Testing Neural Knowledge

Sharpen your mind, it's time for a quiz

Neuroscience is the topic, don't you miss 

Clear those distractions, focus your wit 

Perk up and prepare, let's get on with it

Getting mentally ready for the tough Neuroscience quiz on Fridays.

Empathy is the bridge that closes the gap between us and them

Contemplation, one line a day.Towards a more humane society, an empathic society. 

 

The Three T's

My classmate James and I met with Prof Christine Konradi to discuss our presentation strategy for the paper on the CRH-PVN neuron for our neuroscience class next friday.

"You start out by you telling them what you're going to tell them, then tell them, and then you tell them what you told them," was her starting advice.

She was referring to the Three T's approach - Tell Them, Tell Them, Tell Them -  a strategy for organizing a speech or presentation into three parts:

• introduction where you preview what you will discuss
• the body of content /message
• Conclusion where you summarize what you covered.

The idea is to make your message clear and memorable by emphasizing the key points multiple times.

Next week we'll be learning about mood disorders, the HPA axis, which the CRH neurons are part of. 

Each week, we have a different professor teaching the class in an area that's their specialty. Next week its with Professor Konradi who also picks the paper that we present. 

 I asked what had motivated her to pick this paper. She said, we were learning about mood disorders this week and the HPA axis  which the CRH neurons were part of. So not only is this topic related to what we have been learning for the week but also it is relevant for us in neuroscience because the kind of tools and methods used are very state of the art.  

So fingers crossed we do a good job. It's a lot of work putting a presentation together. and i've noticed my other classmates looking absolutely worn out during their presentation week. 

The politics of studying the brain

I learned a little bit about the politics of research during a conversation with a professor, for instance researching the dopaminergic system belongs to people studying strictly study movement disorders. 

Which is a real pity really. I have wondered why that is not looked at in the context of autism. Its like the two are never considered together for autism. But disabilities like autism have so many areas involved. Like challenges in movement, is such a critical piece for autistics like me, and worth investigating. How else will we get to solutions.