Well, it's been quite a ride in Psych 1010. It really was a surprisingly demanding class, but Prof P warned us! I have really enjoyed it and I have learned so much, especially about what has changed in the last few years. In doing research for my project, I found out so much new information that scientists know about the brain and how it works as a correlate of our deepest states of consciousness. It's almost scary -- brain scans may actually be a useful tool as lie detectors now, since some research shows that fMRI's look different when a person lies as opposed to when s/he tells the truth (see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mri-study-shows-lying-bra). That's verging on the frightening.
I researched mystical/religious experiences and their non-traditional causes -- drugs, temporal lobe epilepsy, magnetic fields -- as well as the brain imaging data done concerning such experiences. That was an eye opener, and yet at the same time controversial... Does the brain produce the mind, or is the mind an immaterial thing instantiated by but independent from the brain? No amount of imaging will solve that dilemma, well-known in the philosophy of mind. That's one of my main interests, btw.
I'm interested in too many things. Why do we need to sleep, dammit? No one ever really explained that in the chapter on it, because no one really knows... We could get so much more done if we didn't have to sleep. LOL!
Anyhow, this is the last Psych 1010 post, but perhaps not my last post. I know I'm mostly talking to myself, but maybe that will change in the future.
Peace out! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment