How the brain processes information; from ion channels to circuits to behaviour
Brain cells communicate with each other using many different chemicals and receptors. Neurons link up to form circuits. The type of circuit depends on the regions of the brain. The activity of neurons in the circuit produces behaviour. This all sounds straight-forward, but in fact one of the biggest mysteries about the brain is how circuits produce behaviour. "Behaviour" is broadly defined: it could mean learning a motor skill, remembering someone's name, feeling depressed, suffering from schizophrenia or suffering from back pain. Neuroscientists, psychiatrists and neurologists at Aberdeen investigate these phenomena using a variety of animal systems, and also human patients. We have to understand the elementary communications between the neurons themselves (how the receptor proteins work), how the neurons talk to each other (circuits) and the symptoms when this "talking" malfunctions (behaviour).
Integration by hindbrain nuclei and the cerebellum of sensory input from the eye and inner ear (courtesy of P Wulff)