How do we perceive pain? How do neural networks transform sensory input into thoughts and memories? How can learning processes be improved?
These decades-long questions have been thoroughly explored but never fully solved. However, for the members of Bellevue College’s Neuroscience Club, an unresolved question isn’t a reason for despair; it’s a reason for excitement and a place for finding community.
The club president, Ben Koo, a sophomore interested in both neuro and data science, started the club this past fall in an effort to blend his interests and find like-minded students interested in research. Additionally, he says, the club serves to explore “computational approaches to understanding cognition,” as his interests lie in “how software and models can help us study mental processes like trauma and memory retention.”
Despite being less than a year old, the club has provided numerous opportunities for students on campus. Wanting to expand the club to be more than just meetings and discussions, the leadership team organized speaker events and even field trips to local organizations.
In the fall, BC’s English professor Dan Tremglio—whose research interests include neurolinguistics—gave a talk about how prediction is at the core of almost everything we do. Any time he speaks, he is predicting what he will say next based on prior experience in similar situations. He explained that writing works the same way because writers constantly predict where the sentence or idea should go and how it should function in relation to the rest of their writing based on previous novels or life experiences. He also illustrated this with a baseball example, explaining how a trained batter predicts the pitch based on patterns, while a beginner has no model to rely on.
Earlier this month, the club ventured out into Seattle, exploring labs at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and the Allen Institute of Brain Science.
At the Allen Institute, students explored the neural underpinnings of Alzheimer’s disease, seeing what progress has been made and what is yet to be known with experienced scientists. Additionally, students learned about research at the Institute which includes developing tools for standardizing cell type taxonomies and genetically tagging specific parts of neurons or cells with GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) and tracking diseases like tumors or neurodegeneration. Later, at Fred Hutch, club members received an extensive tour of the facilities, performed gel electrophoresis for leukemia detection in a student lab and received numerous internship opportunities for students interested in biomedicine and neuroscience.
Since Bellevue College functions as both a four-year and a community college, many students transfer to different schools after completing part of their degree.
Despite Bellevue College’s abundance of majors and courses in science, there is no dedicated neuroscience major, so the club serves to function as an introduction to the discipline for those interested in pursuing the discipline in a school that offers it.
“My hope is that the club continues to encourage curiosity and helps students discover interests they may not have considered before,” Koo adds.
Throughout winter and spring, the club has been working on a research project on whether or not binaural beats at certain frequencies increase memory retention. Their goal is not only to present at a research symposium, but to develop better learning technology for college students struggling with focus and memory. For those interested in contributing ideas and experience, the Neuroscience Club meets every Thursday in room U209 from 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
