Group Project Experience!

This semester has passed by so quickly. Can you believe it? I'm already writing my last blog post.

Anyways, onto the main topic. My group project experience for this class was amazing! Usually, I am reluctant to work on projects, especially group projects, because they are not very interesting and sometimes people aren't willing to do their share. But thankfully, my group (Shout out to Aarti and Emily!) is great and this project has been fun to work on. Plus the movies we picked were thankfully very good movies. We took our time about watching the movies, meeting up on three different Saturday nights watching the movies with popcorn and other snacks. (How awesome is it when a project involves popcorn and movie-watching?!) Putting together the project itself was also fun, as we all had a lot to contribute after watching our movies. There was quite a lot to discuss. I'm glad I got the chance to work with Emily and Aarti on this project. Because of this project, I was able to make friends with two awesome people (and watch great AI movies as well)!

Signing off,
Alice

Psych Study!

I participated in a psych study that involved filling out questionnaires about conflict scenarios involving a friend. I was given three packets containing scenarios involving "my friend" and was asked whether or not I felt the scenario was uncomfortable/wrong and how I would deal with each case, whether or not what was described would affect our friendship, and how it made me feel. After answering these questions about each of the scenarios I was "interviewed" by the study person and asked to verbally explain why I answered what I answered on the survey. Some of the scenarios were not very problematic. These were ones like helping out my friend with his/her homework. Others were more difficult, like one asking me what I would do if my friend and I had a crush on the same person. Because the study asked me (besides determining whether or not it would complicate our friendship or not) how I would deal with the situation, I thought that perhaps what it was trying to get at was how certain individuals respond to different social situations involving a friend, and perhaps the researchers were trying to map personality to action in relationship to this social scenario. I thought it was a cool study and was glad I got a chance to be a part of it.

I think it would have been very interesting to have participants do the same study (read the same scenarios) and see how their brains look in an fMRI. It would be interesting to make this purely psychology study more neuroscience-related.



-Alice Huang

My Friend's Dog

I'm a dog person (come on, who isn't?). I love dogs. They are fun to play with, soft to the touch, and as the old adage goes, man's best friend. However, my friend Matt has a dog who is anything but. The first time I met his dog, he growled at me and barked his head off showing fangs and all. I was trying to pet him and just as I extended my hand towards him he went berserk. I have never been scared of a dog before in my life until I met Matt's dog. Apparently, the dog hates strangers, and the only people he will allow to touch him and come anywhere near him is my friend Matt and his family, which makes me wonder how the dog came to get accustomed to Matt and his family in the first place. Perhaps he was born into the family. I don't know. I never asked. The second time I met Matt's dog, the same thing happened. Needless to say, I have yet to pet Matt's dog, and I don't think I will be trying anytime soon.



-Alice

My Favorite Philosopher!

My favorite philosopher is also one of my favorite writers: Albert Camus, of The Stranger fame. His writings contributed to the movement in philosophy known as absurdism.

According to absurdism, humans are always in search of meaning in life, and this search often results in the individual concluding one of two things:

1. Life is meaningless
2. Life has a higher purpose endowed to it by some sort of higher power, God perhaps.

According to Camus, to accept the Absurd is to believe in the first--that life is meaningless. The latter results only in "elusion," an avoidance of the truth that is the meaninglessness of life. As well, hope falls into the category of "elusion" because by hoping one ignores the hard true fact that life is meaningless.

And according to Camus, recognition of the absurd, the acceptance of it, is the only true course of action one can take. (Suicide--while a possibility--is equated with chickening out and succumbing to the absurd.)

I think Camus is a very interesting philosopher in that his philosophy is one that takes some grasping. At first, perhaps, it might seem depressing and hopeless, but upon closer examination, what Camus is positing is for one to accept the meaninglessness of life and to live despite this understanding. In and of itself, it is a hopeful message.



-Alice

Favorite Economic Game!

My favorite economic game hands down is the prisoner's dilemma because it shows how two people might ultimately choose not to cooperate despite the benefits of working together. This is of course because saving oneself is the easier route to take as well as the safer one. (If the other individual does not cooperate, then the individual will be screwed.)

The cool thing about the prisoner's dilemma is that it can model real-life situations.

Take for example the Cold War, in which NATO and the opposing Warsaw Pact had nuclear weapons aimed at each other. The two opposing alliances had the choice of disarming. The ideal is for both to disarm, but the fear was that the opposing side would be armed while one was disarmed, in which case the opposing side was likely to fire away. So even though it was ideal for both sides to be disarmed (peace is of course the universal goal), it was much more rational to be armed than not to be, which was exactly what happened for the thirty years of the Cold War.

The prisoner's dilemma thus shows how what one interprets as another individual's decision will affect one's own decision--how decision-making can in fact be affected socially. Cool, don't you think?



