AP Biology Gang With Dr. Howard Fields

Cafe Scientifique
Palo Alto (Roche Labs)
March 21, 2006

Dr. Howard Fields, a neuroscientist at UCSF, gave an interesting lecture on the neuroscience of pleasure and pain. His model of the brain is fairly simple; he sees it as an organ that makes cost-benefit decisons about which choice is best to make and then acts on that decision. During his talk he used this model to help us understand pain and pleasure. One of the highlights of his lecture was his discussion of a variety of different experiments that have been done using rats to better understand how pain and pleasure are related. A large part of the lecture was devoted to a question and answer session with the audience. Twelve AP Biology students attended, from left to right they are: Alison McDonald, Susan Alfs, Julia Nussbacher, Leila Vaez-Iravani, Chelsea Kolander, Liz Rose, Leanne Pfeifer, Briana Konigsberg, Courtney Scallan, Liz Magnan, Thomas Logue, and Gene Yevgeniy. Leila asked two questions and Liz Rose asked one.