When Nazi occupied Paris in 1940, Hitler posed in front of his favorite place in Paris, the Eiffel tower. Why he posed in front of Eiffel tower instead of posing on the top of the Eiffel tower? The lift of the tower was sabotaged before Nazi conquered Paris. Therefore, there was a saying that Hitler conquered Paris, but he never conquers Eiffel tower (Selwyn-Holmes, 2010). Speaking of that famous picture, the picture was taken in the front terrace of the Musée de l’Homme, an anthropology museum that contains collections of human in evolution, diversity of human and human in social contexts. On one of our class trips, we visited Musée de l’Homme. Among all of the historical human skeletons and artifacts, I saw a familiar Chinese acupuncture man model with lots of acupuncture points labeled on the body. After being practiced in China and other countries for thousands of years, acupuncture became one of the alternative medicine in western world. How does acupuncture become a common practice and how does it work?

Me with the super tall guys

Continue reading “Intersection between East and West”

This past week, the NBB class visited the Musee du Chocolat! I have to say, I had been anticipating this specific visit since the day I read the syllabus. From my excitement, you can guess that I enjoy anything chocolate and appreciated acquiring so much knowledge about a sweet treat I had indulged in frequently, yet knew nothing about.

In fact, our class was in the midst of completing an NBB 402W assignment to read and analyze an article all about cocoa flavanols and their effects on temporal and spatial attention. I grew interested to learn more about the topic to justify all the chocolate I had eaten while doing my Emory homework these past two years. Most importantly, I wanted to learn more about French culture. The article discussed that cocoa flavanols actually increase visual attention and reaction times. However, it also did conclude that cocoa flavanols do not have a significant effect on temporal attention. (Karabay et. al, 2017). As I read the article, I began to realize that I knew nothing about the science of chocolate and that being able to learn and then discuss that information after visiting the museum would be both a culminating experience and a sweet treat in itself!

Continue reading “A Tasty Treat!”

On Monday, we went to a chocolate museum, which went well with the paper we were writing at the time about the effects of cocoa flavanols on attention. At this museum, we started out learning about the history of chocolate and got to taste samples periodically throughout the museum. Milk chocolate is usually my favorite, but the white chocolate samples were equally good here. At the end, we even got to learn how to make our own! The process was extremely messy but a lot of fun at the same time. We had to make chocolate shells, add in some filling, and cover the end with more chocolate. My first tray was ruined because we waited too long to pour the chocolate, so it was extremely hard to pour. Luckily, we were allowed to try again with another tray.

Figure 1. Me and my roommates with the chocolate we made!

Continue reading “Chocolate and Memory”

I have always been a fan of chocolate. Ever since I was a little kid, any box, bag, or bar of chocolate barely lasted a day in our house before my brother, and I devoured it. Who could blame us? The rich and sweet taste of chocolate was irresistible, and it never got boring. Throughout the years I had never questioned my love for chocolate. I found my love supported by the hundreds of commercials that aired on TV displaying different types of this sweet treat. This week, for my Neuroscience class we analyzed a paper on cocoa flavanols—an ingredient in chocolate. I was surprised! Could our societal love for chocolate have a biological basis?

To supplement our cocoa flavanol exploration, we also visited a chocolate museum to understand chocolate’s history. It was very interesting to see the different ways chocolate was prepared in different areas and times throughout history. In ancient South American Civilizations, cocoa beans were used as currency and were even often offered to deities. It was clear to see that cocoa beans held tremendous value to the people of these civilizations. Later, we even had the opportunity to make chocolate ourselves. It was amazing to see the chocolate making process and how it has evolved over human history. Continue reading “Craving something new!”

Throughout my life, I’ve never had any real problems when it comes to language barriers. In the several weeks I’ve been in Paris, however, I’ve experienced some difficulties because I don’t speak French. As much as I try, I can’t even get myself to pronounce a word in French correctly. This made me wonder why humans have such complex languages, and how this unique human feature evolved. Language is, after all, the greatest social tool we possess (Ardilla, 2015). Yesterday, we visited the Musée de l’homme, an anthropology museum in Paris, and I got an insight onto how this human ability might have developed.

The first part of the museum we visited was the Neanderthal exhibit. Here, we learned that Neanderthals are an extinct species in the genus Homo, who lived in Euroasia roughly 430,000 years ago. What sparked my attention, however, was a section in which morphological characteristics such as the lowered larynx and the hyoid bone of the Neanderthal were identified, and these confirmed that Neanderthals could articulate a great number of sounds: among them vowels. Not only that, but the FoxP2 gene, similar to the one associated with language in modern humans, was present in their DNA. Neanderthals also had intricate social structures and symbolic thought, two things that may be evidence of a complex form of communication. In the brain, their Broca’s and Wernicke’s area for language were well developed. Ardilla 2015 says “It is proposed that grammar originated from the internal representation of actions, resulting in the creation of verbs; this is an ability that depends on the so-called Broca’s area.” This made me wonder how far behind in our history language goes.

Continue reading “The Evolution of Language”

Last Tuesday we were finishing up our last few classes reading about and discussing the cognitive enhancement effects seen in chocolate. Because France is known for their rich chocolate, to celebrate our new knowledge of the field we went off to visit a chocolate museum. However, there was more than met the eye at this particular museum. On the basement floor, there was an area where the owners made chocolate themselves, which you could buy in the gift store, but, even more exciting, you could also make the chocolate yourselves!

At the museum I wandered around looking at the the history of chocolate, but as I looked at and read about the historical and ritual practices of chocolate, in the back of my mind I was thinking about getting to make the chocolate myself (and of course eat it)! Continue reading “Chocolate and Happiness”