SLS Mirror July - August 2017 | Page 13

Neuroscience Course-international Exposure Program, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Il, USA 2017 Various topics covered includes: Introduction to the structure of brain, both as seen by the naked eye and as revealed by the microscope, how the cells of the brain use electrical signals to process information to other cells within larger circuits, theories of emotions and how it emphasises the relationship between physiological arousal states and cognitive perception of emotions, how transmitters like GABA and norepinephrine are implicated in the modulation of aggression, stress and its association with autonomic reactivity, how stress and emotions have a signicant impact on human diseases, psychopathology, how t he biological approaches have led to an understanding and treating psychiatric disorders have yielded substantial improvements over the last century, lobotomy, CBT for depression, the Wernicke-Geschwind model of aphasia for understanding the neural mechanisms of language processing, about the brain stimulation mapping and functional imaging techniques, memory, learning and development are a few topics from a lot many. The Neuroscience (Life Science) Laboratory of Dr Hylin was very student friendly as well as environment friendly. The laboratory had deep freezers to store rat brains and other specimens. The laboratories had a spacious room for rats, kept in glass boxes. And the corner of the room contained puzzles and mazes for the rats along with the spinning wheels. We were also showed how a rodent brain is looked through the microscope with a specic dye and how a healthy brain or an issue in various other parts like hippocampus, amygdala, microglia, cortex and corpus callosum is identied. It was a worthwhile experience! 11