Clinical neuroscience

Clinical neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience that focuses on the scientific study of fundamental mechanisms that underlie diseases and disorders of the brain and central nervous system. It seeks to develop new ways of conceptualizing and diagnosing such disorders and ultimately of developing novel treatments.

A clinical neuroscientist is a scientist who has specialized knowledge in the field. Not all clinicians are clinical neuroscientists. Clinicians and scientists -including psychiatrists, neurologists, clinical psychologists, neuroscientists, and other specialists—use basic research findings from neuroscience in general and clinical neuroscience in particular to develop diagnostic methods and ways to prevent and treat neurobiological disorders. Such disorders include addiction, Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, bipolar disorder, brain tumors, depression, Down syndrome, dyslexia, epilepsy, Huntington's disease, multiple sclerosis, neurological AIDS, neurological trauma, pain, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, sleep disorders, stroke and Tourette syndrome.

While neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry are the main medical specialties that use neuroscientific information, other specialties such as cognitive neuroscience, neuroradiology, neuropathology, ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, anesthesiology and rehabilitation medicine can contribute to the discipline. Integration of the neuroscience perspective alongside other traditions like psychotherapy, social psychiatry or social psychology will become increasingly important.

One Mind for Research

The "One Mind for Research" forum was a convention held in Boston, Massachusetts on May 23–25, 2011 that produced the blueprint document A Ten-Year Plan for Neuroscience: From Molecules to Brain Health. Leading neuroscience researchers and practitioners in the United States contributed to the creation of this document, in which 17 key areas of opportunities are listed under the Clinical Neuroscience section. These include the following:

• Rethinking curricula to break down intellectual silos
• Training translational neuroscientists and clinical investigators
• Investigating biomarkers
• Improving psychiatric diagnosis
• Developing a “Framingham Study of Brain Disorders” (i.e. longitudinal cohort for central nervous system disease)
• Identifying developmental risk factors and producing effective interventions
• Discovering new treatments for pain, including neuropathic pain
• Treating disorders of neural signaling and pathological synchrony
• Treating disorders of immunity or inflammation
• Treating metabolic and mitochondrial disorders
• Developing new treatments for depression
• Treating addictive disorders
• Improving treatment of schizophrenia
• Preventing and treating cerebrovascular disease
• Achieving personalized medicine
• Understanding shared mechanisms of neurodegeneration
• Advancing anesthesia

In particular, it advocates for better integrated and scientifically driven curricula for practitioners, and it recommends that such curricula be shared among neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, neurosurgeons and neuroradiologists.

Given the various ethical, legal and societal implications for healthcare practitioners arising from advances in neuroscience, the University of Pennsylvania inaugurated the Penn Conference on Clinical Neuroscience and Society in July 2011.

Similarities between Other Fields of Neuroscience

Neuropsychology

As Byproducts of Neuroscience, they do not share the same objective as their parent (Neuroscience), as such focus on specific fields. While Clinical Neuroscience is more focused on the anatomy and how the brain would react to specific types of disorders and how to prevent them. Clinical Neuropsychology is more focused on how the brain functions and understands behaviors..) Yet both of these fields can be both applied to aiding and preventing mental disorders, alongside the diagnosing of brain disorders and assessing cognitive and mental behaviors.

Scientists who research Neuropsychology are able to assist and aid subjects in a clinical manner rather than biological. Treating people they come to as patients rather than subjects in a way. Neuropsychology is more research intensive, requiring existential knowledge in the field of Psychology. Most Neuropsychologists have acquired their Doctoral Degree's due to how research extensive the topic may be , making the field extremely competitive in the job market.

Progress into Neuropsychology is equivalent to becoming a therapist if not equally time investing.

Neuropsychiatry

Neuropsychiatry is a field that connects the mind and the brain, looking at how both affect each other. It combines ideas from both neurology (the study of the brain and nervous system) and psychiatry (the study of mental health), and focuses on treating problems related to thinking, emotions, and behavior that come from brain disorders.

Rather than focusing on just one part of a problem (like a specific brain issue or mental health symptom), neuropsychiatry takes a broader approach. It recognizes that many brain disorders, like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer's, can affect mood or thinking, and many mental health conditions, like depression or schizophrenia, have a neurological aspect too. Neuropsychology serves people from all across the entire age, making it feasible to all across the world. Helping us identify developmental concerns within infants and other ages around childhood.

See also

• Behavioral neurology
• Neuropsychiatry
• Neuropsychology
• Society for Neuroscience
• Cognitive neuroscience