MadSci Network: Neuroscience
Query:

Re: Is being a neuroscienctist or neurosurgeon fun and what do you do?

Date: Mon Dec 4 10:53:21 2000
Posted By: James Goss, Post-doc/Fellow, Neurology, University of Pittsburgh
Area of science: Neuroscience
ID: 971917338.Ns
Message:

Well Jay, I am a neuroscientist and it is fun.  But before I go into more 
detail about what I do, let me clear up a couple of things.  There are 
three major "neuro" professions: neurologist, neurosurgeon, and 
neuroscientist.  For the most part, these are separate professions, but 
there is significant overlap.  A neurologist is a medical doctor who 
specializes in treating diseases of the nervous system.  They go through 4 
years of medical school and usually 3 years of residency training in 
neurology.  They treat a variety of patients with conditions ranging from 
Parkinson's disease and stroke to neuropathies, and cerebral palsy 
(Psychiatrists by the way are medical doctors who specialize in the 
treatment of mental illness).  They usually treat patients with drugs and 
other non-invasive techniques.  A neurosurgeon is a surgeon who specializes 
in doing surgery involving the nervous system.  They go through 4 years of 
medical school and usually 8 years of residency training.  They are 
probably the best trained surgeons because of the delicacy of the 
operations that they usually perform.  Because neurosurgery can be so 
difficult, many neurosurgeons specialize in only one type of surgery, for 
example, removing brain tumors or repairing damaged nerves in the hands.  A 
neuroscientist on the other hand is someone who conducts research involving 
the nervous system.  Most neuroscientists have PhDs not MDs.  This means 
that they went to graduate school after college (anywhere from 3 to 8 years 
for most people) followed by at least one post-doctoral fellowship (2-5 
years).  I went through 6 years of graduate school and completed two 
post-doctoral fellowships over a 5 year span.  Neuroscientists conduct both 
basic and clinical research.  The difference between the two is that basic 
research does not have usually have any direct medical application.  For 
example, a neuroscientist doing basic research may study the brain 
structure of song birds to see why they sing, echolocation in bats, how 
snails learn, or the development of the nervous system in flatworms.  
Neuroscientists conducting clinical research may study the brain's response 
to stroke, develop an animal model for Alzheimer's disease, or examine the 
use of nerve grafts to treat spinal cord injury.  These three professions 
are not necessarily exclusive.  Many (though not most) neurologists and 
neurosurgeons do some research and an therefore be called neuroscientists. 
 In fact some trained neurologists and neurosurgeons only do research and 
do not see any patients.  On the other hand a trained neuroscientist with a 
PhD cannot practice medicine and therefore cannot treat patients, though 
some do research with humans.  I currently do mostly clinical research.  I 
do gene therapy research to treat neurological diseases.  I use genetically 
altered herpes simplex viruses to deliver genes to the nervous system in an 
attempt to cure or treat a disease process.  I use a variety of animal (rat 
and mouse) models that emulate human diseases in order to test the 
therapeutic ability of these altered viruses.  However, I have also done 
basic research involving the biology of the aging process in the brain and 
the basic biological processes occuring in the brain following traumatic 
brain injury.

Being a neuroscientist is fun and conducting research is very interesting work. 
 The type of research that you do depends on what your interests are.  This 
begins in graduate school where you select an advisor based on mutual 
interests.  In grad school you take classes and learn how to design and 
carry out proper research.  You learn a variety of techniques that allow 
you to answer the questions that your research raises, and hopefully 
publish papers on your findings.  When you receive your degree, you usually 
go to another laboratory for your post-doctoral training.  During this 
time, you focus almost exclusively on doing research.  You don't take any 
classes, but you usually learn how to write and apply for government grants 
in order to get money to do your research.  Publishing good quality 
research is the goal of your post-doctoral fellowship.  The more you are 
published the better chance you will have of getting a job.  Once you have 
a job you tend to spend less time doing actual research and more time 
writing grants, papers, teaching, and doing administrative work.  People 
who enjoy doing research are people who are self-motivated, curious, and 
above all patient.  Good research takes a long time.  Most researchers work 
about 60 hours a week.  On the plus side though, most researchers do not 
have jobs that have set hours and there is a lot of freedom.  Science is 
definitely one profession where you can excel as much as you want to as 
long as you are willing to work hard.  Professional success is measured by 
the quality of your research, not by how much salary you make or 
necessarily where you work.




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