Asking questions seems easy enough, right?
What I had grossly underestimated when embarking on the steed of asking questions about the brain was that it is (obviously) the most complicated organ ever, and, as a result, any question you pose will entail the most complicated answer ever. Since everything in the brain is interconnected, even if we think we have a decent understanding of one function, more likely than not, we have an inadequate understanding of the other parts and thus our research is crippled due to the interconnection. Furthermore, although there are a plethora of interesting questions to explore, you are often limited by the techniques you can use to isolate specific functions and control your results. To illustrate, the Denny Lab published a paper last year that reported recovering memory in mice upon optogenetic stimulation of the Dentate Gyrus, a structure in the hippocampus involved in encoding new experiences. This memory was, however, exclusively fear conditioned memory. This is undoubtedly an incredible and promising feat, but it was saddening to hear how difficult it is to test other kinds of memory under the same paradigm.
There is however artistry involved. Due to the impediments, scientists are compelled to craft questions that are not only answerable, but kinetic. That is, the question must veer away from idleness, and tend to fecundity. Stepping over, and around hurdles is a much more impressive feat than having the paths and directions at your beck and call.
All this is to say that this semester has been eyeopening for me with regards to the limits imposed on my curiosity, and how the neurosciemntific community, as a whole, has to swallow this limitations and trod on, since that is the only way we can overcome these limitations after all.
