What challenges face researchers as they study the brain? Which of these challenges poses the biggest obstacle? Discuss positive and negative issues that could arise from further research and discovery into the brain and its function.
Researchers such as neuroscientist, pharmacology, and psychology encounter a lot of challenges as they try to study the brain. This challenges possess the biggest obstacles in this field and are illustrated below.
Stimulating the brain
Researchers are unable to figure out how the brain computes. The computational principles that allow the brain to predict, perceive, model and interact with the outside world. Which way does the brain use to implement the principles? (Monsell SE, 2010)The data collected from the data sources is not enough to answer this fundamental question. What is needed is the casual mechanism? The best way to understand this mechanism is by through experimental manipulation of living brain or use sample tissue and measuring the response. This mechanism is costly, and very difficult mostly when using the animal and human. The result also cannot answer all the question. Some technical resolution is not possible to the human and most invasive techniques are not impossible to use in the human.
Data ladder
The way brain research is currently organized has many implications for the research. Different brain organization works in different brain areas, in different animals, and of varying age. The higher cognitive functions focus their research on the monkey and human volunteer’s. The genetics channel their energy on mice hence difficult to come up with the similar result at the end of research (Lezak,2004). The negative challenges of unified strategy are that no single area of the brain, in any species where we have data spanning all its different level of organization. Hence no way we can experimentally or identify manipulating biological.
Classifying and simulating diseases of the brain
Psychiatrists and neurological disorders are triggered by external environment of the patient, and they begin with an initial change in the brain. Followed by of knock-out effects. This makes it very difficult to diagnose and treat brain disease because we lack sufficient understanding of these cascades.
Figuring out what functional magnetic resources resonance imaging
Definitive evidence based on functional magnetic resonance imaging brain keeps on developing. Too many disparate forces keep on spinning the brain scans in too many ways. One solution is well-respected institution to gather the best of the best minds on the ground to , establish a game plan moving onward (Deborah A 2000)
One of the challenges that possess the biggest obstacles is classifying and stimulating diseases of the brain. This is because most psychiatric and neurological disorders begin an initial change in the brain. They sometimes triggered by the external environment and are followed by cascades of knockout effect. This makes it very difficult to diagnose and also treat brain disease. Most brain diseases are diagnosed at the very late stage because they are not diagnosed regarding objectives markers like other diseases like cancer. Pharmaceuticals companies advance in drugs candidate without fully understanding there mechanism of action or there side effect. Further research and discovery into the brain will have a positive impact because it well helps researchers to understand brain diseases and come up with medicine to stop many people from dying of brain diseases.
References
Beach TG , Monsell SE , Phillips LE , et al. Accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer
disease at National Institute on Aging Alzheimer Disease Centers, 2005–2010.
Neuropathol Exp Neurol . 2012
Phillips, Deborah A., and Jack P. Shonkoff, eds. From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early
childhood development. National Academies Press, 2000.
Lezak, Muriel Deutsch. Neuropsychological assessment. Oxford University Press, USA, 2004.