Short Update

I know I'm in the habit of having long breaks between posts and I'm trying to break that habit. So while this is a short post, I just wanted to make sure I'm keeping friends and family abreast of my life.

My first day outfit was an EEG dress and neuron jewelry

Speaking of which, I can now officially claim to be a graduate student! Yesterday was my first day at Northwestern University as a first year student. It still really hasn't hit me that I'm actually on my way to earning a PhD within the next 5 years. Sure that's quite a long time, but I couldn't be more thrilled to be on this journey.

Only a day into school and she's anxious to be an over-worked grad student? Yeah, I'm weird that way. I also prefer more structure to my schedule so I'm hoping to settle into a more full routine while still keeping some "me time." That's not to say I don't experience any anxiety. I know I've only just begun, but I'm chomping at the bit to have something to work on. I'm a bit of a work-a-holic and not having a current project makes me feel too lazy for comfort. I'm sure you're shaking your head.

I will do my best to post more often and will hopefully have some interesting fodder in the form of lectures and articles I will soon be devouring.

Auditory Stream Segregation

It's only been a week of research and adventure, but already I feel quite settled into my new home here at Albert Einstein College. And even better, I find I have already made progress on my work in the lab and feel that I am really learning a whole new skill set.

For example, how do you first distinguish
between sounds in a loud environment
like the NYC streets?

But I suppose I should start with the basics of what my lab is currently researching. As you may recall, I said in my last blog that Dr. Sussman is interested in auditory processing. But to be more specific than that, her lab is focused on unraveling the process called stream segregation. The simplest way to explain stream segregation is through example. Imagine yourself walking into a crowded area with people and noise all around. When you first enter, it all seems like one big cacophony but after some time, your brain distinguishes between sources and 'dials down' the ones that are deemed unimportant. Thus, in a crowded restaurant you can still focus on the conversation at hand and not be distracted by surrounding background noise.

With this general premise, the Sussman lab has run multiple experiments trying to tease apart how we recognize novel sounds and respond to them. Since most of these experiments have been completed, I have been focused on transforming this data into something easier to understand. AKA, I've been learning how to make pretty figures of ERPs and voltage maps. It sounds simple, but learning to use the software has been a fun challenge. And hopefully, some of my work will make it's way into a publication at the end of this all!

Here are some of the voltage maps I've made so far.

Oh, and yes, I've still been exploring NYC and all it has to offer (which is a lot!). So far this week, I haven't hardly been home before midnight because I've been off on some adventure. Whether that be a CollegeHumor live comedy show or a trip to the beach, it's been busy yet thrilling. I expect this next week will bring new challenges as well as explorations!

CollegeHumor live for $5- what a deal!

Beach adventure! What perfect weather!

First Bite of the Big Apple

As I said in my last post, I'm finally here in New York. I've never even been to the east coast before (besides a short weekend in Boston for Taekwondo), so it's been a completely new experience for me. And I'm not going to lie, my first day in 'the city' had me feeling gape-mouthed like a total tourist. Thank god I had my fellow SURP-ers to explore with this weekend and get a feel for the city.

We went into FAO Schwartz toy store- overwhelming! 

As soon as I saw the Rockefeller Plaza, the theme
song to 30 Rock popped into my head and
wouldn't leave! 

More Rockefeller..

This was at Times Square... I think. I was
engrossed in a conversation about research
at this point.

This was at Union Square and I don't know
what it is but I thought it looked cool.

I'm dying to try out the CitiBike project they
just started where you can rent a bike for a day!

This was taken from the High-line. It's
essentially an old train line that has been
converted into a garden walk that goes
over the city streets.

More High-line. It was so beautiful and
peaceful! I definitely plan to return!

Just to give you a taste, we walked from the lower part of Central Park to Union Square to the High-line and some beyond that. To tell the truth, I'm not exactly completely sure where-all we went. It was an over-whelming first day, followed by a second Sunday adventure across the Brooklyn Bridge. I haven't walked this much since back-packing when I was back in high school! I know I should have been expecting the city to be this huge, but it really hasn't hit me until finally walking the streets. I can't believe I get to spend the whole summer doing research and exploring Manhattan.

