HSMBB CommuniTea Success, Despite Lack of Speaker

Approximately 15 students gathered in Emerson Hall earlier this afternoon for peppermint tea, vegan snickerdoodles, and discussion at the Harvard Society for Mind, Brain, and Behavior's inaugural CommuniTea event of the semester.

"We do a mix of activities," HSMBB Co-Chair Jackson M. Kernion '12 said. "For academic events, we invite our favorite professors to talk to a small group of undergrads in an informal setting about their work."

The group also plans a symposium each year for students pursuing MBB tracks within a variety of concentrations and others interested in MBB-related topics.

The afternoon’s event was planned as a discussion with Harvard Medical School neurology Professor Carole E. Landisman concerning the effect of synaptic plasticity on everyday experiences such as perception and memory.

"It's usually very informal," said Natalie C. Padilla '12, the coordinator of the event. "We try to look up MBB faculty or people who have classes that are up-and-coming."

As the hour wound up, some of the students began their own MBB-centered discussions, ranging thematically from the relationship between neurons and memory to the mental complexity necessary to speak tonal languages like Mandarin.

Although Landisman did not end up making an appearance, most students seemed content to mingle alongside similarly-minded peers.