Event 3 - The Brain + Art with Mark Cohen

 

(Proof of Attendance)

For my third event, I attended the meeting on Art + Brain featuring Mark Cohen. Mark Cohen is a neuroscientist and professor at UCLA and very much an engineer. His talk about the brain and how it intricate it is to our beings was very eye-opening for me. 

Some of the most interesting topics were his talks about brain mapping and the use of MRIs to conduct research. I think this is extremely fascinating because MRIs now allow us to look at the brain while it is working to identify what parts of the brain are working to create what. I think the best example was where he showed off the belief detector and how accurate it was in identifying what we do and do not believe. When he discussed how in the future this could have consequences like people being able to read our minds it really got me thinking. At first, I thought that while this could be a possibility, the chances of this happening were so unlikely. However, as I thought more into it and the overall theme of this class so far, I realized that so much of our innovation and advancement in technology has been things that we never saw coming and remained as science fiction until they weren't. 



Another thing that Mark said that really got me thinking was his talk about idealism. How we are all so incredibly unaware that our senses are incredibly limited and we do not know what we cannot see, smell, hear, etc.  His example, comparing what he said to the electromagnetic spectrum, was a terrific example because he shows us how small the "visible light" portion of the spectrum is compared to the entire essentially infinite spectrum. This also was so fascinating to learn and just think about because these are not things that come up on one's mind just everyday. 



Works Cited

Vesna, V. (2022, May). Week 7 - Neuroscience + Art. Lecture.

Cohen, Mark S., and Susan Y. Bookheimer. "Localization of brain function using magnetic resonance imaging." Trends in neurosciences 17.7 (1994): 268-277.

Langleben, D. D., & Moriarty, J. C. (2013, May 1). Using brain imaging for lie detection: Where science, law and research policy collide. Psychology, public policy, and law : an official law review of the University of Arizona College of Law and the University of Miami School of Law. Retrieved June 10, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3680134/



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