Editorial Note on Behavioral Neuroscience

Behavioral neuroscience as a scientific discipline emerged from a variety of scientific and philosophical traditions in the 18th and 19th centuries. In philosophy, people like René Descartes proposed physical models to explain animal as well as human behavior. Descartes suggested that the pineal gland, a midline unpaired structure in the brain of many organisms, was the point of contact between mind and body. Neuroscience is the study of the brain and its functions. Although we often think of behavior as somewhat separate from our body, the two are closely related. In fact, the brain is what causes us to behave in certain ways, and behavioral neuroscience is a bridge in understanding the relationship.