Question

Biopsychologists can have training in one or more neuroscience subdisciplines (neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, neuropathology, neuropharmacology, and/or neurophysiology).

The paragraph below describes a research project that might be undertaken by a team of biopsychologists. In which subdisciplines would the research team need training in order to conduct this project? Explain your answer.  

A research team wishes to develop a novel drug treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In order to do so they plan to take a multi-pronged approach. First, they plan to use postmortem brain tissue from patients who suffered from AD to identify abnormalities in various brain structures. Next, they will use a mouse model of AD (i.e., mice genetically engineered to develop symptoms reminiscent of AD) to characterize abnormalities in how brain cells communicate with one another. Finally, they will use the information gathered from the postmortem tissue and mouse studies to come up with a targeted drug treatment that corrects the specific cellular communication problems in the brain structures identified as abnormal.

Answer 1

The research team would need training in the subdisciplines of  Neuropathology and Neuropharmacology  to develop drug treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Neuropathology is the study of various diseases of nervous system. This includes study of diseased nervous tissues from biopsies and autopsies. The step one and step two of the research comes under the subdiscipline of neuropathology, where the task is to understand the nature and causes of AD.

The final step of the research comes under the subdiscipline of neuropharmacology,as it intends to study the effect of drugs on specific cellular communication problems in the brain structures identified as abnormal.