September 2022

Hello! My name is Kshiraj Talati, and I’m a dual enrollment student at Greenville Tech. I am currently a senior at J.L. Mann High School, about a 5–10 minute drive from the Barton Campus. I am the first of hopefully many high school students in the state to undertake a 299 level course! I found my love for psychology and neuroscience in my freshman year of high school and have undertaken a few research projects in the past at places like the University of Southern California, Clemson, and more!

Last year, after taking PSY 212 with Professor Davis, I grew an interest to work a creative inquiry project of my own. Through months of appealing to state boards, district officials, and Greenville Tech staff, I look forward this semester to work on a project relating the effects of Neuroplasticity (the brain’s natural phenomenon to restructure neural pathways) and its potential uses to battle age-related neurocognitive disorders, like Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. In my project, I plan to review studies that have observed the effects of neuroplasticity, and others that have attempted to manipulate it to understand future uses or means of use to treat such disorders.

December 2022

This past semester I’ve had the privilege of researching neuroplasticity and its relation to neurocognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia. Over the course of the past few months, I’ve reviewed through the fields scope of literature regarding the phenomenon and built future proposals to provide modern science a better understanding on where efforts might prove fruitful.
As I progress towards the next chapter of my life at as an undergraduate student, I look forward to continuing to work upon my research and developing my growth in psychology, neuroscience, and related sciences. From my experience taking this independent research course (PSY 299) I’ve learned a lot about the research process, gathering and analyzing a variety of sources, and creating proposal methods for projects in my future. I hope my work can inspire other younger students to take the step into researching topics that interest them.
Lastly, I’d love to thank Greenville Technical College for supporting me, the South Carolina Department of Education for allowing me to become a part of our state’s history, my family, my guidance counselor Mrs. Vaneasha Danzy, and most importantly of all, my incredible psychology professor and one of my favorite teachers ever, Mrs. Lauren Davis for her hard-work, patience, dedication, and willingness to have me this semester. She is truly a one-of-a-kind teacher!