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Neuroscientist
Studies the brain and nervous system — how we think, feel, remember, and move.
Did you know?
Your brain contains about 86 billion neurons, plus a roughly equal number of support cells.
How subjects help
- Biology: Study how nerve cells connect and pass signals that let us move, see and remember.
- Chemistry: Track chemical messengers like dopamine that carry signals from one brain cell to the next.
- Physics: Read brain scans and electrical recordings that show which parts of the brain are active.
- Psychology: Design memory and attention tests that link what the brain does to how people behave.
A famous name
Santiago Ramón y Cajal: Showed the brain is made of separate nerve cells, sharing the 1906 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Try it yourself: Catch a falling ruler
- Your partner holds the ruler at the top so it hangs down, with the 0 end just above your open thumb and finger.
- Without warning, at any moment in the next 5 seconds, your partner lets go. Catch it as fast as you can.
- Read the centimetre mark where you caught it and use the card to turn it into a reaction time. Have 5 tries each.
- Compare your best and average times with your partner's. Try again with your other hand, or with your eyes closed while your partner says "now".
Neuroscientists and neurologists measure reaction times in thousandths of a second to study how fast signals travel from the senses to the brain to the muscles, and how tiredness, age or illness change that.
Adapted from Neuroscience for Kids (University of Washington): Reaction Time.
Also try: Find your blind spot.
Known for it in
USA, UK, Germany, Japan, Switzerland