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Hi everyone. Sorry for the late post!

I am a biology major at Bryn Mawr and I am doing my senior research with Paul Grobstein. My reason for majoring in bio at Bryn Mawr instead of Haverford was largely fueled by my interest in approaching biology on a more theoretical and macro level than I felt Haverford would offer. I was matched with Paul Grobstein for an advisor and have continued to work in his lab both for the summer of 2007 and for my senior research. Working in Paul’s lab has probably been different from most of your lab experiences. I don’t poke the brains of rats, observe axon growth in frogs, or study child behavior. Instead I read papers and search for overarching themes, which I then discuss with Paul. One could accuse me of taking an armchair philosopher approach to biology, but I believe my current research will play an important role in shaping how I approach and interpret research when I do make empirical investigations.

Last semester I wrote a research paper on the field of social neuroscience, which is available here. I hope to build upon this research to inquire into the nature of how social organization emerges from the interactions of social brains.

Additionally, Like Dan and Liz, I’m also interested in the so-called “hard problem” of consciousness: how does consciousness arise from neural processes? What gives us a sense of subjectivity? What is it about an experience that makes us perceive the experience as our own? While neuroscientific research has offered insight into the “easy” problems of consciousness, such as neural processes and structures related to emotion or learning, the hard problem remains unresolved. This question is itself central to the mind-body debate. According to materialists, the Mind arises from purely physical processes (the brain), thereby dismissing the notion of Cartesian duality. While I, and I believe many neuroscientists would adopt a materialist perspective, those who contend this view point out that as of yet no explanation for how neural processes could create a sense of subjectivity has been verified. This “hard problem” of consciousness is certainly an important issue and I think it would be interesting to discuss the mind-body debate in class. For further discussion, see here.