These days, I eat lunch in empty conference rooms. I run experiments without inquisitive undergraduate or high school mentees peeking over my shoulder. I pass masked colleagues in the hallways at a distance—just making out their faces before narrowly missing the opportunity to wave.
I think most of us have experienced the unique emotions of isolation and loneliness at some point, at the very least throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Throughout my life, I wondered what makes us feel and act on emotions like loneliness. As a middle schooler, during an outreach program’s Neuro Night, the answer was placed in my hands: the brain! It was a plastinated human one. I soon also discovered that I could study it as a scientist.
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