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I really enjoyed our discussions this semester in the NBS seminar.  They broadened my view of the Neural and Behavioral Sciences field.  I came into this seminar with a much narrower view of what the NBS field encompassed, and I am leaving this seminar with a much broader view of the NBS field.

I imagined that our discussions would focus on the brain and neurons every week with every topic because we were in an NBS seminar.  So, I was really surprised by the breadth and the depth of the topics we covered in our NBS seminar. I was specifically surprised with topics such as education and the brain, diversity and productivity, love, illicit drugs, social cognition and morality- really enjoyed discussing these topics in our NBS class and gaining some NBS insight into each of them.  I realized that the umbrella of topics covered in the NBS field is quite large.  Even my own topic choice I was surprised by: The Science of Love- although I was a bit nervous at first about choosing this topic for our NBS seminar and worried how relevant it would be, I feel that in the end, our topic was extremely relevant to NBS and raised interesting and controversial questions that relate to NBS.  

And then, even the topics I was less surprised to encounter like consciousness, psychosomatics, pain, gender differences, psychotherapy, and animal models- still ended up surprising me in our discussions.  The discussions were not as I expected- they were not straightforward and not as clear cut as I had imagined.  

This seminar has demonstrated to me the power and importance of interdisciplinary study.  Bringing diverse minds together allows for deep, creative insights to be made.  NBS as a concentration in the bi-co is interdisciplinary in nature bringing together departments of psychology, biology, cognitive science, and computer science together.  I value the NBS concentration and I grateful to have had the opportunity to experience such interdisciplinary classes, discussions, work, and thinking.