Neuroscience 101

Day 2 started with the remainder of milestones in the history of neuroscience including a discussion of the case of Phineas Gage.  In 1848, Mr. Gage suffered the unfortunately accident of having a large iron rod pierce his brain.  After Mr. Gage recovered, his personality changed.  The monks and nuns were fascinated by this story and were curious about why he didn’t die and why only certain aspects of his behavior changed. 

I finished the history of neuroscience by letting the monastics know of the BRAIN initiative in the United States and the Human Brain Project in Europe.  They were quite impressed when I mentioned how much money the governments are contributing to these projects.

At the end of my lecture, I posed a neuroethical question to the monks and nuns:  If a drug to make people smarter was available, would it be acceptable for people to use this drug.  I hope to have the monks debate this question tomorrow.

Later that afternoon, class met again and I started in on the basics of neuroscience.  First, I asked the monastics why they thought it was important (or not important) to learn about the brain.  They all responded that it was important for them to know about the brain.  One of the monks said that knowing about the brain would help them understand more about what it means to be human.  Another monk said that he knew many people with problems with the brain, so knowing about the brain might allow him to help this person.  I hope I did not lose too much in the translation from Tibetan to English.

Following this discussion, I gauged the monks understanding of the brain with a game of “What is a Brain?”  In this game (see photo), groups of two monks are given a common object like a pencil, battery, leaf or flashlight and asked to make a list of similarities and differences in the function and structure of the object and the brain.  Then we went around the room where one member of the group would hold up the object and talk about their results.  This game provides me with a glimpse into what the monks know about the brain and what misconceptions about the bran they hold.

We had time to start discussing the composition of the brain (e.g., neurons, glia) the different divisions of the nervous system (central and peripheral nervous systems) but did not get very far.  We will pick up where we left off tomorrow, after what I hope to be a lively debate about “smart drugs.”