I am a neuroscientist and mother, American, Tunisian, and French-educated.
Neuroimaging has been a constant in my work but I have otherwise explored many areas in the field. I obtained my PhD from the EPFL where I investigated decision-making under uncertainty, in behavior and brain, economics and psychophysics.
I once attended a strange session during an SPM course, where the speaker seemed to go off-topic. He was gently redirected, but stayed huffy about it. In the end, he made a statement which I found shocking at the time: There is no point to neuroscience if the goal wasn’t brain simulation.
To which I paraphrase, there is no point to neuroscience if it doesn’t serve the greater good.
I jest. Different scientists’ motivations for studying the brain are varied, and mostly good and valid. Mine has been whittled down though to what I wrote above.