Instead, I’m a student—an expert on fascination. I, and every other student badge walking around the meeting, could easily tell you how incredible the nervous system is. With stars in our eyes we could throw one-liner facts at you that could leave you amazed just as they did for us when we first learned about them:
-“How cool is it that there’s a region of the brain called the fusiform face area that is specialized for face recognition!?”
-A purkinje neuron looks like this!” ---->
-“Glia, or non-neuronal cells in the nervous system, occupy half of the volume of the brain and spinal cord. Yet we know little about them.”
-“Do you know how incredibly fast ion channels, receptors, and neurotransmitters perform?! Faster than you think!”
That’s my blog’s angle. I’m a neuroscience undergrad student visiting SfN and Chicago for the first time. And if you’re interested in reading about SfN from the perspective of a fascination expert, this is the blog for you. Ultimately, if knowledge were a tangible thing, each of us at this meeting would walk around with our hands out, palms up, and fingers curled, wanting more and keeping an open mind. At the core, we're all fascination experts. We wouldn't be here thirsting for enlightenment if our mouths weren't eternally parched.
If you’d like links and updates about my blog, feel free to follow me on Twitter @Dara_Farhadi. Otherwise, check back here at this URL every morning between 7 and 8 AM to read about what I found captivating the day before at SfN.