After reading through the first chapter I am excited to expand my knowledge in this area of Psychology. What I found most interesting was the the section on environmental impacts on the brain. In the Enriched Environment studies, rats living in cages with no stimulating objects were less social and had a decrease in physical activity. Then when their brain's development was analyzed, those that had lived in the enriched environment had thicker areas and more connections in their brains. This struck me because when I was doing research on children in the Chattanooga area we found that students performing well in school tended to have a significantly higher vocabulary than those students who were under-performing. The difference was caused by the amount of words these children were exposed to at home so again a richer environment leads to enriched minds. Our brains are simultaneously the most vulnerable and resilient part of us because it is constantly adapting in response to infinite variables. It's a wonder any of us turn out high functioning.
Anytime I have a paranormal experience I will think back on the story of Poe and his potential exposure to toxic levels of carbon monoxide.
In addition, I find heredity fascinating. I did not know prior to the chapter that it was once believed that heredity was transmitted through our blood (Darwin) or that Mendel spent seven years breeding his pea plants before he started to get a grasp on how genes were expressed/suppressed. I love that through the study of plants we were able to learn more about ourselves as well. Art imitates life on this topic through a specific video game I am quite fond of. One of the many things you can do in Animal Crossing is breed flowers and like Mendel we all just had to patiently observe the phenotypes until players started figuring out the game's algorithm.
As for what I am excited to explore further throughout this course:
-Emotional Expression
-Emotional Expression
-Reproductive Strategies (specifically the section on biparental species, found in only 3-5% of mammalian species.)
-Mental Illness
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