The new world of neuroscience: The perspective of a clinical neuroscientist

There have been remarkable changes in our understanding of the brain over the last 25 years. These changes include basic ideas about nerve cells and their stability and interconnections, the concept that one can add new tissue or nerve cells to brain, and the idea that re-wiring of the brain constantly takes place. What have made these advances applicable to the human have been new technologies. The first of these is our ability to image brain in non-invasive ways including our ability to analyze what part of the brain is being utilized as specific cognitive functions are being carried out. The revolution in genetics with its broad implications in fields such as cancer and heart disease also has direct application to understanding brain processes and brain diseases. We are now in an era of "risk factor" in genetics, in such complex disease processes as depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. There is also an interventional revolution, involving prevention of neurological disease, protection of the brain from a disease process, and promotion of recovery after injury or disease onset.