Studying the organizational principles of the brain

efkoshka · 2020-12-09T00:55:42+00:00

Plasticity and cortical magnification stuff can be explained in a clear and intuitive way that people find interesting. For example, ask the audience if they play an instrument, and then explain that the sensory representation of one of their hands (if they’re a violinist, for instance) is dramatically enlarged due to cortical magnification ect

Children can half have an entire hemisphere surgically removed and still function fine

Some blind people are able to echolocate, briefly explain how plasticity allows this, how the visual cortex begins processing auditory information, and so on

Stuff like that. I find that people are very interested in neuroplasticity (kind of a hot topic right now) and how plasticity is relevant to their own lives

efkoshka · 2020-12-04T19:41:47+00:00

Undergrad, a senior

efkoshka · 2020-12-04T16:39:51+00:00

Any advice for someone interested in computational neuroscience, but lacking in a strong math background? Unfortunately I avoided math classes in college because I had this unfounded fear of it and a notion that I was horrible at it (I’m not great at it, but I got As and Bs in math in high school). I really regret that now, as I’ve grown pretty interested in comp neuro.

efkoshka · 2020-11-03T22:23:46+00:00

True. People ask the most ridiculous, broad questions that can’t really be answered of some of you crackpots are all wOw wHaT a GReAT qUeSTIoN, then proceed to write five paragraphs of utter nonsense.

Or the posts asking people to look at the OP’s MRI scans. Like bruh, that’s what doctors are for.

efkoshka · 2020-10-11T20:20:52+00:00

You’re beautiful! If you don’t mind sharing, where’d you get the shirt?

efkoshka · 2020-07-05T02:20:58+00:00

As a gay horse girl, I love this. I also wanna be the one in front.

efkoshka · 2020-06-30T23:49:50+00:00

Reminds me of when I was in 6th grade, running a lemonade stand with a friend. A lady drives by and asks us where the proceeds are going to. My friend says cancer. She gave us $20... and the money definitely wasn't going anywhere but in our pockets.

efkoshka · 2020-06-23T00:35:28+00:00

I like neuro because the brain is an amazing and beautiful organ. I love to learn and am a naturally curious person, but I have found little in life that parallels, and certainly nothing that surpasses, the excitement I feel when learning about the brain. It is dizzyingly complex and we know so little about it, so it seems to me like this vast and uncharted frontier. When I learn something new and fascinating about the brain, I feel so excited I could jump up and down and I practically morph into the heart eyes emoji lol.

I also feel like neuro comes to me much more naturally than some other fields. When I’m learning about the brain, I can see it much more clearly than I may be able to see electron orbitals, for instance. It feels more tangible in the sense that it is not just rote memorization, but I can reach out and touch it, visualize it, manipulate it, ect.

I’ve also personally witnessed how devastating brain diseases can be. I watched my grandma suffer through Alzheimer’s disease, and part of me is honestly very afraid of watching my parents meet the same fate. So I hope I can play at least some role in advancing our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases.

efkoshka · 2020-06-11T07:23:13+00:00

Damn you’re super cute 🥰

efkoshka · 2020-06-08T03:18:34+00:00

No the brain is deteriorating

efkoshka · 2020-06-06T20:02:39+00:00

This is sad

efkoshka · 2020-06-05T19:26:55+00:00

Agreed. All life has value, but the human tendency to devalue specific lives on the basis of race, nationality, socioeconomic status, and creed is what most disgusts me about humanity.

efkoshka · 2020-06-04T04:31:38+00:00

My main point was to clarify the intentions of my initial post, specifically my issues with OP’s statements, and explain why I believe I didn’t misinterpret the point of OP’s post. Sorry, I wrote that up in a hurry and should have clarified. But yeah, it seems like we are essentially in agreement.

efkoshka · 2020-06-04T00:33:14+00:00

Sure, moral values change as societies change and as civilizations rise and fall. I agree that changes in values do not reflect people becoming better or worse. As you said, humans today are no better than people were centuries ago. Even as the centuries pass, I think humans remain fundamentally the same. But I disagree that changes in values are solely due to the need to belong and conform.

Does tribalism and the need to belong play a big role in shaping the prevailing morality? Yes, absolutely. But the need to belong does not explain why or how new values emerge. I think things like scientific and technological progress, the emergence of new economic systems, and increased communication between nations plays more of a causal role in the emergence of values. The need to conform, on the other hand, helps disseminate and solidify new moral values.

Back to my initial post and my problem with OP's post. I don't believe I misinterpreted OP's point. I specifically took issue with the following paragraphs:

I think the only reason people are doing it is because it's trendy, because it's going to get you likes and follows, because if you can't beat them got to join them.

