NBB Summer Program in Paris

One of my favorite parts about riding the Paris metro is the music. The Paris metro association actually holds try outs for musicians to receive permission cards allowing them to play on metro platforms and in metro cars. My favorite musician is a young violinist who plays at the exit near the Musée de l’homme (which has debatably the best view of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, so is a huge tourist spot). Music triggers the release of dopamine in our brain, making us feel happy and often emotional when we hear it. Going to hear that violinist at the Eiffel Tower was chemically irresistible.

Family trip to the Musée de l’homme! Did you know that humans still carry Neanderthal DNA? The Musée de l’homme has an entire room on Neanderthals and the human view of them. Media has historically portrayed Neanderthal-like characters as unintelligent cave dwellers carrying clubs and speaking in grunts. However, we should be careful to so quickly criticize our distant relatives. We now know that Neanderthals had Broca’s areas (the language-processing part of the brain), suggesting that they may have communicated with language (Lieberman, 1992). As a response to the stigma against our ancestral relatives, there was a sculpture in the Neanderthal the museum of a being with typical Neanderthal features, wearing modern human clothes.

Lieberman, P. (1992). On Neanderthal speech and Neanderthal extinction.

These sweaty pics are from when Emily and I went on a sunset run to the Eiffel tower (only about a mile from our apartment). The sky was pink and everyone was in awe at the tour d’eiffel’s beauty. Next to everyone dressed up for photo shoots, I felt like a local. Even though my runs through Paris haven’t been frequent, they’ve all been beautiful. We’ve all heard that running induces your brain to release endorphins, but what other neurological changes does running facilitate? According to a number of studies, running promotes cell proliferation in the brain (Rhodes et al., 2003; Van et al., 1999). While it is still debated whether this neurogenesis facilitates general learning or improvement of motor control, it’s clear that running helps your brain…and see more of Paris.

Rhodes, J. S., Van Praag, H., Jeffrey, S., Girard, I., Mitchell, G. S., Garland Jr, T., & Gage, F. H. (2003). Exercise increases hippocampal neurogenesis to high levels but does not improve spatial learning in mice bred for increased voluntary wheel running. Behavioral neuroscience, 117(5), 1006.

Van Praag, H., Kempermann, G., & Gage, F. H. (1999). Running increases cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the adult mouse dentate gyrus. Nature neuroscience, 2(3), 266.

On the first weekend of our program, our class went to a French rugby game. Although I didn’t know the rules of rugby, I still had a great time watching players piling up and colliding each other. There were lots of collisions between players in the game and some of those may even result in concussions. As we learned in our 402W class, concussions result in long-term cognitive deficits, such as memory problems and shrinkage of the brain area. Therefore, it would be important to know the possible risks of participating certain sport with high collision. risk. In the end of the game, we watched Mika’s concert. The lighting effects were great and I’m glad that I went to the game!

The rugby game

During the program, Gracie, Ruhee, Janet and I visited robot museum in Grand Palais as a group bonding event. It was really unfortunate that we visited the museum on the day after our first neuroethic blog post was due, since I wrote about robot artists in my blogpost. In the museum, we saw lots of interesting arts created by robots. I was really amazed that people programed the robots so that they can learn and create. I was wondering, can neuronal activities explain human consciousness? Every second, our brains are processing internal and external stimuli. The decision of whether or not to fire a neuron is depended on the combination of stimuli. However, we still have so much to learn and explore about human brain. Therefore, research is highly important in neuroscience!!

The robot monk

In the last weekend during the program, Jeffrey, Ruhee and I finally visited Mont Saint-Michel. We took a two-hour train and a one-hour bus to get to Mont Saint-Michel. Since it is located on a bay and the water surrounding it looked pretty shallow, we thought we could walk to another mini island not so far from Mont Saint Michel. However, we clearly failed. Ruhee and I both dropped our phone and we confirmed that iphone 7 above is water proof. When we were walking on the sand, there were breezes blowing on our faces and the water was a bit chilly. I felt really calm. It must be related to how our brain process sensory input. Moreover, those input may trigger my memory with similar sensory input. I enjoyed the visit a lot and I hope someday Ruhee, Jeffrey and I could actually walk to that mini island.

The island crew

During my time in Paris, I took several ballet classes in Marais Dance center. The word ballet is originated from France and all of the technical ballet terms are in French. It is really interesting to take a ballet class in another country, where don’t even understand the language. However, I was really amazed that I could understand the French ballet class and one of the dance teacher thought I could understand French. It could be related to the language processing in brain, which associate specific French terms with physical ballet movements. The French teaching of ballet is definitely different from the American way of teaching. Sometimes, I found myself to have longer reaction time when trying to dance certain combinations. Maybe some of my neuronal pathways of familiar combinations are already enhanced. Therefore, it will certainly take me longer to learn new combinations and strengthen some new synapses.

The Ballet Classroom