Secret Science Club After Action Report

Last night's lecture was a joint effort between Dr. Joseph LeDoux and Dr. Daniela Schiller, both of the NYU Neuroscience department. Dr. LeDoux began the lecture with an overview of the fear response, and the biological mechanisms of emotion. The fear response involves two "pathways" in the brain- a short one (involving the sensory thalamus and the amygdala) which allows the body to immediately react to potential threats, and a long one (involving the sensory thalamus, the cortex, and the amygdala, with the hippocampus) which allows the analysis of adjudication of threatening stimuli. A good example of the short fear pathway is a situation in which a stick on the ground elicits a startle response because an observer has mistaken it for a snake. The long fear pathway allows the brain to process the stimuli after an immediate response, allowing a more appropriate course of action to be chosen. The hippocampus contextualizes threats, and is responsible for associations of unpleasant stimuli with incidentally related stimuli (the experiment cited in the lecture involved administering a shock to a volunteer, who was simultaneously shown a blue square on a monitor- eventually the blue square alone would elicit a "fear" response). In the lecture, Dr LeDoux also indicated that the concept of the limbic system is outdated.

After the general overview by Dr. LeDoux, Dr. Daniela Schiller took the stage to discuss the possibility of therapies to revise unpleasant or traumatic memories, much like the theme of the filmEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In the experiment I alluded to above, in which the blue square could elicit a fear response, the fear response will disappear eventually if the appearance of the square is unaccompanied by an unpleasant stimulus. Another cinematic example used by Dr. Schiller was the "Terminator" series, in which the {REDACTED ***SPOILER***} from the first movie was replaced by the {REDACTED ***SPOILER***} in the second one, and {REDACTED ***SPOILER***} had to adjust her attitude to the new set of circumstances.

After the lecture, Dr. LeDoux and Dr. Schiller were joined on stage by the other members of their band, the The Amygdaloids, for some rousing "Heavy Mental" music.

The Bell House was packed for last night's event... some latecomers were turned away from the lecture (the last time this occured was at the the former venue, Union Hall, a much smaller performance space. Again, delicious cupcakes were on sale- a development which will hopefully become a monthly tradition. Also, a highlight of last night's event was the presence of Simply Left Behind proprietor and Sadly, No! regular actor212. I have to say, he is bigger than I, but not balder. Again, it was nice to put a name and a face behind the 'nym.