working with/studyig neural science

[neurotic]

to keep it brief: i'm fascinated by the mind and hope to one day work with the study of it.

i'm starting university this year and ask for any sort of advice, insight, anything, i don't know, on the matter...

i'm currently on the fence on studying pharmacology vs. computer science. pharmacology was my first idea (the curriculum looks very solid + there's one neuropsychopharmacology lab at one of the universities in my city which does paid internships) but lately i'm not so sure about that, because it seems to me that psychopharmacology and related (neurochemistry, neuropsychology?) fail to explain things about the mind/brain that are interesting to me. plus i kind of want to get away of things drug related.

anyway my other idea was computer science. theoretical/computational neuroscience looks really promising... anyone know anything about it here? things like IIT etc...
i love math but working with computers is something that i want to avoid if i can...

medicine is out of the question.

thoughts?

 

[aced126]

I feel if you do computer science you will need to leave neuroscience and related topics alone for a long long time before you gain enough skill to come back to it later on and approach some of these problems as you mention. So if you don't mind leaving all that stuff completely for some years it's probably fine. I am going to university next year as well

 

[neurotic]

I am going to university next year as well

neat, what are you studying, if i may ask? i though you already had formal education by your posts heh

I feel if you do computer science you will need to leave neuroscience and related topics alone for a long long time before you gain enough skill to come back to it later on and approach some of these problems as you mention. So if you don't mind leaving all that stuff completely for some years it's probably fine.

not that much of a problem really.

come on guys... anything else? computational neuroscience? anyone? please?

 

[aced126]

Nah, still in school, I'm just very interested by this stuff.

I'm going to study a course which is quite broad in the first year but in later years I'll be sure to specialise in medicinal chemistry.

About your original question, I think that when you get to such an advanced stage such as using computers to model ideas in neuroscience, it will become multidisciplinary and very advanced neuroscientists (with possibly not much knowledge in computer science) will be requiring a lot of help from very advanced computer scientists (who likewise will have no/not much experience in the field of neuroscience).

Also you need a high level of aptitude and thinking skills in maths to succeed in computer science. I say this because a lot of universities where I am require additional tests in maths because the current standardised curriculum and exam system is way too trivial. Take a look at some STEP mathematics papers and that'll give you an idea of what it might be like.

 

[serotonin2A]

If you want to work in this field professionally and you are at the undergrad level then you need to take prerequisites required for graduate school and you will need research experience. It can be psychopharmacology oriented or anything else you can find...the most important thing is that you can say that you worked in a lab.

Getting a computer science degree isn't going to be helpful...it will lead to a job in computer science. You do need some programming experience to do advanced modelling, but a computer science degree is overkill because all you really need to do is take a few classes to learn programming and Matlab/R. What is more important is neuroscience, math (differential equations), and statistics.

 

[TheBlackPirate]

You should get practice with the material. Take a free class. If you get good grades and enjoy the material keep going in the same direction. If you're considering neuroscience, Harvard has this free class.

https://www.reddit.com/r/InternetIs.../harvard_university_offers_a_completely_free/


The other recommendation I could offer is "Choose when you are going to take drugs carefully". Specifically consume drugs after you work on your courses.

 

[neurotic]

About your original question, I think that when you get to such an advanced stage such as using computers to model ideas in neuroscience, it will become multidisciplinary and very advanced neuroscientists (with possibly not much knowledge in computer science) will be requiring a lot of help from very advanced computer scientists (who likewise will have no/not much experience in the field of neuroscience).

Also you need a high level of aptitude and thinking skills in maths to succeed in computer science. I say this because a lot of universities where I am require additional tests in maths because the current standardised curriculum and exam system is way too trivial. Take a look at some STEP mathematics papers and that'll give you an idea of what it might be like.

Getting a computer science degree isn't going to be helpful...it will lead to a job in computer science. You do need some programming experience to do advanced modelling, but a computer science degree is overkill because all you really need to do is take a few classes to learn programming and Matlab/R. What is more important is neuroscience, math (differential equations), and statistics.

hum, i see. my reasoning was that, how can one model anything without a proper knowledge of theoretical computer science, without knowing the limitations of what can be modeled, and how so. or do things such as take current paradigms in neuronal modeling and perfect them. and vice versa. for example, changing the step function of a perceptron to a sigmoid function and making modeling of neurons more accurate.

the case of the neuroscientist and the computer scientist seems like it'd kinda be inefficient to me. it's like trying to design a software to a client with completely unrealistic expectations.

 

[serotonin2A]

hum, i see. my reasoning was that, how can one model anything without a proper knowledge of theoretical computer science, without knowing the limitations of what can be modeled, and how so. or do things such as take current paradigms in neuronal modeling and perfect them. and vice versa. for example, changing the step function of a perceptron to a sigmoid function and making modeling of neurons more accurate.

The examples you are thinking of are mathematical problems, not really computer science problems. If it was necessary to develop a new programming language to do the modeling then it would make sense to have a strong computer science background. The most difficult part of developing an accurate model in neuroscience is the model itself -- once you get the math working then it isn't necessarily difficult to code it in software. Matlab and R can handle most modeling that people do.

Computer science programs cover lots of material that would be useless for neuroscience -- operating systems, compilers, device drivers, bus architecture.