheese, I'm really not that interested. This may be a bit petty or arrogant, and I know that many developments in neurology have been driven by neuroscience/neuropsych research.
Another part of it may be due to my own personal experiences/biases with individuals in each of these fields. Neurologists I've met (both at my own institution and others) have seemingly all been welcoming, respectful, kind, knowledgeable, a bit quirky (even lovably schizotypal), and always encouraging to me as a student. I really gel with their personalities for some reason. Neuroscientists/PhD students I have interacted with have tended to be more arrogant, curt, impatient, and for some reason very outwardly politically vocal. I don't mean to cast aspersions on an entire field, I'm certainly not clinging to any so-called "stereotypes", these observations are rooted in nothing more than my own personal experiences. Every Neuroscience PhD and student I've met has been brilliant and hard-working, and I'm sure I've just had a bad draw.
I'm really not sure why I feel these feeling of disinterest and discomfort with neuroscience or its constituents, or if these feelings bode poorly for me in the context of pursuing a career in neurology. Is this a bad thing? I'm sure the fields overlap alot more in the academics settings, but I don't know to what degree. Not sure how much time neurologists or neuro residents spend reading or discussing interesting or novel advances in the pure neurosciences, but if it's alot, I don't know how I'd feel about that...
Sorry for the rant, if anyone is offended by this, I certainly meant no harm.
The part where I get hung up is interacting with people and topics in pure neuroscience. Whenever someone says they studied neuroscience as an undergrad and comes at me with their research on nuanced topics in "cognition, memory, sleep, neural networks, processing, fMRI, rats and reward systems, behavior, brain-computer devices, playing games on computers to improve XYZ", unless it has a very concrete and applicable clinical application, it rarely ever appeals to me, if at all. I'll read articles on glycemic control in post-tPA stroke patients all day, but if you ask me to read an article on mice stepping on buttons to get some cheese, I'm really not that interested. This may be a bit petty or arrogant, and I know that many developments in neurology have been driven by neuroscience/neuropsych research.
Another part of it may be due to my own personal experiences/biases with individuals in each of these fields. Neurologists I've met (both at my own institution and others) have seemingly all been welcoming, respectful, kind, knowledgeable, a bit quirky (even lovably schizotypal), and always encouraging to me as a student. I really gel with their personalities for some reason. Neuroscientists/PhD students I have interacted with have tended to be more arrogant, curt, impatient, and for some reason very outwardly politically vocal. I don't mean to cast aspersions on an entire field, I'm certainly not clinging to any so-called "stereotypes", these observations are rooted in nothing more than my own personal experiences. Every Neuroscience PhD and student I've met has been brilliant and hard-working, and I'm sure I've just had a bad draw.
I'm really not sure why I feel these feeling of disinterest and discomfort with neuroscience or its constituents, or if these feelings bode poorly for me in the context of pursuing a career in neurology. Is this a bad thing? I'm sure the fields overlap alot more in the academics settings, but I don't know to what degree. Not sure how much time neurologists or neuro residents spend reading or discussing interesting or novel advances in the pure neurosciences, but if it's alot, I don't know how I'd feel about that...
Sorry for the rant, if anyone is offended by this, I certainly meant no harm.
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