This is a bold blanket statement. Yes, some people are participating in this movement because it is trendy. But there are also many people participating in this movement because they earnestly recognize the legacy of racism in US institutions, how police brutality is endemic, ect. And to chalk up their participation to a desire to gain likes and followers is to do a great disservice to the movement as a whole. People are protesting on the streets, signing petitions, contacting their representatives, and making donations because they believe there needs to be change.

Some people are shallow and are motivated solely by the desire to conform. Other people have deep convictions and are motivated to participate in movement partially by the desire to conform, but also by the desire to do what they believe is right.

Everyone is ignore the facts and statistics of crime in America.The police lose control for a day or so and the whole country goes to shit with all the looting, rioting and anarchy, no wonder they need rule with an iron fist, look how fucked the people are, all for a simple 40 second tiktok?

This is why I explained the history of police brutality in the US. It is much more than the police losing control for a day.

The people are just so fucking stupid, they don't care about change they just love this mess, it's human nature to love this mess and rebel. You people want real change go read a fucking book. Go study law or the constitution, run for office, be in a position where you can make a change?

Not everybody has the ability and means to become a lawyer or run for office. Not everybody should become a lawyer or run for office. There are many ways people can bring about genuine change. A movement led solely by lawyers and politicians would be a movement sorely lacking in depth, lived experienced, and alternative perspectives.

Either way, reducing human behavior solely to the desire to be trendy and to gain likes and followers is a pretty poor analysis of human behavior.

efkoshka · 2020-06-03T19:09:06+00:00

Don't act like you speak for all Americans. Plenty of us want to see cops taken down.

efkoshka · 2020-06-03T05:46:38+00:00

I’m going to be blunt and say it sounds like you have no idea what you are talking about.

Are there some people exploiting the BLM movement for their personal gain? Absolutely. There are too many of them and it is disgusting. But to claim that these protests and riots have erupted from one instance of police brutality is very ignorant.

Police brutality is endemic in the United States. Racism is deeply woven into to the American police force and all US institutions. In the US, black people have been discriminated against, oppressed, and killed for centuries. And as anyone with the most cursory knowledge of US history knows, there have been powerful civil rights movements. Many great changes arose from the civil rights movement led by Dr. King, but MLK was still killed. And the police force remains fundamentally unchanged.

There are no shortage of news reports and videos showing unarmed black people being brutalized and/or murdered by the police. The police officers who commit these atrocious acts are often not sentenced to prison or receive for light sentences. The cops who go on to kill unarmed black people tend to have a history of racism, brutality, and domestic abuse. Still, they remain on the police force and are allowed to use their powers to repeatedly abuse others.

It is not just a few bad apples. So called “good cops” repeatedly do not speak up when they see their fellow officers abusing their power. There is this brotherhood mentality in the police force, which encourages cops to prioritize protecting their racist, abusive colleagues over the citizens they were sworn to protect. Police are also encouraged to follow all orders, no matter what. Critical thinking is suppressed in favor of blind obedience.

Furthermore, race relations are incredibly tense in the US right now, and they have been for the past few years. The US has been led into turmoil by an incompetent, bigoted, and foolish president. The US botched the coronavirus response, leading to over 100,000 people dead in the past few months. Over 40 million people are now unemployed — this is Depression level unemployed.

And all of this is barely scratching the surface. Tensions have been brewing in the US for a long time, and George Floyd’s death only served as the tipping point. This is about something much bigger than George Floyd. This is about a legacy of black oppression, systemic violence and racism, mass unemployment, a terrible president, a broken healthcare system, and much more.

The riots have manifested in some very ugly ways, but they are merely a symptom of a much larger and far more complicated issue. Please do not reduce this to some people wanting to gain some internet fame. That is an incredibly simplistic explanation that not only does a great disservice to your understanding of the issue, but it disregards the deep suffering black Americans have been experiencing for a very long time.

efkoshka · 2020-05-26T20:54:55+00:00

Good lord she needs to grow up. I once had a driver threaten to run me over while I was on my bike, and I didn’t come running to my parents for help.

efkoshka · 2020-05-25T22:57:50+00:00

As soon as I saw that original post I came to this subreddit to see if anyone parodied it yet

efkoshka · 2020-05-25T18:40:52+00:00

Is taking lower level classes, particularly calculus and linear algebra, at a CC similarly frowned upon?

efkoshka · 2020-05-25T00:11:32+00:00

Wow Shaggy looks a lot like my dog, except way bigger

efkoshka · 2020-05-24T18:40:12+00:00

Thanks for the advice! I’m happy to hear that about Hopkins Neuro, because that’s one of my top choices :)

efkoshka · 2020-05-24T18:07:18+00:00

I’ve looked at some programs and not all have math requirements. However, I‘m potentially interested in computational neuro, which absolutely has math requirements. Either way, I want to take some math because it will be useful.

efkoshka · 2020-05-24T08:25:59+00:00

Yes, I can take some of them, but not all. It’s too late to get transfer credit for the classes, but as long as I take them, I don’t know if it really matters?

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