Author: Divi Raj

This week I had the opportunity of visiting the Museé de Fumeur. While the front of the shop was unassuming, behind the quaint smoke shop lay a hallway and rooms filled with the historical documentation of smoking. In Paris, it had shocked me how socially pervasive smoking culture was. It often felt as though I couldn’t go five steps without breathing in second-hand smoke. The difference in the acceptability and prevalence of smoking in the US and France had intrigued me.  The museum was fascinating as it helped me see how different cultures throughout time saw smoking and how smoking culture evolved. The coolest part of the museum, for me, was the collection of old smoking pipes. Each was ornately crafted and decorated, turning the pipe into a beautiful and artful piece instead of just a smoking device. I thought the intricate craftsmanship of each pipe was a measure of smoking’s high social value. In fact, the museum’s collection of portraits of famous people illustrated smoking as a form of expression, an accessory that could impact one’s identity and how they are viewed in society.

Continue reading “Breathing in the Neuroscience”

Paris isn’t anything if not romantic. During my first weekend in Paris, I took a walk from our apartment in the 15^th arrondissement to the Seine, Champs de Mars, and Eiffel Tower. At every corner, the breathtaking architecture, aroma, and culture was inspiring and captivating. I was intrigued by the fact that over centuries social definitions of beauty for people have changed, yet French architects had created buildings whose beauty was unbowed by time. The striking fact that I was attributing beauty to an inanimate object surprised me as well. Later, I stumbled across an article that talked about the Neuroscience of Architecture and how characteristics of buildings stimulated pleasure receptors in our brain. It really is possible to fall in love with a city!

For our neuroethics class this week, we had the amazing opportunity to attend a Neuroethics conference at La Pitie Salpetriere. There, we heard conversations and seminars from leading scholars on how neuroscience has developed and what its ethical implications could be. When we walked through the hospital complex, I was amazed by the beautiful architecture and landscaping. Coming from the United States, the milieu of Salpetriere was something I had never seen before nor imagined. La Salpetriere is known as one of the birthplaces of modern neuroscience, being able to visit there and learn about how advancements in neuroscience are changing the way we see, characterize, and understand the brain was truly a dream come true.

This week I had the pleasure of visiting a Fromagerie, or cheese shop, in Paris. Growing up I had always been the cheese lover, but I hadn’t put any thought behind why humans liked cheese in the first place. A paper we were reading in class, by Ano et al. (2015), claimed that specific kinds of cheese may have anti-inflammatory properties that can help stave off neurodegeneration. The excursion for me, however, was a time to explore the enormous variety of cheese that was native to France. While I may not have loved all of them, it was really interesting to see how different region specific techniques had developed to make tasty and unique cheese.

This photo was taken when my NBB class went to attend the national rugby final at Stade de France. While I was unfamiliar with the sport, the environment was electric and it was fun to see such a high profile game at this famous stadium. This excursion tied back to my NBB 402 class’s focus on the impact concussions can have on the human brain over time. Specifically, it has been shown that rugby players have nearly 9 head impacts per match and that individuals in this population are at higher risk for neurodegenerative disorders. This experience helped me contextualize the paper we were reading in class and understand how concussions are impacting real people.