Earlier this month, I attended the 2023 Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, DC. While at this meeting, I participated on a panel with Dr. Gillian Hue. Dr. Hue has been involved with the Emory Tibet Science Initiative and has led the neuroscience track of the program.
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| Left: Dr. Gillian Hue |
A nice write up about the recent workshop on the Science for Monks and Nuns website; and some new photos too!
I also used WhatsApp to communicate with people in Dharamsala and in New Delhi. For example, when my computer power adapter broke, I sent a WhatsApp message to program staff to see if they could help. Also, the driver who waited for me at the Delhi airport contacted me via WhatsApp to ask if my plane had landed.
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| Sager Science Center |
On arrival to the New Delhi airport at 1 am for my flight back to Seattle, I had 3,500 rupees I wanted to exchange back to dollars. I decided that I would first check my bag at the airline counter and then look for a currency exchange booth. When I asked a worker at the first booth I saw, he said he could not change rupees into dollars and that I would have to go through security first and then find a currency exchange.
Ok, fine. I went back to wait at the currency exchange booth. About 10 minutes later a woman entered the currency exchange kiosk and asked me what I wanted to exchange. I said rupees into US dollars. She then tells me that she can exchange rupees for no less than $100. I said I had only 3,500 rupees (about $45). She said that she was sorry, but could not make the exchange. I asked what was I supposed to do with the rupees if I couldn't exchange them. The money is useless outside of India. She responded that I should spend the money at the airport shops.
Ok, not fine. I suppose I could keep the rupees in case I returned to India. But I wanted my dollars back. I did not want to shop at airport stores at 3 am. There was nothing I wanted to buy. Also, everything is overpriced at the airport. And it's the principle of the thing: I sold them dollars for rupees when I entered the country and they should buy the rupees back when I leave the country. Seems a bit unethical to me.
But what choice did I have? I ended up buying a puzzle book, two blank notebooks and a bottle of melatonin. My suggestion is to make sure you have almost no rupees in your possession before you get to the airport.
The most stressful part of traveling is, well, the actual traveling. Door to door, the trip home from Dharamsala to Seattle took about 43 hours. Here are my notes; all times India:
9:00 am (Wed): Leave Dharamsala by car to Kangra Airport
9:45 am: Arrive Kangra Airport
12:15 pm: Leave Kangra Airport for Delhi
1:45 pm: Plane arrives Delhi [Flight time = 1.5 hours]
2:30 pm: Arrive Delhi Hotel by car
2:30 pm to 12:45 am (Thur): Rest in Delhi Hotel, have meal, watch cricket on TV
1 am: Arrive Delhi airport by car
1 am to 1:45 am: Wait in line to get boarding pass/check bag
1:45 am to 2:30 am: Wait in line to clear passport control
2:30 am to 3 am: Wait in line/clear security
4:05 am: Plane departs Delhi to Dubai
7:30 am: Plane arrives Dubai [Flight time = 3.5 hours]
10:30 am: Plane departs Dubai for Seattle
1:30 am (Fri) [1 pm, Thur, Seattle]: Plane arrives Seattle [Flight time = 14 hours]1:30 am - 2:15 am [1 pm-1:45 pm Seattle]: Wait for bag at Seattle Airport/Clear Customs and Immigration
3:00 am [2:30 pm Seattle]: Arrive home in Seattle
Additional Notes:
1. At Delhi airport: it is important to have a boarding pass to get into the terminal. I did not have a boarding pass, but I did have a copy of my ticket that worked. The security guard gave me a funny look when I showed the ticket, but allowed me to pass.
2. At Delhi airport: give yourself at least 3 hours from the time you enter the terminal to the time you get to your boarding gate. The airport is very crowded and chaotic and you will spend a couple hours waiting to check a bag, get a boarding pass, clear passport control and clear security. Add more time if you have to exchange currency.
3. USA Global Entry saved me at least 45 minutes when I arrived in Seattle. After waiting 45 minutes for my bag to arrive off the plane, I breezed through customs/immigration in about 1 minute using the Global Entry program. There were long lines of people waiting in customs/immigration who did not have access to this progrm.
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| Looking north from Kangra Airport |
The view from the plane as it ascends from the airport reveals a lush, green landscape. Delhi is a 1.5 hour flight. The trip home has just started.
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| Landscape from the air |
The nuns that I have been teaching are part of a multi-year program called the Sager Science Center Leadership Program. Over several years, the nuns participate in several workshops designed to expose them to different scientific disciplines.
The workshop this month was the last one for the nuns. To celebrate their completion of the program, a special ceremony was held to recognize their achievement. Some dignitaries from the Tibetan government-in-exile were invited to say a few words and then each nun received a scarf and a certificate of completion. Everyone then had a cup of Tibetan tea and small bowl of sweetened rice.
After our snack, we headed over to the steps of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives for photos.
With my stay in Dharamsala finished, it is time to return to Seattle. I think the nuns have enjoyed learning about neuroscience. For many of them it has been the first time they have studied the brain. I hope they continue to ask questions as they continue their own journey.
