Inside

The last two weeks have been inside weeks for me.

Mi casa... we live just above the big red stripe.

There are 4 floors, and no, neither of the motorcycles belong to me.

Some main happenings: presenting at the first National Conference in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience and visiting Chennai.

As you know, it was Thanksgiving last week. I spent my Thursday, Friday and Saturday at a conference. It was very well spent, I might add.

Rise and Shine

Sands of Time

The speakers were both informative and inspiring, and the overall atmosphere of the conference gave a much needed drive to my experimental outlooks. I am always creating experiments, it seems, but this conference made me want to put them into action more than ever (hence the subsequent graduate school applications, an adventure in itself)... NCNCN was organized by my advisor, Dr. Jamuna. It was truly a great experience: the insights, the people, and the food!

One of the first speakers was an Anaesthesiologist, he left the podium posing the question "While trying to heal the body, are we harming the brain?". What an interesting and important question. He spoke about something called "Post-Operative Cognitive Dysfunction" (POCD). This can occur after any procedure that involving anaesthesia. He continued that anaesthesia is not like going to sleep, as patients are often led to assume, but much more like being put into a temporary coma. It is also well known that the mechanisms involved in the inducing and the bringing out of the 'coma-like' state have been unknown for 130 years. Due to this, we cannot be sure what is actually happening during the transition, a majority percent of the population who are diagnosed with POCD die within five years. Inferring a drastic need for research in this area. What causes POCD? Anaesthesia means 'without' + 'sensation'. If, the sensory systems are 'turned-off' for a duration, what are the aftereffects of this? Does recalibration occur instantly when everything 'turns-on'?

...I also contributed to this conference. I wrote a paper titled Behavioral Systems and Personality in Parkinson's disease.

It was an exciting time, my first conference, my first presentation.

Soon after the conference was over on Saturday, I took an overnight bus to Amy's apartment in Chennai to spend some time with her and Bogi during Thanksgiving week. I booked a 'sleeper' bus from Bangalore, it was about 7 hours long and 2 hours late, I slept about 7 minutes. In fact, I am convinced that the bus driver almost crashed. I say this because I had to call upon my latent ninja abilities as the bus attempted to forcefully throw me out of my upper berth. Once we got there, we had to canoe through the streets, resulting from the unquenchable thirst of the ground. Needless to say, it was an inside day. Amy enabled the good start with some homemade toast (which very well could be the first time I have had toast in India), and a plethora of fruit! Later on, instead of Turkey we had KFC, Dominos Chicken Pizza, and soda. I thought it was appropriate. Though, I am missing the supply of leftovers that will last through the winter! I would roughly say one-third of my 36 hours there were spent discussing topics of free will, decision making, perception, light-induced behavior in non-humans, the future of the internet, the progression of humanity, and more personal life experiences. I took the train back, as those are harder to crash, and I was able to get quite a lot of research done.

My last few weeks:

research, create, read, write, parathas, water, tea, yoga, incense, photography, music

Things are generally genuinely good for me. The only thing I find outstandingly unfortunate is the over abundance of air pollution and noise pollution, as I keep mentioning. Though, I guess it is just the effects of more people in one place. I say, inventing something that exchanges the product from exhaust fumes to oxygen... then transportation would be a different story! As per noise pollution... I understand that horns are just a way of driving. In the US driving is very visual based in a very structured way: outlined lanes, blinkers, traffic lights and stop signs. Here, the traffic takes the form of a more free-chaotic structure, there is a general nature behind things, and a few foundational rules. Understanding traffic flow requires bi-sensory utilization of vision and sound: both expressively and receptively. Using the horn to let others know where you are, especially through intersections and blind corners, but also listening for horns. The problem is that the overall level of volume is much too loud (cars, buses, motorcycles, tools, horns), it is frankly too much for our ears. When you think about it, there is not much in pure nature that is loud enough to damage our ears to the extent we do today, and in the cases you might find something really loud , it certainly is not as frequent. Similarly with eyesight (computer screens, headlights, florescent lighting). Smell is influenced too (exhaust, aerosol, perfume). Even taste is affected by artificial flavoring. Touch might be the only sense we have left unmarred through modern ways of life, though we do cover up most of our touch receptors with clothing. I guess time, unfailingly, will have to heal all once again.

These next months have a lot of plans. We will see how everything unfolds...

A few adventures I am looking forward to: Thi's visit (travel), Christmas (travel), New Years (travel), Consciousness Conference (V.S. Ramachandran!), Research, Cognitive Behavior Training, Experiment, Cochin Conference, Kangchenjunga, Adventure, Experiment ...

"The Future is but an empty page on which we write"

I will leave you with some curious and unaltered pictures that I took in natural lighting...

I wish you the best...