-Alice

Lecture Blog #1: Elizabeth Tricomi on the Contextual Influences on Value Representation in the Human Brain

This is rather late in coming as I had attended the lecture and forgotten about my notes until now. But nevertheless, here it is, my first blog entry on a guest lecture.

In her talk, Dr. Elizabeth Tricomi discussed how different contextual factors such as goals, experience, value, probability of reward, and social preferences influenced individual behavior.

She talked in detail about her research on the influence these contextual factors had on the brain's reward circuitry. Using fMRI, she has shown that rewards earned from goal-directed actions lead to activation of the caudate nucleus, which is part of the brain's reward circuitry. However, with more experience (a contextual factor), activity in the caudate nucleus changes because the behavior, before a means of attaining a goal, now becomes a habitual cue-triggered habitual response. Thus in order for the reward circuitry to activate, the actions taken must be goal-relevant--hence, context matters.

From her research, Dr. Tricomi concluded that the brain's reward pathway must integrate contextual information so that the individual can make circumstantial decisions and perform complex behaviors as influenced by the context.

Dr. Tricomi's talk was very interesting as her approach to the reward system in the brain is much different from the typical textbook explanation. We are taught that reward and punishment are mediated by a portion of the brain depending on pleasure and want and like concepts. However, we don't often consider reward in different contexts, which would definitely influence one's perception depending on the circumstances.



-Alice Huang

Breaking a Social Norm

I had the most difficult time figuring out what social norm to break for this week's blog. Luckily, I didn't have to brainstorm for too long because opportunity knocked at my door.

My friends and I went to a Halloween-themed dessert-tasting event hosted by one of the dorms on campus. Since my roommate had been pulling an all-nighter for an exam, I was charged with bringing back some of the cupcakes, brownies, cookies, etc. that were being offered at the event.

After having our fill of sweets, we decided to head to Wilson gym to grab some smoothies at Quencher's and I was charged with holding a plate full of sweets. Bringing in dessert to the gym was definitely a first for me. There's an obvious discrepancy when someone brings dessert into the gym where the goal is to attain good physical health and perhaps run off the guilty calories from the raspberry cheesecake one had for dinner. Nevertheless, I walked in with an assortment of brownies, cookies, and cupcakes.

At first I didn't think much of it, but when both my friends refused to take on the task, I became somewhat self-conscious of doing so. When we walked up to the front desk, the person in charge of swiping our cards laughed and asked if the cupcake was for him.

After that, I didn't think much of it because if I didn't hurt anyone by breaking the social norm and if anything, bringing dessert into the gym helped brighten someone's day a little.



-Alice Huang

Hormones and a Sweet Tooth

Folk psychology has it that women are more likely to crave sweets while on their period. I myself tend to notice that around my time of month I have a high affinity for all things sugary. But this might be the result of my believing the idea that I'm supposed to be craving sweets more and as a result paying more attention to sweets consumption around that time as opposed to leaving it unnoticed when it isn't my time. So to see if the "fact" that monthly cycle of sugar cravings is true, I thought I'd do a little research.

It turns out that there might actually be some truth to this little bit of folk psych. Cravings for sugary foods are common before and during menstruation, and some women even crave high-carb foods like pasta and bread. And apparently, these cravings can be a sign of low blood sugar. Some women's bodies are more responsive to the hormone insulin during their monthly cycle, making them more prone to drops in blood sugar levels. Thus, a sugar craving results as a signal to the body from the brain for the need of more fuel.

While we are all aware that hormone fluctuations affect menstruation, we don't usually take the step further in acknowledging the side effects that might result from the fluctuation. And it's cool to see that something stemming from folk psychology about a commonly agreed upon behavior is in fact instigated by hormones.



-Alice Huang

Defining Emotion

This assignment has been the most challenging thus far for me for the reason that I have never considered how to define emotion. It's a word that we all know and understand intrinsically. but to use words to describe what it is is an entirely different story.

So to begin defining emotion, I'll describe what I think are the qualities that "emotion" encompasses:

• Emotions are reactions. Something (an action, an idea, an observation) or other elicits emotion. For example, the observation that it is a nice, sunny day might make you feel the emotion of happiness.
• Emotions are felt. You feel angry because someone wronged you. You feel love because your friends are there for you. You feel because you are watching a horror movie.
• Emotions are not physical. You can feel exhausted, but exhaustion is not an emotion because it has physical origins. You might be feeling exhausted because you haven't been sleeping enough or have been working for too long (both of which are physical origins of your exhaustion). However, you might feel sad because you are exhausted. Sadness is an emotion. 
• While emotions are not physical, they can be physically expressed. For instance, there are certain facial expressions associated with certain emotions. When we are happy, we smile. When we are sad, we frown or cry . However, in social situations, we might attempt to mask our emotions by suppressing these physical manifestations and controlling how we appear to others. So instead of frowning or crying when we are sad, we brace ourselves and put on a smile so as not to worry others. 
• There are a range of emotions. So while watching "Jaws" might make you scared, witnessing a real shark attack will make you more frightened. 

