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lambrisprime
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26 Oct 2010, 11:42 pm

So, today in my introductory psych class we were discussing neurodegenerative disorders. The class eventually fell into discussion about Alzheimer’s. The discussion began after a fairly simplistic explanation of the disease on behalf of my teacher. The questions started out fairly basic and then progressed to the actual mechanism suspected to be the cause of the disease. My teacher had already given an outdated theory on the cause and sort of side stepped the question.
This is where I may have potentially embarrassed myself. I had looked into this disorder at some point in the past and also have a decent (questionable but remains unquestioned) understanding of bio-psyche. So, I reluctantly raise my hand for the first time in what has been about 7 weeks of the class. Ill provide some of what I said to give an idea of the entire speech which was about 2-5 minutes long.
My teacher had stated previously that the cause of Alzheimer’s was a lack of acetylcholine. When my peer asked what the cause was again the teacher didn’t reiterate what she had said before and began to move onto the next topic. I said something to the effect of “I’ve read something on this and it essentially said that a common feature in the brains of people who develop Alzheimer’s are a thing called tangles. These tangles are comprised of fragmented pieces of a transmembrane protein; basically a part of this specific type of protein breaks off when attempting to traverse the neural cell membrane. This fragment of the protein is insoluble and as consequence remains in the channel and accumulates over time; inevitably disrupting cell function and causing cell death. So although there is less cholinergic activity in the patient with Alzheimer’s, this is more so a result of there being less cells to communicate with. So scientists are now researching potential aids or cures by tailoring medication to either preserve the proper function of that protein or to increase the exportation of the protein fragments.” I also mentioned a few of my own thoughts, and mentioned that this could also be merely just a symptom of the actual underlying issue.
When I began to speak I didn’t intend to go into such detail, but I hadn’t read this for quite some time and became somewhat excited about piecing it back together. About ¾ the way through I looked around to see people’s reactions or if they were still listening. What first caught my eye was a girl with a look of what I can only describe as hysteric confusion; mouth slightly ajar, eyebrows raised and slowly glancing from side to side. I don’t think what I said was wildly complicated, and assume this intense look came from a less humble and more harshly judgmental perspective. I know I could have just given the sound bite version, but at the time it didn’t come to me; so I sort of had to work my way through it.
Then class ended. I had a conversation with my teacher, but it wasn’t really related to what I said and she was asking questions along the lines of my ambitions. She did however make a comment that I should maybe consider a career path that is in something concrete. I don’t know if she meant that I should work in a structured field where things have answers and protocols (which I had sort of hinted to by implying that cognitive psych is kind of “wishy washy” for me) or if she meant that I should become a construction worker. That just doesn’t seem like a very encouraging thing to say.
I just not sure if this type of dialouge is appropriate; if it isnt what about it isnt?
Feedback?



Apera
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26 Oct 2010, 11:55 pm

No; assuming that is the exact phrasing, she was suggesting a firmly scientific field. Construction would be "and" or "with" concrete. I think she was impressed with the detail you gave, especially given when you read it.


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chaotik_lord
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27 Oct 2010, 12:06 am

I agree with the above poster. Is does not sound like you embarrassed yourself at all; rather, that you impressed the teacher. However, you probably distanced yourself from your classmates, but you should not concern yourself with such things. Do not impede your intellectual experience to appear more normal.



lambrisprime
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27 Oct 2010, 12:29 am

Ahh, thank you; this is what I needed unconstraind opinions to either confirm or deny. To be honest I would prefer people telling me im full of crap rather then leave me to determine a response based on abiguous physical gestures; well, ambiguous in that I somehow manage to spin a particular emote either way. This has been bothering me all day, and its a relief to have somebody elses opinion. The look I discribed was as I said hysteric confuesion or astonishment, they look very simular it seems; but I tend to take a more pessimistic approach to interpreting things. I just know that theres a lot of stuff I dont know, and as a result feel a great deal of unease knowing that I cant provide a full answer; and not being able to produce satisfactory insights/inferences based on what I know.



CanadianRose
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27 Oct 2010, 12:34 am

don't be too concerned about your gaping classmate.

I have been on both the receiving and giving end of one of those looks.

It usually translates as:

"Wow - does he/she have a roladex in their brain that they can just prattle that off without notes - that's frack'in impressive!" 8O

:D



nostromo
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27 Oct 2010, 3:49 am

I think the reaction would have been one of 'blown away'!
Well that was mine anyway, that's some complicated stuff.

I don't mean to be disparaging of people who take introductory psych classes but a proportion I have known are touchy feely females, AKA very NT types as such, and your science based approach probably flamboosagated them :D



Titangeek
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31 Oct 2010, 1:59 am

CanadianRose wrote:
"Wow - does he/she have a roladex in their brain that they can just prattle that off without notes - that's frack'in impressive!" 8O

:D

Ah a Battlestar Galactica fan i see, lol


nostromo wrote:
I think the reaction would have been one of 'blown away'!
Well that was mine anyway, that's some complicated stuff.

I don't mean to be disparaging of people who take introductory psych classes but a proportion I have known are touchy feely females, AKA very NT types as such, and your science based approach probably flamboosagated them Very Happy


More that likely, but isn't the word flabbergasted?


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luvmyaspie
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31 Oct 2010, 2:24 am

I think you impressed them all especially the teacher! 8)


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