From the pier on Fulton Street.

Longhorn in Manhattan!

Freedom Tower near Ground Zero

The Brooklyn Bridge! 

I'm finally getting the hang of panoramic shots on my phone.

Oh yeah, research. That's the reason I'm here- right? Well, so far I haven't really gotten started with my actual research project. I've been assigned to Dr. Elyse Sussman's lab for the next eight weeks to continue my experience in EEG. In fact, it turned out to be the perfect match! I've spent the majority of the past year running participants on EEg, but now I get to try the other side of the coin and do actual data analyses. Based on the information I've been given so far, I will be processing an EEG data set and look for specific ERP components. It will be interesting to do work related to the auditory system instead of sleep (of which I am more familiar). But as things stand now, I've only been reading up on the subject and hope to start the real work this week!

Taken from Brooklyn.

Chronic sleep restriction affects behavioral and ERP correlates of psychomotor vigilance - AKA My First Poster

I suppose this entry is technically late. Tuesday represented my big debut into the fascinating world of sleep research with my first-ever poster session. Sure, I was able to assist in a presentation in January at an aging conference but this was the first work that I've ever presented solo. It was both terrifying and exhilarating. I probably spent the first 15 minutes alternating between terror that someone would ask a question and worry that no one would ask me about my research. But, unsurprisingly, the session went well with polite, friendly people asking a few questions and some even complementing me on my research. And now that I've run through my little spiel in an academic setting, I feel comfortable in sharing it here on the internet. Keep in mind, this isn't an exact replica of my academic-version of the presentation because I know how daunting such technical jargon can be.

The Constellation in Baltimore's Inner Harbpr

My lab was interested in how chronic sleep restriction (a lessening, but not total deprivation of sleep) affects sustained attention, both as a behavioral measure and through recordings of EEG*. Past research has shown that the PVT (psychomotor vigilance task) is an accurate measure of sustained attention. For an abbreviated, modified version of the task, click here. But essentially, participants were asked to watch the screen and hit the spacebar whenever they saw a stopwatch appear on the screen.

Our experimental design began with recruiting 24 undergraduate students with no neurological or psychological problems (including sleep disorders). We had them come into the lab where we recorded resting state EEG (which is sort of a baseline cortical activity) and recorded EEG while they performed the PVT. We then gave them actigraphs (wristwatches that record movement and thereby objective measures of sleep-wake cycles) and asked them to fill out a sleep log entry each day. There were approximately 6 weeks between each of the 3 EEG sessions so we got a span of the full semester.

Based on this data, we found that average daily sleep decreased between session 1 and sessions 2 & 3 (from around 7hrs to 6.5hrs) and this negatively predicted reaction times on the PVT. In other words, sleep went down and time it took to react went up.

My poster

On the EEG side, we found the amplitude of the P3 component significantly decreased from session 1 to sessions 2 & 3. P3 is a change in voltage which has been linked to decision-making in past research. We also found that alpha reactivity amplitude decreased between session 1 and sessions 2 & 3. This component is a little difficult to explain in layman's terms, but essentially a lowered amplitude in alpha reactivity has been linked to dementia, traumatic brain injury, and aging.

The changes in P3 amplitude and alpha reactivity each negatively predicted reaction times both across and within-subjects. What makes this incredible to me is that we saw such clear effects from only avery small change in average daily sleep. We plan to look from here at more specific measures of sleep such as circadian rhythms and sleep latency.

So, that's more or less what I got to present at the conference. It was pretty incredible to talk to so many experts in the field and I look forward to attending next year (hopefully!). For now, I've just settled into my room at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and have started to learn a little about what I'll be doing this summer. More to come on the New York experience next time!

*EEG or electroencephalography is a technique used to record electric potentials created by brain activity and recorded through the scalp. EEG is known for its high temporal (time-based) resolution, but low spatial (location-based) resolution. This makes it good for looking at timing in activation in the brain, but we cannot always locate the origin of the activation.

After a successful, if exhausting, first poster session.