Question: Your work sounds very interesting but what made you think of analysing brains?

Daniel Mietchen answered on 16 Jun 2010:

Many reasons for this, and their relative importance has changed over time. Some examples:
(1) I generally find it interesting to study something in detail that I have got myself, along with all the people I interact with. Of course, this does not exclude kidneys, names or genes.

(2) My research so far had a methodological focus, primarily on methods that allow biological systems to be imaged non-invasively (i.e. without physically cutting anything) and without ionizing radiation (which may disturb cellular chemistry and ultimately raise the risk to develop cancer). And while my favourite method, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, can be (and has been) applied to basic anything that fits into the scanner, there is methodological overlap with other imaging techniques for most of these applications. This overlap is much less significant when it comes to imaging the structure or function (or problems with them) in living beings, and especially humans.

(3) I also have research interests entirely unrelated to the brain where there is little technological overlap with other methods (e.g. for the non-invasive investigation of fossils or cold-adapted insects) but it is even more difficult to get research funded in those areas than it is in the brain sciences (and particularly medical applications thereof), so sticking to the brains is certainly a valid option.

(4) I have a special interest in the biology of language. How does it develop in children, how does it work in adults, what disorders are associated with it, and what is the evolutionary background in which it developed. In this framework, the brain is particularly interesting, since it does the abstract conceptualization necessary to produce or understand language, and it controls the muscles that produce speech (even if you are reading silently).

A related question is that of the biology and evolution of music. In both cases, the interplay between functions of the nervous system (like memory) and that of the motor system (like moving your tongue and throat muscles) seems to be crucial for the ability to develop.

(5) Working in psychiatry now (and in psychology right before that), I developed a feeling for the ways in which brain structure and function can change for the better or worse, transiently or permanently. I also learned that few people (if any) have a very precise idea of how brain structure and function intertwine, and scientists always perceive such open questions as an invitation for further research.