Modupe Olufemi is the writer behind Mind-Body Problems. She avidly loves neuroscience, primarily focusing on topics relevant to psychiatric and neurological conditions. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology, minoring in Psychology, where she developed her love for neuroscience. It was during her undergraduate studies that she learned about the biopsychosocial model of health, and became aware of challenges plaguing psychiatry. From 2017-2019, she had the privilege of working at the Center of Neurodegenerative Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Her experiences at UPenn allowed her to be at the cutting edge of research related to neurodegenerative disease. However, she equally became aware of additional challenges concerning diagnostics and treatment within neurological conditions during her time here. Modupe took her talents to Toronto in the Fall of 2019, wanting to perform basic science research relevant to psychiatry and neurology. In early 2023, she graduated from the University of Toronto with a Master of Science in Pharmacology & Toxicology. During her graduate studies, she was able to explore the use of CRISPR-Cas9 to dissect the contributions of signaling pathways within brain circuits to behaviors that are of great interest to psychiatry/neurology. However, as in other phases of her life as a researcher and student, she encountered challenges to the utility of models used to study the conditions that she is so passionate about understanding more deeply.
Thus, the blog Mind-Body Problems was born out of a need to explore these issues more deeply. Modupe has had the privilege of working in disciplines of neuroscience research that could benefit more from the cross-pollination of ideas. The name of the blog is both a play on Cartesian dualism, the comorbidity that exists between neurological or psychiatric conditions and metabolic dysfunction; and the misconception that psychiatric health is somehow separate from “physical” or “bodily” health. She hopes that this exploration of topics within neurology and psychiatry will inspire people to think more deeply about the bidirectional relationship between our minds and bodies, and how this relationship influences health outcomes.
Mind-Body Problems 