the event<\/a>, Rust discussed a new method for researchers to change their processes and successfully discover cures to brain conditions.<\/p>\nRust began her talk by discussing the first chapter of her book, which analyzes the story of Carol Jennings. Jennings faced Alzheimer\u2019s disease and \u201cchanged the course\u201d of Alzheimer\u2019s research by hypothesizing her family\u2019s genetic tie to the condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many remarkable components to that story, but I think it also captures where we are today with these classes of conditions we\u2019re having a hard time figuring out and treating,” Rust told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “That story doesn\u2019t have a happy ending yet.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the event, Rust explained that inheriting specific genes can lead to an increased, or in the case of a few rare genes, an \u201cexceedingly high probability\u201d that the patient will develop Alzheimer\u2019s. Aside from these methods, scientists are still unsure about what contributes to a patient developing the condition.<\/p>\n
Rust explained that researchers have been viewing the brain as a \u201cdomino chain\u201d \u2014 when one component doesn\u2019t work, the chain breaks. In the 1990s, scientists\u2019 mindset was to \u201cfind the broken domino so we can go in and repair it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rust advocated for a different mindset where the brain is seen as a system of \u201cfeedback loops” instead, where “causes \u2026 lead to effects that feed back as causes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Psychiatry resident Farid Aboharb attended the talk and shared his reactions with the DP.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very interested to hear \u2026 what she sees as the path forward for connecting what\u2019s going on now and how we need to shift our thinking so that we can start making better progress towards translating some of the things we\u2019ve learned into cures for patients,\u201d he told the DP.<\/p>\n
Engineering graduate student Serene Feng told the DP that the clinical implications of Rust\u2019s book \u2014 \u201cthat science is viewing treatments wrong\u201d \u2014 drew her in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think going forward I kind of want to think more in terms of systems and not oversimplifying things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
College senior Michael Go took Rust\u2019s Introduction to Neuroscience course in his first year at Penn. He found the difference between Rust’s neuroscience pedagogy \u2014 which at the university level still focuses on the \u201cdomino\u201d idea \u2014 and the ideas in the book \u201cvery interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy own professor was teaching it in a different sort of way, which now she completely opposes,\u201d he told the DP in reference to Rust.<\/p>\n
Rust is currently transitioning from her former research on memory and vision to studying mood. After completing her Simons Foundation Fellowship, she plans to return to Penn and teach a class on emotions in fall 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn Libraries hosted an event featuring Psychology professor Nicole Rust to discuss her new book centered on approaches…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":301748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-301747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115370708207504443","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}