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I have really enjoyed our discussions this past semester. We were able to cover a wide variety of topics that have always interested me but were only briefly touched upon in other courses I have taken, so it was nice to be able to expand on my thoughts about these topics and to hear other perspectives.

The thing that I find the most interesting when looking back on the past semester is how interrelated all of the discussion topics were. Issues of mental function versus dysfunction, morality, animal consciousness, and pain all wound up influencing one another, and it was difficult for us to have one discussion without invoking comments from another. I think this highlights the fact that when we are looking at a given issue in neuroscience, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration. First, one must think about both physiological and experiential aspects of a given phenomena. Then, one must take into consideration how a person is influenced socially and culturally. It seem that all of these perspectives must be combined in order to study any aspect of brain functioning.

There is also the issue of how research on the brain is conducted. This past semester, I thought more about the moral implications of various research methods than I probably ever have before. Since I will be starting a Neuroscience PhD program this summer, I am glad that I've had the opportunity to consider these issues from a slight distance. I think in this field we become very focused and detail oriented, and it becomes easier to simply follow protocols when conducting research without thinking about what went into setting it up. I think it is important to question standard research practices, especially when they involve animals and humans, as research on the brain inevitably does, in order to evaluate the moral issues involved. Further, it is important to work through how these "morals" were decided on in the first place, and how standards of morality may differ between research scientists and the general population. All of these are crucial things to think about for anyone interested in dedicating their life to research, and I am really glad I had the opportunity to think these things through for myself.