My Brain is Full

I'm more behind than I usually am for the upcoming test. As a result, I'm going to take a short break from blogging until Monday. The midterm covers a pretty diverse range of topics: neurology (MS, epilepsy, stroke), fuzzy stuff (behavior, memory, language), and psychiatry (depression, bipolar disease, suicide).

Interestingly, today I went to a talk by Robert Sapolsky. I had several classes with Sapolsky at Stanford, and he's a fascinating guy. His lecture style is a storytelling manner where he can really bring out the scientific debates and controversies underlying neuroscience, behavior, and psychology. He has a remarkable familiarity with different studies and papers and can make cogent arguments defending his positions. His primary research is on stress hormones; he also collaborates with baboons in Africa so much that a TA suggested he started looking like one. His talk today was on the biology of depression and covered neurochemistry, anatomy, endocrine, and psychological factors.