Today our presentation at Garden Palms was about the Neuroscience of Community. The residents started trickling in as we started setting up. While we waited for the rest of them to arrive, we got the chance to talk to some of them about how they were doing and about their backgrounds. We started the presentation with a callback to the previous presentation, asking them “What makes you the happiest?” Most of the residents chose helping others and spending time with family. Then, we transitioned to our new topic by asking them to define “community.” Our audience was happy to present their views and experiences, and we were able to engage in thought-provoking conversation.They really enjoyed learning about the various parts of the brain and hormones associated with being part of a community. Residents were also excited to participate in our activities comparing empathy and sympathy. The highlight of the visit was probably the rhythm game we played towards the end of the visit during Leou’s discussion of mirror neurons. The activity essentially consisted of each resident coming up with their own clapping rhythm and everyone else copying the rhythm to the best of their ability. We got a lot of creative rhythms and everyone was having a great time! One thing that was different about this visit compared to my previous visit was that we sat together with the residents during the lecture. I noticed that talking to them individually face-to-face seemed to keep them engaged and more inclined to elaborate on their point of view. I particularly appreciated talking to them about what was most meaningful to them and how that was connected to a sense of community. After the visit, we reflected on why the audience seemed to deeply resonate with this topic and how that led to us feeling especially connected with them this time. We are looking forward to coming again in future weeks!
Leou Ying, Luyan Zhang, Kelsey Jian on 10/23/2022
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