Today, one in five North Americans suffer
from a debilitating neurological disease. With humans living longer,
this statistic is believed to increase to one in every two.
Consciousness. Emotion. Sleep. Creativity. Mental health. Intelligence. Memory.
Learning. Imagination. Sight. Hearing. Touch. Smell. Taste. Movement. Balance.
Coordination.
All of these characteristics, if the brain functions correctly, are taken for
granted. However, when the brain or nervous system work improperly the
results can be devastating. Brain Disorders can compromise many of life's
normal activities and can include blindness, insomnia, Multiple Sclerosis,
Depression, Alzheimer's Disease, deafness, Parkinson's Disease, Schizophrenia,
paralysis, dyslexia, Autism, chronic pain, retardation, or attention deficit
disorders.
"Advances in neuroscience are happening at such an incredible rate that
it's difficult for the public to keep up," said University of Saskatchewan
Professor Sergey Fedoroff. Working together worldwide, scientists are
striving to realize the vast complexities of the brain and its disorders.
Treatments, cures, and, above all, knowledge are the possibilities that
continue to be
discovered through neuroscientific research.
Wright State University has entered into this field of research through The
Center for Brain Research. The Center was established in 2000 with a
gift from the Kettering Fund. Robert E.W. Fyffe, Ph.D, was appointed
as the Center's director. The Center's mission is to promote interdisciplinary
research designed to improve our understanding of neural communication mechanisms
in health and disease.
The Center promotes interdisciplinary
investigations from the level of gene expression in single neurons to imaging
of localized regions of the human brain. The combination of structural and functional
studies represent an integrative focus for experimental investigation of neural
development; cellular responses to injury, disease, or genetic modification;
and the mechanisms that underlie communication between nerve cells and the processing
of information through brain and spinal cord circuits. Ongoing studies encompass
signal transduction mechanisms; development of synapses and circuits; homeostatic
mechanisms; control of neuroendocrine, sensory and motor systems; sensori-motor
integration; and brain imaging in mental illness.
The recent development of probes
and microscopic techniques for localizing critical molecules in neurons, as well
as new noninvasive imaging methods that can directly link brain function to behavior,
have provided breakthroughs in the way we view the brain, revealing the diversity
and complexity of the constituent neurons and circuits. The fundamental studies
undertaken by our researchers hopefully will continue to contribute to the massive
efforts of the neuroscience community at large to meet the challenge of describing
how the brain works and how the nervous system responds to injury.
For more information, please visit The Neuroscience Institute.
This page has been created by Senior Honors Institute Fellow James Knupp. |
