While many students hold aspirations for doing medical research later on in life, the Neuroscience Club aims to make those distant aspirations closer to becoming a reality by collecting and analyzing data on the student population.

“What we do is, when possible, we conduct a myriad of psychological tests or surveys on typical Gunn students,” junior club president Sean Parshad said. “We organize all the data and graph it and, as well, we occasionally try to arrange for guest speakers on a subject matter that we would like to see.”

For example, the club will soon host David King-Stephens M.D., a researcher specializing in a neurological condition that causes severe seizures.

Neuroscience has been a growing industry in recent years, Parshad said, and studying it has increasingly become a club function. “Neuroscience has been a critical and innovative field in finding medications for treating epilepsy and other mental health diseases,” he said. “We have different discussions on articles and recent updates in regards to neuroscience.”

Parshad said he hopes to direct the club towards active participation in the Gunn community. “The field that I’m interested in is the research and development aspect of neuroscience,” he said. “I like conducting tests on the brain and seeing how the brain responds to certain stimuli. In a way it kind of intertwines with psychology.”

While the group has not yet conducted any tests, it is preparing to begin its first study on dream activity. In the meantime, meetings are generally discussion-oriented. “I possess different articles for [the club] to look at and we have sedulous discussions on the subject matter and what possible research ideas we could gain from them.” Parshad said.

The club, however, has met some financial problems. “We don’t have the type of technology to do all the really fancy technical work,” Parshad said. He hopes to find a corporate donor to help cover costs and help the club expand. “There is a narrow possibility that we will get sponsors from large local companies and do some research that they provide for us,” he said. “ It really is an excellent way to get a feel for what college will be like.”

The club meets every other Thursday at lunch in room V-13.