-Alice Huang

Most Amazing fMRI Study!

I came across an awesome fMRI study that was performed in 2005 by Helen Fisher, Arthur Aron, and Lucy Brown examining romantic love. The researchers examined 17 individuals who were "intensively" in love. Each participants was first screened for the level of romantic love through interview and the Passion Love Scale, which measures several characteristics commonly associated with romantic love. After screening, fMRI was used. The study employed photographs and consisted of four tasks: For 30 seconds, the subject viewed a photo of his/her significant other. Following this, he/she was performed a countback distraction task for 40 seconds. Then, he/she viewed for 30 seconds a photo of an emotionally neutral acquaintaince. The last 20 seconds consisted of a similar countback task. The researchers included the countback task "to decrease the carryover effect after the participant viewed the positive stimulus because it is difficult to quell intense feelings of romantic love." This four-step process was repeated six times for more accurate fMRI readings. The researchers found that upon viewing the photo of their significant other and not in any of the other three tasks, subjects had high activation in their right ventral tegmental area and right caudate nucleus, which are dopamine-rich areas associated with reward and motivation. They concluded that dopaminergic reward pathways contribute to the "general arousal" component of romantic love and that romantic love is primarily a motivation system rather than an emotion. I think this fMRI study is really fascinating as it examines something as nebulous as love. To be able to take the step towards understanding love scientifically is both slightly controversial and shows how far science has come.

Here is the link to the paper for those of you who are interested: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cne.20772/pdf

Hypothetical Brain Machine

If I could design or create any brain and or mind reading device, what would it be, and what would I use it for?

I had to spend a little more time on this question than I did on the previous prompts for this blog.

I wouldn't want to create a device that reads other people's thoughts because thoughts are private matter, and it is up to the individual to tell us what he/she is truly thinking if that is what he/she wants to do.

I think it'd be neat to create a device to send our own thoughts to other people. This can be in the form of words or images or ideas, and we won't have to relate this through an indirect method like cell phones which have to send the information to our brain through our ears, or computers which send information through our vision. Instead, we can just connect with other individuals through brainwaves. The device will be portable and wireless. It will be connected to your head and record brain waves that translate into comprehensive thoughts that get sent to  the person you want to communicate with.

Sometimes, we might not want to be overheard or overseen in our communication. By allowing people to send thoughts through a silent medium avoids the possibility of eavesdroppers. For example, when you know your friend is feeling sad but there are other people around and there is no way for you to comfort your friend without everyone else getting involved in the situation, you can just send these brain thoughts to your friend.



-Alice Huang

My Experience with Someone with Alzheimer's

Last week, I met someone with Alzheimer's for the first time. She was a frail old woman who was swallowed up by the monstrous contraption of a wheelchair she was resigned to sit in. On her face hung a look of total and utter dissatisfaction. She clearly did not want to be where she was.

I felt confused and speechless. I didn't know what to say to her. She used to be an artist, but she was unable to draw basic shapes. She didn't know what year it was or where she was or what time it was. Watching her as she struggled, I felt awful. I wanted to help her, but I didn't know how.

When I first began toying with the idea of studying neuroscience, it was only because I thought it was an interesting subject to be pursued academically. However, after meeting her, my perspective has been drastically altered.

I am glad I met her even if she did not want to be there.

Statistics, Experiments, Journal Articles: What's the Confusion?

Statistics form the basis of the results in many a neuroscience paper (and other scientific papers, of course). And at times, statistics can get a little confusing. I have never taken a statistics class, so for me, just the vocabulary itself is confusing (i.e. variance, standard error, linear regression, normal distribution, etc.). As well, the shorthand mathematical way of writing statistics and its formulas that is often found in papers is hard for me to wrap my mind around.

In experiments, certain methods are performed multiple times with a bit of tweaking so as to test for other (typically unforeseen) variables to progress the research. But sometimes the authors who write about these experiments fail to explain why they tweak what they tweak in such a way that is easy to understand. As well, they don't always mention why they do certain things (e.g. test on one species as opposed to another).

Oh the confusion!

-Alice Huang

Why Neuroscience 281?

Simply enough, the course title (Neuroscientific Approaches to Social Behavior) caught my eye. 

We're told not to judge books by the cover from a young age, but sometimes it can't be helped, just as overused idioms also can't be helped.

Neuroscientific Approaches to Social Behavior sounded cool to me when I was perusing the neuroscience courses available on ACES. Plus, on more practical terms this class fulfills some of my major requirements as I am (like many others in this class) hoping to major in neuroscience. The idea of looking at social behavior--a topic that is more often discussed in psychology, sociology, and anthropology--through neuroscientific methods appeals to me. It is interdisciplinary, yet apropos in its application.  

On even more practical terms, this class is one of the only classes that fits into my somewhat hard-to-manipulate schedule.

And I guess that's why I am here. Happy Wednesday!


-Alice Huang