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Blue Mindset- Photo Post 2

I am sitting in front of the Château de Chenonceau, a French château spanning the River Cher. I’ve noticed that the closer I am to rivers, lakes, or oceans, the happier I am. This made me wonder about the how much self-reported health correlates with real health– why would being near water automatically make me happier? According to Wheeler et al. (2012), the closer you live to the English coast, the healthier you are which may, in turn, affect your overall mental health. There is science behind everything after all!

Reference:

Wheeler, B. W., White, M., Stahl-Timmins, W., & Depledge, M. H. (2012). Does living by the coast improve health and wellbeing? Health & Place, 18(5), 1198-1201. doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.06.015

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Neurohype- Photo Post 1

This photo is of the first electrostatic machine built by the Englishman Jesse Ramsden for the Cabinet of Physics of the Duke of Chaulnes in the 19th century taken at the Musée d’Histoire de la Médecine. I was amazed to find out that Louis XV made his entire court “get electrified” simply because electrotherapy was “in fashion” at the time. Listening to this story made me think about the wide-use of hyperbole we discussed in our NBB471 (Neuroethics) to generate hype for different neurotechnologies. If someone was well-educated and held high status, I would be easily inclined to believe what they had to say about new devices. Although it is very easy to get caught up in the hype, it is important to remain cautious and form a well-substantiated opinion about new technologies before following others simply because it is “in fashion”.

 

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Photo Blog 2- Cimetière du Père Lachaise

 

The graves of Molière, La Fontaine, and Me, photo by Jeffrey: For me, the most interesting find in the cemetery were the graves of La Fontaine and Moliere. They are great men of literature but until I saw a physical grave for them, I believed them to be characters in the stories they have written. La Fontaine written most of the fables my dad read to me before bed as a toddler and I believe it has formed the basis of my idea of ethics. Also, I remember always having a large dictionary with us whenever my dad was reading me these age-old stories, translated many years ago and including rather old-timey words. So, because of La Fontaine, I have a very extensive Turkish vocabulary (unexpected consequences, I know). I read Molière’s L’Avare (The Miser) in middle school, he is a well-known play-right, and it is also about ethics and personal relationships in comedy form. Isn’t it interesting how literature can help both the moral and language development of a child?

 

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Photo Blog 1- Musée d’Histoire de la Médicine

Me at the Musée d’Histoire de la Médicine, photo by Ester: It has been a while since we went to the museum of the history of medicine, but there is one very interesting thing that stayed with me from there: the static electricity generator you see above. It is from the time when electrical shock therapy for severe mental illness was rather popular. But according to our tour guide, whom I believe was a doctor, but I didn’t catch her name, they believed that if a high amount of electricity could fix severe mental illness, then a small amount of electricity can fix minor mental illness, like minor depressive episodes and such… Well you have to respect the math skills of whom ever came up with that. Do you think a Van de Graaff generator will make it to the psychiatrist’s office as a treatment option anytime soon?
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A King Sized Failure

This past Friday our class had the opportunity to spend time doing something other than neuroscience. We all hopped on a charter bus and passed out for 3 hours, waking up to the beautiful view of Loire Valley. The first part of the trip included a guided tour of the Château d’Amboise. During one of the most exciting history lessons I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to, we learned that Charles VIII, the king of France from 1483 to 1498, died “tragically” by slamming his head into the short frame of a door in his Chateau. He had three children (including one son) with his wife Anne, but all three were the victims of illness and failed to provide a successor to the King.

King Charles VIII and his wife, Anne

Continue reading “A King Sized Failure”

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Versailles Pleases my Eye

The Palace of Versailles is probably one of the top must see places for anyone visiting France. Its intricate design and rich French history appeals to the millions of tourists visiting Versailles each year. On Friday June 1st, my neuroscience class and I added to the millions and took a trip to the glorious palace. We were guided through the palace learning about all the King Louis’ of France and how the ginormous palace started off merely as a small hunting lodge. We saw ceiling painting after ceiling painting and I was in awe of all of its elegance. We passed through the Hall of Mirrors and were even taught a line dance that people used to do in the hall. We ended the tour outside of the palace but still inside the gates and we were all free to roam the massive gardens outside. Continue reading “Versailles Pleases my Eye”

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Weekend Getaway- Photo Post 4

After very little planning and some last-minute bookings, my roommates and I embarked on a spontaneous trip to Nice for the weekend. The first thing we did when we hopped off the plane was drop our stuff off at the hostel and head straight for the beach! Two weeks of working our butts off for our classes and attempting to hit every tourist attraction in the city meant we deserved this break. We settled down to decrease our cortisol levels by soaking in the fresh air (Hofmann, 2018), enjoying the view, and listening to the waves crash against the rocks.

https://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.proxy.library.emory.edu/pmc/articles/PMC5800131/

 

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Use it or lose it! Photo post 3

  

One of our class excursions was a trip to the Musée des Arts et Métiers. While here, I came across a section dedicated to musical instruments. It took me back to my childhood days of playing the violin as well as the simple fact that music is such a significant part of this generation. Seeing one of the first iPods in the museum made me gasp a bit actually. What many people might not realize about music, or practicing tasks in general, is that the more you use something (say, your fingers to play the cello), the better your brain gets at remembering the task. This is because the cortical representation of a task expands with repetition (Purves, 5th edition). So, if you want to be the next Yo-Yo Ma, you better get back to your lessons!

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Photo Post #5: Sounds Good, Feels Good

In Père Lachaise Cimetière lays the body of the great Frédéric Chopin, a famous composer and pianist. He primarily wrote solo piano pieces so you could imagine how much repetitive finger movements he made. In NBB 301, we learned about the effects of repetitive motion on the cortical representation of afferent neurons. You could imagine that the part of Chopin’s motor cortex that corresponds to his fingers were much larger than that of the average person. Well, maybe since we type on computers regularly the average motor cortex would look more like Chopin’s than in it would have 25 years ago?

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Photo Post #4: Heads Roll

 

Where I’m standing in this photo is where the guillotine once stood. There are five bars on the ground that mark the footprint of the famous decapitation apparatus. There’s been a decent amount of speculation with decapitation regarding the conscious state of the head immediately following. Although the spinal cord is severed, the brain doesn’t die immediately, so I would argue that the head is not conscious enough to make any movements but still has some sensory input from the eyes and sensation in the head that are briefly being processed.