We started the day with a quick review of vision and colorblindness. We had a look at some Ishihara Colorblindness Test and played with the Stroop Test where people must say the color of an object or word. The nuns had no problem saying the colors of different colored squares, but when the Tibetan word for a particular color was printed in a different color, they had trouble saying that color.
We spent most of class time on the sense of touch by talking about different receptors in the skin, the neural pathway from a tactile receptor to the brain, and how different body areas are represented in the brain (somatosensory cortex). Our first experiment used two different grades of sandpaper. The nuns were asked to touch the finger of their neighbor with the different sandpapers and also to move the paper across the finger of their neighbor. These different types of stimulation provide different types of information. We also did a simple threshold determination for different parts of the body with the wisp of a cotton tipped swap. Our final experiment was to determine the 2-point discrimination threshold for the fingertip, hand, elbow, neck and calf. As expected, the smallest 2-point discrimination threshold was for the fingertip.
Because time was running out, I quickly switched to memory and learning and talked about classical and operate conditioning. No discussion of memory is complete without mentioning the hippocampus and the patient named H.M., the man who could never form new memories.
With only five minutes of class time remaining, I stopped teaching and thank the nuns for their attention and for inviting me to teach. I also offered the nuns a taste of Seattle with some "Applets and Cotlets." They seemed to enjoy the sweet treats and then it was off to lunch.
The Tibetan Medical and Astro Institute Museum in Dharamsala
has a nice exhibit of detailing the history, preparation and uses of
traditional Tibetan medicine. The walls of the museum are filled with reproduced old paintings illustrating the ancient practices of the art. There are also many specimens of plant (and mineral) materials and a display of the instruments used in Tibetan medicine and surgery.
The entry cost to the museum was only 20 rupees (about 25 cents). I was the only person in the museum and as I was looking around, a woman who must have been the manager or director of the museum, greeted me. She gave me a personal tour of the entire museum, explaining the various exhibits and answering my many questions.
Although there were many signs saying that photography was
not allowed in the museum, the manager asked if I wanted to have my picture
taken. I asked about the no photography
signs. She said, “Don’t worry. I’m the manager.”
I noticed a small display case in the museum and asked if they had any books for sale. Sure enough they did. “The Handbook of Tibetan Medicinal Plants” was the perfect memento of my visit.
I share three meals a day with the nuns. Breakfast is served at 7:30 am, lunch at
12:30 pm and dinner at 6:30 pm. We all
eat at the same time in the same small cafeteria room at the Science Center.
Breakfast is always a piece of flatbread with some peanut butter and jelly, sometimes some cooked beans and potatoes. There is also Tibetan tea in two varieties: a sweet tea and a butter tea. Both types of tea have some milk and spices (perhaps cardamon?), but as the name suggests, butter tea has added butter. I’ve tried both but prefer the sweet tea.
Lunch is usually rice with either dal (crushed lentils) or
curry sauce, Tibetan roll and cooked vegetables such as beans, cauliflower or bitter
melon. Dinners are often some type of
stew or soup with noodles and vegetables. The Tibetan cook has commented that he wishes the nuns would eat more. When he has cooked for monks in the past, he noticed that they eat much more than the nuns. The cook does not like to have leftovers!
I found some library staff who said they would try to help. They did not have an appropriate adapter in their office, but one translator said he would go into town to find one.
Sure enough, about an hour later, he was back with a replacement. But when we tried the new adapter, another power surge fried this one too! Down two power adapters. Time to call an electrician. The electrician took the wall socket apart and did some repairs. By this time, the translator had gone back into town again, bought another adapter, and returned with it ready to test.
The third time is a charm. The adapter works. But I am not leaving it plugged into the wall!
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| Dharamsala Basketball Court |
Each sense was tested three times and the roles of experimenter and test subject were reversed. Everyone then averaged their data to get a value for each sense. The nuns then wrote their averaged reaction time numbers on the whiteboard and a grand average for each sense was calculated.
All excellent suggestions!
Thunder and lightning have paid a visit to Dharamsala every day since my arrival. These storms usually hit in the late afternoon or evening. The storm that rolled in on March 25 was the most intense weather event I have ever witnessed.
The storm started with heavy rain and was followed by thunder and lightning occurring many times in a minute. All electrical power was soon lost and everything was plunged into darkness. This happened at about 6 pm. Because I could not see anything and I wanted to save the battery power on my devices, I decided to go to sleep.
I woke up very early the next morning and there was still no power. So instead on checking my text messages and email, I entertained myself by watching the sunrise over the Himalayan foothills.
I guess as much as things change over time, the more they stay the same (at least for my clothing).
At the front of the classroom there is a box where the nuns could place their questions if we didn't have time during class to discuss them. By the next morning, the question box was full of paper with questions about brain anatomy, my work, brain development, perception and of course, consciousness. Most of the questions were written in Tibetan, so they have to be translated before I can answer them.
Today the nuns and I discussed the external and internal anatomy of the brain. We talked about the major divisions of the nervous system, a few of the major areas of the brain, and comparative neuroanatomy. To reinforce knowledge about the lobe of the brain, we built "brain hats."
