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i'm an undergrad. i'm just doing some brainstorming--what topics would be interesting to delve into in neuroscience?
neuroscience research
- Thread starter me.
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me. said:
Although I think this is a personal decision that you kind of figure out while you are doing lab or reading rotations, here are some of the topics I have come across while reading the abstracts for qualifying exams (at our school we have to write a NIH R01 style grant proposal without faculty input).
Neurodegeneration - triplet repeat diseases
Axonal guidance
Learning and memory
These are the more popular topics at our school (which may be highly biased based on our faculty interests). I am not in the field of neuroscience, but to get a glimpse of what is "hot" in that field, I would go to your school's library and look at journals such as Neuron, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Neuroscience Reviews.
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As an undergrad, I think you should delve into any project in Neuroscience that a PI is willing to give you and be supportive of. Beggers can't be choosy, and you're going to learn plenty in the right lab no matter what research you start doing now.
Good luck!
Good luck!
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Go to the Society for Neuroscience (www.sfn.org) website and check out what the hot talks are this year through the program and the abstract viewer.
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What do you mean, "delve into"? Do you mean, do a PhD thesis on? Do a presentation on for a class? Get a research project? Just interesting to read about?
If you're looking for a research topic, stop. Start looking for a compatible research mentor instead. Much more productive for you. A good person in a field you're only slightly intersted in is much better than someone who doesn't really care about you in something you find exciting.
As for a cool topic for a presentation... I always find discussions of the molecular mechanics of the synapse to be interesting. Lots of different ways for people to look at it (electrophysiology, molecular approaches, modeling, etc.). Mechanisms of learning and memory are always fun and topical (and there are lots of ways to approach those, too). Sensory systems are always good, too; especially hearing and olfaction, I think.
Good luck.
If you're looking for a research topic, stop. Start looking for a compatible research mentor instead. Much more productive for you. A good person in a field you're only slightly intersted in is much better than someone who doesn't really care about you in something you find exciting.
As for a cool topic for a presentation... I always find discussions of the molecular mechanics of the synapse to be interesting. Lots of different ways for people to look at it (electrophysiology, molecular approaches, modeling, etc.). Mechanisms of learning and memory are always fun and topical (and there are lots of ways to approach those, too). Sensory systems are always good, too; especially hearing and olfaction, I think.
Good luck.
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This question has infitite answers! (But I'm a little biased towards neuroscience since that's what my PhD was in 
)
Anyway, I agree with the above posters who said that for an undergrad, finding a mentor is the most important thing. But I guess you need to narrow things down to start looking for a mentor... Personally, I think all neurosciecne topics are interesting. Besides the topic, something you might want to consider is the type of work you'd be doing. Neuroscience is very multidisciplinary. Some labs do mostly molecular work or cell culture, others do electrophysiology, immunocytochemistry, behavioral experiments, bioinformatics, neuroanatomy, etc. I mean, two different labs can be studying the same thing, but employ entirely different approaches. A student in an electrophysiology lab is going to have a much different experience than a student in a molecular lab. But, as was said above, take what you can get, and if you have a good mentor, you'll have a good experience and learn a lot no matter what the topic is.
Good luck!
)Anyway, I agree with the above posters who said that for an undergrad, finding a mentor is the most important thing. But I guess you need to narrow things down to start looking for a mentor... Personally, I think all neurosciecne topics are interesting. Besides the topic, something you might want to consider is the type of work you'd be doing. Neuroscience is very multidisciplinary. Some labs do mostly molecular work or cell culture, others do electrophysiology, immunocytochemistry, behavioral experiments, bioinformatics, neuroanatomy, etc. I mean, two different labs can be studying the same thing, but employ entirely different approaches. A student in an electrophysiology lab is going to have a much different experience than a student in a molecular lab. But, as was said above, take what you can get, and if you have a good mentor, you'll have a good experience and learn a lot no matter what the topic is.
Good luck!
