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Think its going to be a rich semester; lots of interesting suggestions from our first meeting for possible future discussion. Among them: aging, consciousness/free will as emergent properties and epigenetics (see Exploring the Consciousness Problem (old, needing update), From Complexity to Emergence and Beyond , Free Will? (also old, needing update)), the gene/brain relationship (Genes, Brains, Behavior, also old etc), animal models and their relation to humans, imaging technologies present and future, education and the brain (Brain and Education: Thinking About New Directions, neuroethics in general (Neuroethics Society), ethical problems of therapeutics including psychopharmacology, "talk therapy".

Related to the last was some interesting discussion of "broken brains", and of the pros and cons of various therapeutic approaches, that seemed like a good starting point for our next discussion (and maybe more: is changing the "chemical balance" of the brain pharmacologically the same as talk therapy? is there a "cellular basis" for all brain disturbances?). Some readings on the validity, or lack thereof, of the "broken brain" perspective are provided on our course website as background for our next meeting.