Neuroscience is an integrated discipline that comprises all of the scientific areas related to brain and behaviour. It encompasses many of the most dynamic areas of current scientific research and it touches every aspect of our lives. Neuroscience research ranges from the function of single molecules to the behaviour of the whole person. The brain is the most complex kilogram of matter known to us. It develops from a single cell, at the start of our lives. How this happens is the subject of developmental neuroscience; one of the fastest moving areas of modern biology. Scientists study how experience modifies neural circuits as we learn throughout our lives, and try to understand the changes in our nervous system as we age. Studying how we make decisions, the nature of intelligence and creativity and our aesthetic sensibilities fall within this discipline.
The remarkable performance of our nervous system in everyday life is shown in stark relief, when things go wrong. Identifying the genes that underlie inherited brain disorders, through to understanding the changes that occur after damage to the central nervous system, are also the realm of neuroscience. The nervous system is responsible for the moment-to-moment control of nearly all of our internal organs, and at the same time underlies our most complex abstract thoughts and our most subtle emotional experiences. To understand our nervous system is really to understand our bodies, brains and being. This is the aim of modern neuroscience. Members of SANI are internationally recognised for contributions to all of these aspects of neuroscience.