Week7 Assignment: NeuroScience&Art

This week's topic is about neuroscience. In the lecture video, professor introduced how human recognition of brain and mind evolves overtime. From Aristotle's perspective that "seat of human thought and emotion was the heart. Brain cools blood and prevent heart and lung from becoming overheated" to Franz Joseph Gall's practice of phrenology and effort to localize the mental functions of brain, it takes almost two thousand years for human beings to treat neuroscience as an individual subject. Later, Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the Spanish neuroscientist, who investigated the structure of nervous system, drew map of the delicate brain cells and was considered the father of neuroscience. 

Neurons by Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Throughout the all lecture videos for this week, the Brainbow process is the most surprising part to me. I have been used to the pictures and models in textbooks and laboratories about neurons, which is monochromatic and connected by lines. However, the Brainbow distinguished nearby neurons using fluorescent proteins. The colorful pictures of neurons taken under this process are both beautiful in artistic perspective and effective for scientific researches. I also found some pictures online--not only the human neurons, but also mice!

By Tamily Weissman, Jean Livet, and Jeff Lichtman, Harvard University

By Alain Chédotal and Linda J. Richards

In the second part, professor asked about dreams, which is still mysterious to scientists, but we have been trying to understand it by studying our mind. Sigmund Freud divided mind into conscious and unconscious and then further separates into id (instincts or drive) and superego (conscience). There are many controversy between him and Carl Gustav Jung, who divided unconscious into personal and collective and treat religion in a positive light while Freud didn't believe so. 

Although we still know little about dream in laboratory, there are many great movies in the cinemas. Mulholland Drive, an American surrealist neo-noir film, categorized as psychological thriller, written and directed by David Lynch, mixed reality and dreams to the awake audiences. 

In 2010, Christopher Nolan also made a science fiction movie inception, introducing the idea of "dream stealers."

Mulholland Drive Trailer

Inception Traler

Work Cited

"Brainbow." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 09 May 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainbow>.

"Santiago Ramón y Cajal - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 17 Nov 2013. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1906/cajal-bio.html>

Straub, Julian. "Notes: Advice for a Young Investigator by Santiago Ramón Y Cajal." Julian Straub. Julian Straub.de, 21 July 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.jstraub.de/notes-advice-for-a-young-investigator-by-santiago-ramon-y-cajal/>.

Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience-pt1.mov." YouTube. YouTube, 17 May 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzXjNbKDkYI>.

Weissman, Tamily. "Cell - Cell_picture_show-All-Stars." Cell Press. Elsevier Inc., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.cell.com/cell_picture_show-All-Stars>.