SLOKA IYENGAR
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How does my dance training make me a better scientist?

6/20/2022

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How does my dance training make me a better scientist?
  • Communication of ideas: Both as a scientist and as a dancer, my job is to reach out to people. I feel that my dance training helps me a great deal when I am talking to non-specialists. Communication of ideas and emotions through words, performance, gestures, and facial expressions in dance translates to my scientific world as well. 
    • For example, when I was developing articles on epilepsy for a lay audience, my dance training helped me connect with people and imagine myself in the shoes of a mother of a child with epilepsy. What kinds of information would a parent of a child with epilepsy want to know? This is the kind of insight that I can pass along to my trainees as well, who have written several articles on several basic science aspects of epilepsy.
    • Similarly, when I perform to a Western audience, I need to give them some background of what they are about to see, given that the art form and its cultural context may not be familiar to all. But, what's a good balance to strike? How much do people need to know beforehand to appreciate what I am about to perform? 
  • Exploring the boundaries of "knowing": For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by what it is to know something. Does "knowing" in its true sense mean being able to recall information, add to information, or all of it? 
    • Specifically, my journey as a dancer and scientist combines this fascination for what it is to know, making peace with not knowing the complete picture, and allowing for space for additional information to complete the picture. 
  • Exploring the boundaries of "not knowing": Pushing the boundaries of not knowing is also extremely interesting to me. Does our study of the biology of electrical impulses tell us about our mind and why we feel wistful about something? Does the study of movement (as in episode 2 of Vichaar) tell us why we find joy in moving? 
  • Appreciating beauty: At the end of the day, I find both, neuroscience and Bharatanatyam beautiful in an intuitive way.  
    • I think there is something beautiful in acknowledging that we cannot know how the brain works by looking at electrical impulses, and we cannot know art by looking at its components. 
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How does my scientific training make me a better dancer?

6/20/2022

1 Comment

 
How does my scientific training make me a better dancer? 
PictureFigure from my paper on adult neurogenesis [3].
  • Learning through patterns: My scientific training helps me seek patterns and create an organizational structure to understand a concept, and ideally add to it. I find that I learn dance the same way as well.
    • For example, the principles I use to understand and explain the phylogenetic tree for wild chimpanzees [1]  to teach to my Seminars on Sciences Course students, are the same ones I use to learn a new jati (a sequence of movements). 




​
  • Creativity within a framework: Both Bharatanatyam and neuroscience have a structure and framework, the knowledge of which is acquired over years. 
    • However, there is something special in the way you can use the language and knowledge base to create new works, whether it be a paper on synaptic plasticity in the brain [2], or a piece I composed to evoke the feeling of seeing snow for the first time. 
  • Finding depth: Both neuroscience and Bharatanatyam take time and patience to learn, let alone master. Immersing myself in dance and science has taught me the value of learning to love the journey of practice.
    • This sometimes seems out of place in a world of sound bites. Learning and appreciating the nuance, context, and depth of dance and science is something I love, which many times seems lost to executive summaries and bullet points.
  • Finding the essence: My previous point of using the structure that is taught to create new works also is relevant to finding the essence of the discipline, whether it be art or science.
    • While this may vary for each person, I know that for me, the essence of dance in taking my work to senior centers and the essence of my science is to use this training for service. ​
Citations: 
  1. Lycett SJ, Collard M, McGrew WC. Phylogenetic analyses of behavior support existence of culture among wild chimpanzees. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Nov 6;104(45):17588-92. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0707930104. Epub 2007 Oct 29. PMID: 17968009; PMCID: PMC2077048. Link here. 
  2. Iyengar SS, Mott DD. Neuregulin blocks synaptic strengthening after epileptiform activity in the rat hippocampus. Brain Res. 2008 May 7;1208:67-73. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2008.02.045. Epub 2008 Feb 29. PMID: 18387600. Link here. 
  3. Iyengar SS, LaFrancois JJ, Friedman D, Drew LJ, Denny CA, Burghardt NS, Wu MV, Hsieh J, Hen R, Scharfman HE. Suppression of adult neurogenesis increases the acute effects of kainic acid. Exp Neurol. 2015 Feb;264:135-49. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2014.11.009. Epub 2014 Dec 2. PMID: 25476494; PMCID: PMC4800819. Link here. 
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What do dance and science mean to me?

