Smells and Bells

I was not able to attend the House Of Larva Show so I decided to look into it myself a little more. To be able to understand some of their other shows I looked on their website. I saw some of the stuff they showed us in class and some stuff I don’t think they did. About Page: I found it cool that The House of Larva had their first show at. School bar. I just can’t really imagine watching a drag show at a bar so I thought it was really interesting. From what I understand House of Larva doesn’t put on the same show more than once. I think I remember them saying that in class. I was a little confused by thins though because I would have thought that they would want to get their messages out to as many people as possible. Current Project Page: Their show they are working on now takes place in outer space which was s turn I wasn’t expecting. I personally love space stories so I would be interested to see this show In class Discussion: I thought I was neat that they incorporated part of ...

I’ve been playing tennis since I was a little kid. It is one of the most difficult sports when it comes to staying mentally tough. Thats why a lot of tennis players are a little insane (; Over the years I have developed a sort of routine that can be tied with religion. Before every match, especially away ones, I listen music with my beats headphones. I have done this since I began doing USTA tournaments in middle school. During the match I have a pink towel that I go to each time we switch sides. I also don’t like to take off pieces of clothing unless I get wicked hot because I get a little superstitions. In between each point I go back to the fence and take deep breaths and encourage myself and not let anything get in my head. When it comes to the senses they all come into play while I’m on the court. I can SEE my dad pacing in the background. I can HEAR my loving teammates cheering for me regardless if I will or lose a point. I can SMELL the new tennis balls when a can ...

People can take senses for granted a lot of the time. During this class I have wondered repeatedly what it would be like to miss one of the senses. I think that if I had to give up one it would be smell. I know that with giving up smell I would also be giving up a lot of my ability to taste but I would still be able to taste the basic sweat, sour, salty and etc… I wouldn’t want to not have my sense of touch because I can’t imagine not being able to feel loved ones anyone. Their tough is comforting and I rely on it so much. When I was in grade school we did this experiment once requiring us to live out a day as if we couldn’t see. We had to wear blind folds for hours to get the experience. We had to have someone help us with homework, help us get around, help us prepare food, and more. This experiment helped me to realize, as a young kid, that some people have it a lot harder than I do and it only took the loss of one sense. If I were to lose my sight I wouldn’t be able to tennis wh...

                      At the academic festival I experienced all of the senses. Smell-when I walked into the room with the buffet I could smell the lashed potatoes and the bread! All the food smelled amazing and I couldn’t wait to taste it Taste-My favorite part of the meal was the bread. I got to take it home after and I decided to try Nutella with it and it was the best idea I ever had. I wish I knew how to make it so I could give it to other people Hearing-I loved listening to the stories around me. President Hanno sat at our table so I got to learn stories about Wheaton I hadn’t heard before. I learned that he had to find a way to tell the students over the summer that their famous duck had died. I thought it was so funny that he had to find a way to announce the death of a duck to his school. Sight-I loved looking around and seeing all the different types of lighting in the room. There was multicolor string light...

My partner for the presentation, Emily, and I presented about smell after reading about it in The Natural History of the Senses. In my Brain, Mind, and Behavior class we were not able to go over the Olfactory(smell) system due to not having enough time. I wanted to know about it so I took upon myself to learn how the system works. Olfactory transduction takes place at the olfactory hair cell. An olfactory receptor is bound by a matching odor molecule, also known as ligand, thus depolarizing the hair cell which then excites the mitral neuron to fire. The mitral neuron axons project to the amygdala and the hippocampus which are parts of the limbic system. This is one reason that smell can trigger strong memories. Watson, Neil V., and S. Marc. Breedlove. The Mind's Machine: Foundations of Brain and Behavior. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Publishers, 2018.

After reading the Sight chapter in The Natural History of the Senses I wanted to explain what I know already from another class I take. I take Brain, Mind, and Behavior and in one of the sections we learned about the different sensory systems. I don’t know why but vision was one of my favorite senses to learn about in this section. I learned about different periods in development and how there are critical and sensitive periods. A critical period is a limited time in which an even can occur like the development of synapses in the brain for certain functions. There is an experiment done by David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel that really interested me about the development of the visual cortex. They took a new born cat and covered one of its eyes for about a year to see if the synapses would still develop. When they took off the cover the cat was blind in that eye. The cat did not develop sight after it was taken off though. There was a critical period where the eye needed visua...

Why do some people prefer to have something sweat, some salty, and some sour? We talked about how people can perceive taste differently after reading the Taste chapter in The Natural History of the Senses. I wanted to know more about why that is. Genes play a big role in an individuals preferences of taste. If an individuals parents do not have a high sensitivity for lets say sweetness it will take a larger quantity of that type of molecule to sense or experience that taste. On the psychology side children can develop preferences based off what they are exposed to yearly in their life. Let’s say a child is exposed to really spicy food when he or she is really young. They will most likely continue to eat it as an adult. People can also learn to associate a flavor or even a specific food to how they were feeling when they ate it at one point in their life. Lets say I ate a entire bag of potato chips one day and then got immediately sick. Subconsciously I would associate me...

After reading Authors of the Impossible, The Paranormal and the Sacred it reminded me of the time in Haiti where I had my own paranormal experience. We were a group of about 20 people. It was mostly kids and a few adults. We were there on a mission trip with my church in Hingham. We were visiting one of the families near by. Some of their children have this condition that causes them to not be able to walk correctly. By the time they are teens they can no longer walk at all. When we got there I felt a kinda dark vibe coming from the area. We gave the people food and we sang and danced with them. I don’t want to say I didn’t enjoy the time we had that afternoon with that family, because I did, but it just felt off. Later that night the other kids and I were all talking about how it felt really weird there and they felt a dark presence. Our priest, Father Sinisa, said that he was pretty sure that they practiced voodoo there. Voodoo is “A black religious cult practiced in the Caribbean a...

Hearing is one of the senses that is very important to daily rituals of the church. Confession: When an individual confesses their sins to a priest privately. The priest can not repeat what that individual said to anyone. It is like a cleansing of the soul. The priest can not repeat what has been said to anyone. As you say your sins out loud you are being washed clean again. Music: During every mass songs are chosen for specific times. We sing as the priest and the alter servers go down the aisle and as they leave. We sing when we are receiving communion. We also sing certain prayers or hymns during mass. Marriage vows: The vows of marriage in the Catholic Church are supposed to be sacred. If a couple end up getting divorced the church wont see them as ever being married. When the vows are said they are said in front of God. You are making a vow and a promise to God and the people watching. You will cherish and be loyal to this person standing across from you Confirmation: ...

Who knew that touch could have such a profound affect on human babies as well as other animals? If you don’t get enough affection as a child it could seriously affect the rest of your development. This was studied in rats and in monkeys. With rats if they are removed from their mothers for even a short amount of time their bodies will reduce their need for food in order to stay alive. In order to do this their bodies will grow at a slower pace or stop growing all together. With monkeys if they suffered short-term deprivation they didn't have as many problems. They would become clingy with other monkeys. Monkeys that suffered long-term deprivation would become loners and would be aggressive with other monkeys. Babies have been born deaf or blind or even both and they have been able to live almost normal lives. Children that are neglected or just not held or shown love can be drastically affected for the rest of their lives. There was a study done mentioned in The Loving To...