The Gab Lab: Week 1

My first week here was relatively uneventful. The first day, I met with Jenni, a research affiliate with whom I will be working with. She gave me a quick tour of the building, introducing me to several post docs, grad students, as well as showing me the fMRI and EEG rooms. I have to admit, all the winding hallways were rather confusing at first (the McGovern Institute for Brain Research is the largest neuroscience center in the world!), but I am glad to report that I have learnt to navigate them. Perhaps what surprised me the most was that the workplace isn't a typical 'lab' setting. Instead, it resembles an office, with most of the work being done in little computer-filled rooms. Here are some pictures of the building, including the very cool 'Jungle room', which has a ping pong table!

I came into the lab with no idea on what I would be working on, but I assumed that it would be on dyslexia, as that was the most current news on the lab website. However, Jenni explained that I would primarily be working on the Language Acquisition Project (LAP), a project funded by the Department of Defense to see if there are certain brain markers that indicate which adults will be better at learning new languages. To do this, subjects first take many IQ and memory tests in order to establish a neural baseline. Then, they learn the artificial language 'MAL' (known in the lab as Silly Speak) in several training sessions. They also take take an fMRI and EEG before and after these sessions, and we track their progress throughout this time via assessments. Finally, they come back after 2 months, and we test how much of the language they have retained. Jenni is also working on a 'Soldier Study', a joint project with the US Army to investigate the effects of caloric deprivation and stress on a soldier's cognitive functions. If I have time, I'll probably help out with that project as well.

Before all this cool research, I first had to take a long and tedious online training course. After I had passed, I spent the remainder of the day creating new subject folders, which entailed printing and copying a ridiculous amount of papers, and then organizing them. The second and third day, I had to go through all the completed subject folders and score the KBIT (IQ test), the MLAT (Modern Language Aptitude Test), as well as a syntactic word puzzle. Grading these and entering them into the database was incredibly tiring (and rather boring...), but I finished quickly and was able to leave the lab before 2! I also briefly met with Amy, a post doc who I will be working with starting next week (Jenni is leaving to Switzerland). She gave me the project's grant, as well as a review to read for more background info. The fourth day, I continued with more mundane administrative stuff, as Jenni gave me the task of creating a spreadsheet that detailed the lab's payment to all its subjects for each session. Here is a quick pic of my working area:

Today, things began to look more interesting. First, I attended the LAP & CASL (Chinese language test) meeting. After an hour of going over what we would do next week, the ten of us went to the lab meeting for the entire lab. The Gab Lab is huge. There are around 40 people, all working on different things. Here, I was introduced to a whole bunch of people, including my PI John Gabrieli, who is super funny, nice, and laid back (like everyone else in the lab), and Cirkine, a fellow high school intern who I share a room with. I was lucky to start this week, as this meeting involved around 15 people presenting on what they were working on, so I got to hear about topics ranging from autism and dyslexia, to marshmallows! Moreover, everyone got a bingo sheet with words the presenters talked about, so I was paying especially close attention. Afterwards, I met with Amy again, who has scheduled me for more hands on research in the coming week. Not only will I assess video recordings of subjects speaking MAL, but I will also sit in on an fMRI scan, and learn to edit brains! However, before I can assess these recordings, Amy had Michelle (a recent Brown grad who just started working here) teach me how to use FileMaker in order to create a database for the LAP Study. 

Although all this computer work has been pretty uninteresting, I am starting to see that most of a neuroscience lab's work is completed through collecting and organizing data. Yes, this is the not so glamorous side of research, but I am starting to appreciate how significant this data is, as well as how useful computer skills can be. Nevertheless, I am definitely looking forward to more practical work in the coming month, and have enjoyed my first week here. Next week 2 more high school students start (there are 10 of us!), and the three-times-a-week ice cream bars continue! What's not to like?