Brain and Mind Resources

BrainOVERVIEW: An introductory course on the fundamentals of neuroscience will provide a foundation to explore sensory perception, emotion, memory, and consciousness. Based on our experience from prior institutes, monastics will gain a rich understanding of how to engage scientists about the brain and consciousness. Neuroscience has salient points of overlap with Buddhism, and we have found that courses in neuroscience lead to rich dialogue between the traditions. Monastics have understood the limitations of scientific methods at probing deep questions of consciousness and human potential, and have also understood the important role that the emerging field of neuroscience can play in encouraging self-reflection and compassion-driven investigation, as well as the enormous opportunity for new spiritual information to be developed and shared in a scientifically robust way.

Teaching Slides (Power Point)

  1. 1. Introduction and History
  2. 2. Neuroanatomy
  3. 3. Neuroscience Methods
  4. 4. States of Consciousness
  5. 5. Vision
  6. 6. Hearing
  7. 7. Touch
  8. 8. Taste and Smell
  9. 9. Memory and Learning
  10. 10. Autonomic Nervous System
  11. 11. Neuroethics
  12. 12. Scientific Method/Statistics

Hands-on Activities

  1. 1. Cheshire Cat (2 pages)
  2. 2. Blind Spot (2 pages)
  3. 3. Seeing Your Retina (2 pages)
  4. 4. Master Eye (5 pages)
  5. 5. Mirror Pairs (2 pages)
  6. 6. CD Neuron (1 page)
  7. 7. Rope Neuron (2 pages)
  8. 8. Pipe Cleaner Neuron (1 page)
  9. 9. Message Transmission (Neuorotranmitter Model) (1 page)
  10. 10. 2 Point Discrimination (2 pages)
  11. 11. How Fast (Reaction Time) (3 pages)
  12. 12. Knee Jerk Reflex (1 page)