On
October 11, 2018, the first Demystifying the Expert event for the 2018-2019
term welcomed Dr. Mark Gabriele from the Department of Biology as our guest
expert for the evening. Dr. Gabriele has
been faculty at JMU since 2001, after research appointments and received his doctoral
degree from Wake Forest University, but he is also an alumnus from JMU!
The members
of JMU’s New and Imrpov’d who participated in the event were: Michael Mathis
and Ethan Schultze, both junior media arts and design majors, and Caroline
Buddendorf, a sophomore theatre major.
Right before the inaugural twenty questions game, Dr. Gabriele asked
each comedian what their favorite genre of music or band was, which would later
clue in to how Dr. Gabriele entered his field and in particular what he
studies. Michael mentioned his Spotify
recommendations being primarily hip hop, Ethan had classic rock and Queen being
his favorite band, and Caroline named Gorillaz as her current most listened to
group.
After
Dr. Gabriele’s questions, the comedians had their turn to inquire in the twenty
questions game. Each comedian took turns asking Dr. Gabriele yes
or no type questions to help them deduce what area of science she studies. Our comedians started off strong in narrowing
his field down to something in biology, but then spent much of their time
trying to figure out what exactly he did related to animals. After twenty questions, Dr. Gabriel revealed
that he, while he does use animals in the lab in his work, is a developmental
neuroscientist with a focus in sensory integration, or the circuits within our
brain that allow us to use our senses.
As he explained
with open ended questions, he does much work in the studies of audition, how we
hear, and his love for music is what kept him in developmental neuroscience for
the past two decades. He also revealed
his favorite band, The War on Drugs. He
shared his most fascinating discovery from his work, where he had seen that the
brain had already developed the neural networks for hearing and vision before
the ears and eyes were fully formed.
In his elevator
pitch, where he gives a brief overview of his work and how it relates to the
greater world, he mentioned how his work applies to many different disorders, from
things as isolated in cause like tinnitus to much more complex disorders like
autism-spectrum disorder. And, in
addition, he talked about how his work would be able to help improve therapy
parameters for patients, but also that his work was trying to find a way to
change the neural networks in order to alleviate these disorders.
The
second game was the fill-in-the-blank game, during which the comedians guess
words that complete titles of articles that relate to Dr. Gabriele’s research. Both related to the maps within the brain
that transmit sensory data, but while the first mentioned how some people’s
brains may have more connections between their cortices, the second article
talked about how maps that never had a need to develop (as in the case of a
person born without hands) were not only still developed, but eventually used
in the event of ‘regaining’ sensory capabilities, as with a transplant
procedure.
Next
was the jargon game during which the comedians guess what certain acronyms or
terms mean in the expert’s field. Here, the comedians learned about the
microglia, small cells in the brain that support neurons and are responsible for
pruning brain connections into the proper maps.
Finally,
the audience got to learn more about Dr. Gabriele outside of his life as a biologist
with the Two Truths and a Lie game. During this game, the comedians and
audience learned that Dr. Gabriele, during his undergraduate career at JMU, was
an Olympic-level swimmer, having his personal record for the butterfly stroke
still standing at Godwin Hall. In
addition, we learned that he learned to balance his busy life with meditation, with
most sessions lasting thirty minutes and the most public being in an airport.
The
final event of the night was the skit in which the comedians played out an
imagined day in the life of the office hours of Dr. Gabriele. With some mandatory quotes relating to biology
and neuroscience from pop culture favorites like Gattaca, our comedians came up
with a scenario where a humble student approaches Dr. Gabriele about a test
question, but quickly delving into an exploration of the deeper meanings of life,
friendship, and what is real and what is made real by the imagination. From ‘Dr. Gabriele’ hinting that he may be a
multi-dimensional being to judging a man, or imaginary man, by his outfit, it certainly
was a wild ride!
We look forward
to seeing you at the second Demystifying the Expert event for the fall semester
at 7:00 PM on Thursday, November 8, 2018, at Taylor Down Under, the first floor
of Madison Union!
