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Emily Alspector's picture

different perspectives

I will admit that when we were discussing batteries and then turned the discussion to membrane permeability, I was thrown off and thought the two had very little to do with each other. Then, just as class was ending, everyone was neatly tied together and it really did help my understanding of action potentials in a way I had never thought of them before. I have taken Intro bio and other NBS-related courses, but I had never been given the opportunity to look at an action potential in such a relatable way.

When we were talking about I-functions and motor memories like not being aware of your movements when walking or driving, it got me thinking of another class I took about cognition and how a lot of times we make mistakes, for example, walking out of the room and turning on the light, just out of habit, but not realizing before you complete the action that the light wasn't actually on. This seems like a misfiring between I-function and our motor outputs. I'd like to discuss how this (and other similar examples) could be further theorized.

I also would love to talk more about action potentials and how they relate to input/output systems, since it seemed the conversation was cut off at the end of class. Someone brought up epilepsy, and I think it would be interesting to look at an epileptic seizure in terms of these input/output boxes because even when there "is no input", I still think there is something triggering the nerves internally from within the system, and I think epilepsy would be a good way to revisit that conversation.

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