I wish to research the human mind, but I need some pointers first.

[SongJohn]

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Hello,

I am not sure of the best location for posting this type of question, but there seem to be a sharp group of people here that can point me in the right direction, and this question falls under the "scientific research" category.
I am a self-taught individual who is planning on majoring in chemistry at San Diego City College (community) and hopefully obtaining a BS in chemistry at UCSD. I am 24 and I have never been to a college, so your help is greatly appreciated.
The current problem I am having is deciding what area of research to follow. First of all, let me just voice what I wish to pursue.
Firstly, I am interested in studying the link between endogenous monoamines (such as harmine, N,N-dimethyltryptamine and 5-HT) and the processing of audition, vision and other such homeostatic sensory perceptions (i.e. what oscillatory chemical systems dictate why a tone of 440hz sounds like a singe pitch instead of a low frequency oscillation of many different pitches like 367Hz - 460Hz) . Another area of research I am interested in (off the top of my head) is looking at N,N-dimethyltryptamine's ability to induce rapid eye movement. Already one can see that I am interested in biological sciences with an emphasis on neuroscience, but what field of neuroscience?
I do not feel this falls under the category of cognitive science with a focus on neuroscience as I am not particularly interested in researching memory formation, behavior and other areas related to cognition. So, with all of this in mind, what field does this area of interest fall under? Physiological neuroscience?
Secondly, and to make matters more tricky, I wish to study microsaccades in the eyes as I have a hunch that this rapidly moving oscillatory phenomenon just might have a role in cognition and explaining the differences between the two hemispheres (i.e. it is known that the left hemisphere is strong at handling the task of analytical processing and the right strong at handling substantive information such as metaphor and prosody). You can now see how this is contradicting the first area of research I laid out; the first having very little to do with the area of cognition. This second field I have described seems to display a strong desire to link physics to cognitive/biological systems because I believe that it is physical phenomenon that evokes chemically based phenomena such as microsaccades and audition (i.e. perhaps the external stimuli of electromagnetic radiation to vision/microsaccades and sound pressure to audition).
Clearly, this is a complicated matter, and I wish to know more. I would like to know what area of research you think best suits an individual with such interests. It seems that a lot of researchers who look at neuroscience are much more specified than what I have outlined. Dominique Fontanilla, for example, who basically discovered one of the chemical roles for endogenous N,N-dimethyltryptamine, shows a strong specificity in researching DMT as an endogenous ligand for Sigma-1, which is clearly a more specific field of research than what I have outlined. She is not studying a broad spectrum of biological sciences, and this is the problem I have with scientists who look at cortical oscillations; in lectures and in radio interviews, I have never heard these individuals mention serotonin, adrenaline, norepinephrine, etc etc. So please...take a crack at this: what degree is an individual such as myself looking to obtain? And what field does an individual like me look to work in?

Thank you so much.
John

 

[Ollie123]

Cognitive neuroscience is definitely not a good fit.

I'd suggest looking into pharmacology and "wet" neuroscience (some forms of behavioral, molecular, etc.). A computational/systems approach might also be appropriate. Perhaps some biological psychology programs might offer what you need, but I suspect the other things I mentioned are a better fit. I know you said you are interested in studying the human mind, but the questions you are posing will likely be far better suited to animal research than human research at this time. There will be serious ethical and practical limitations to working with human populations for the kinds of questions you want to ask. Getting some cross-training may allow for translation down the line, and is definitely worth considering, but I don't know that we are at a point where studying these processes in humans is easy or realistic.

 

[SongJohn]

Interesting. Thanks for the reply.
However, I'm still fairly adamant about working with humans. Look at Dr. Strassman - he was able to inject DMT into volunteers almost 20 years ago! Quite a breakthrough.
Let's say I wish to radio label known endogenous beta-carbolines, inject them into volunteers, and see where they go in the brain through fMRI?
Or let's say I wish to place scleral caps on the eyes, inject a volunteer with N,N-dimethyltryptamine, and measure eye movement (and compare left eye movements to right eye movements)? These are tests I wish to have the volunteers conscious during so I can asses certain claims made by the subjects against what is blown up on the fMRI screen. Does this sound completely unrealistic?
I have not heard of "wet" neuroscience but I can assure you I am on my way to look it up after this post.
I did look into computational neuroscience...quite a lot of math involved in a major such as that. Thanks again for your answer.

 

[nessa34]

If you have that specific of research interests, I would recommend finding people who do that sort of research and then apply to whatever program allows you to work with them. Although all neuroscience programs say they're very interdisciplinarily focused, some are more than others, especially in terms of how much research on humans they do- this is something you'll have to sniff out.
As for a specialization, behavioral neuroscience sounds the closest to what you're looking for- although that is primarily animal research oriented. However, gaining experience in one subfield of neuroscience will not prevent you from studying another population in grad school (e.g. going from animal to human research).
Lastly, the research you're suggesting in your last post is very methodologically tricky, and the ethical standards for human research are tougher now than they were 20 years ago. So don't be disappointed if you don't see people doing exactly that sort of research- maybe you could find someone doing a part of the research you want to do (like studying saccades) and see if you can collaborate with other researchers doing other aspects of your work.

 

[SongJohn]

Thank you nessa...appreciate the words of advice. Perhaps a direct message to Mathew Baggot is in order...
Interesting you mention Behavioral Neuroscience. One last bit of info I need: UCSC offers a bachelors of science in Neuroscience and Behavior. Considering everything I have mentioned, would this BS fit me or should I go for a BS in chemistry?
My initial thought was chemistry as it must be a very technical area of study, but I'm interested in hearing other's thoughts.

Thanks
John

 

[thewesternsky]

Given everything you've mentioned, I think chemistry would be a better fit as an undergraduate (especially if you include a good number of biology and biochemistry classes) than a psychology program (even one in "neuroscience and behaviour"-- from the UCSD site, it looks like most of the classes you'd be taking would be psych). I think the wet lab skills you'd learn in chem would be very useful down the line.

One thing that might be useful for you is to email the people doing the kind of work you'd like to do, and ask them what kind of undergraduate program would best prepare you to apply to their labs or to labs like them.

 

[Occlumentia]

Hi SongJohn, based on your intro post, I'd say physiology (especially psycho/neurophysiology).

Physiologists do a lot of animal work, but can also work with humans. Some are integrative physiologists, going from cells to humans. A lot of findings talked about in my human perception and cognition courses came from physiological research.

There's also (as mentioned) behavioural neuroscience. Most of the drug/medication work is done with animals (often mice/rats).

If I were you, I'd first do a science degree specialising in biology, chem and psych, and then apply for reseach porgrams at centres that do physiological and drug research (hospitals with research units, universities connected to hospitals, med schools).

I assume you read research papers already - if so, you could have a look at authors' affiliations as a way of seeing which places do the kind of research you're most interested in. Good luck!

 

[stigmata]

Hmm I would say get an education with a bachelors in science, and rethink from there. You obviously have researched things that interest you, but there are many holes in your thinking about what you want to and can do at this point, and solid educational endeavours will help you learn how to conceptualize your intellectual passions.

 

[SongJohn]

Well, judging by everything mentioned above, I have much to think about. I can't thank everyone enough here for their input. It means a great deal to me. I appreciate all of the direction and thoughtful replies.

John