Blogs

What is Déj

What is genre? What is constitutes as a modern view onliterature? What is to explore? What is a fairy tale? Most importantly whatqualifies as good motifs in a fairy tale?

For a variety of reasons, I've been thinking a lot about depression recently, not only about peoples' experiences with it (including my own) but also about how to make sense of it from a neurobiological perspective. A variety of conversations, including a recent one in a senior seminar course in neural and behavioral science, has significantly added to my thoughts, helped to crystallize some of them, and suggested some intriguing directions for further exploration.

My most current extended writing on complexity, emergence, and beyond ... into a "hybrid" world involving both chance and intention. Recently published in the interdiscipinary journal Soundings (Volume 90, Issue 1/2, pp 301-323, 2007). Available as a Word file.

And assigned as a reading in a recent course. Which in turn triggered an essay by a student in that course, Alexandra Funk, making an interesting link to Mary Catherine Bateson's 1989 book Composing a Life. An excerpt from Alexandra's essay ...

Autism affects one in 166 children born in the United States and has doubled in prevalence over the past decade. This disorder has tragic repercussions for the children diagnosed with it and remains a mystery without a known cure. My autistic cousin Katie lives daily with the weight of this disorder and I intend to explore in this paper the repercussions it holds for many facets of her life.

What Part of the Brain is Responsible for Moral Reasoning?

The word synesthesia comes from two Greek words, syn (together) and aisthesis (perception); so synesthesia literally means, "joined perception." (1) I became interested in synesthesia when I learned a friend of mine has this neurologically based phenomenon. She associates colors with letters of the alphebete – most known case of synesthesia to the public. Synesthesia, however, can involve any two or more senses. Current research suggest that “wires” in a person’s brain between two or more sense are crossed, therefor producing the phenomon of tasting sounds and hearing tasts or any other unique combination.

The notion of “shyness” is something most of us know quite well. In fact, according to prevalence studies, somewhere around 40-50% of American adults have first-hand experience on what it’s like to be chronically shy (1). Although differing from the Big Five personality trait of introversion, in that shy people are in fact fearful of social interaction while introverts merely prefer solitary environments, chronic shyness is often categorized as a characteristic trait (2). The precursor for this shyness trait is frequently cited as the temperament of behavioral