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Neurobiology and Behavior 2002

	Welcome to the home page of Biology 202 at Bryn Mawr College. Pleased to have you here. I'm looking forward to an interesting, enjoyable, productive semester of "getting it progressively less wrong". You too, I hope. Let's have some fun, and see what we can make out of it together. For everyone. Course Information Course Schedule Some Literary and Historical Starting Points Course Announcements Course Lecture/Discussion Notes (click here for most recent) Course Forum Area, for prior weeks see Archive. Scientific American Articles Course Evolving Book List Course Evolving Web Resource List Previous Course Web Papers Last year 1 Last year 2 Last year 3 Previous years Neurobiology and Behavior Resources on Serendip Mental Health Resources, from Serendip and the Center for Science in Society Web Paper Assignment Web Paper Instructions (including access to electronic submission) Access to previous course years
? ? ? ? The Brain - is wider than the Sky - For - put them side by side - The one the other will contain With ease - and You - beside-

Some course starting points:

From literature - Emily Dickinson (1830-1886):

The Brain - is wider than the Sky - For - put them side by side - The one the other will contain With ease - and You - beside- The Brain is deeper than the sea - For - hold them - Blue to Bue - The one the other will absorb - As sponges - Buckets - do The Brain is just the weight of God - For - Heft them - Pound for Pound - And they will differ - if they do - As syllable from Sound -

And from history:

Mind and Body: Rene Descartes to William James

Course announcements

Browse around. Get a sense of what's here, and how it does (or doesn't) relate to things you might be interested in. Think about what you think you know about brain and behavior, and why, and what puzzles you, and why. And expect to be wrong, over and over again. That's the best starting place ... for any kind of scientific inquiry.

The Secret Life of the Brain ... a new PBS series, begins Tuesday, 5 February, 8 pm TV12

William Labov
University of Pennslyvania
Learning to Read:
Linguistic Light on the Dark Corners of the Mind
Monday, February 18, 4 pm
Carpenter Library Room 21

David Barash
University of Washington
The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People
Tuesday, February 19, 12 noon
Park Room 25
Informal conversation:
Quita Woodward Room, 10:30 am

Forum Archive

• Week 1
  Does the "brain = behavior" hypothesis fit your observations/experiences/ways of making sense of the world? If so, explain why. If not, explain why not. In either case, suggest new observations which might serve to further explore the hypothesis. (one person's summary of responses)

• Week 2
  So ... we've got input/output boxes inside input/output boxes, LOTS of them. And brains which seem to differ in organisms who behave differently. What does that do for our "brain=behavior" discussion?

• Week 3
  What's your reaction to the phenomena of quadriplegia as described in class? Is the addition to our model of an "I-function" box appropriate/useful? Why or why not? What new problems/questions does it raise?

• Week 4
  We've gotten to neurons, the smallest boxes of the nervous system, and discovered that they all pretty much use basically the same "signal", an action potential. What does this (and the associated "see thunder and hear lightning" problem) do for our "brain=behavior" idea? What new problems do we have to contend with given what we know about action potentials?

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