Psychology & Health Sciences Clubs Welcome Ph.D. Student for Collaborative Lecture

Article by Rachel Siegel ’20:
On Wednesday, January 9, 2019, members of the Psychology and Health Sciences clubs met in the chorus room to welcome Chris O’Brien, a Ph.D. student at Rutgers University. Mr. O’Brien discussed his work and study in the field of neuroscience and its crossover with the parallel field of psychology. Mr. O’Brien began his talk by explaining the origins of neuroscience, and how cultures like Ancient Greece and Egypt explored the field with their own ideas of how the brain worked. He delved into different types of neuroscience, along with how injuries to the brain affect us psychologically (most notably in cases such as Phineas Gage’s).
Questions were asked by both students and teachers alike, curious about how far we’ve come in our study of the brain and how our knowledge has grown exponentially compared to the past. Mr. O’Brien also shared some of the research work he has done as an undergraduate, including live imaging of a mouse’s brain cells firing in response to stimuli.
Inspiring a large audience passionate about their interest in the human brain, Mr. O’Brien encouraged all to pursue deeper research into the parallel fields of psychology and neuroscience.