6/14/2022

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How I engage with dance as a scientist, and with science as a dancer
PictureDancing at the RING Garden in uptown Manhattan.


In episode 1 of Vichaar, I gave an overview of the project, and in episode 2, we saw how movement relates to dance, and how the brain enables and perceives movement.
While the production brings together my professional identities, this work is also a deeply personal one. 
In the next two posts, we will look at how science makes me a better dancer, and how dance makes me a better scientist.
At first glance, it may seem that there is nothing in common between art and science. The scientist's life consists of developing hypotheses, finding ways to address them, and communicating these results to the scientific community and ideally, to those outside the scientific community. Could there be any points of convergence? My experience as a practitioner of Bharatanatyam and neuroscience convinces me that there are! 

While not all the points may resonate exactly this way with all of you, I think there is soemthing deep and meaningful  about artistic expression as it relates to our lives. ​​​
What are some ways in which art enriches your life?  

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Movement and mobility for survival

6/5/2022

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Movement and mobility for survival
In Episode 2 of Vichaar and subsequent posts, we looked at movement in the brain and movement in dance, stillness as a contrast to movement, and subtle movements of the eyes known as "saccades". However, what underlies the evolution of movement? 
In this video, we see baby geese moving their legs, bodies, and beaks as they explore the environment around them. Animals move to seek food, mates, or shelter, or to get away from predators. The movement of animals to find suitable habitat can be either directed movement (called "taxes") or undirected movement (called "kineses") [1]. Speaking of habitat, movement and migration patterns are intricately related with social interaction in a species, e.g. in an experiment done in guppies [2].Human movement and mobility are intricately linked with our ability to walk on two legs (i.e. bipedalism), and are thought to have played a central role in our evolution [3]. 
I find that animals and wildlife around me inspire to think about movement in a different way. Are there animal movement patterns that inspire you? 
Citations:
  1. Breed ML, Moore, J. Chapter 8 - Movement: Search, Navigation, Migration, and Dispersal. Editor(s): Michael D. Breed, Janice Moore. Animal Behavior, Academic Press, 2012, Pages 219-252, ISBN 9780123725813, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-372581-3.00008-8. Link here. 
  2. Kotrschal A, Szorkovszky A, Herbert-Read J, Bloch NI, Romenskyy M, Buechel SD, Eslava AF, Alòs LS, Zeng H, Le Foll A, Braux G, Pelckmans K, Mank JE, Sumpter D, Kolm N. Rapid evolution of coordinated and collective movement in response to artificial selection. Sci Adv. 2020 Dec 2;6(49):eaba3148. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba3148. PMID: 33268362; PMCID: PMC7710366.​ Link here. 
  3. Kuhn SL, Raichlen DA, Clark AE. What moves us? How mobility and movement are at the center of human evolution. Evol Anthropol. 2016 May 6;25(3):86-97. doi: 10.1002/evan.21480. PMID: 27312180. Link here. 
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    About Sloka 

    My name is Sloka.  I am a neuroscientist and dancer; you can find more about me here. 

    Picture
    Geese babies

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Last updated: March 29, 2023
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  • About me
    • Profile
    • Service
    • Invited talks and interviews
    • Continuing education
    • Contact me
    • Public Events
  • Science
    • Science consulting
    • Global health >
      • Capacity building in global health >
        • Capacity building through leadership
        • Disaster relief
      • Mental health
      • Aging and palliative care
      • Neurological disorders
    • Clinical science
    • Preclinical science
    • Science advocacy >
      • Advocacy activities
      • ABC newsletters
    • Patient communication and advocacy >
      • Patient communication and advocacy (articles)
    • Science education
    • Publications
    • Awards
  • Dance
    • Dance resume >
      • Pictures and videos
      • Community engagement
    • Vichaar >
      • Vichaar: Episode 1 transcript
      • Vichaar: Episode 2 transcript
      • Vichaar: testimonials
    • Bharatanatyam for creative aging >
      • Bharatanatyam for all
      • Bharatanatyam for all: testimonials
      • Bharatanatyam for all: instructional videos
      • Resources for seniors >
        • Guiding Your Senior Loved One Through Financial Decisions
        • Signs Your Aging Parent Needs Help