EEG Capping

 

EEG capping from a neuroimaging researcher perspective at the Vanderbilt EEG research lab 

(rather than as a half sedated patient in a hospital clinic).

Felt like a soggy swim cap. Not the most comfortable feeling but tolerable.

To clarify, in this photo I'm trying on the cap to see what it feels like as I will likely be using neuroimaging methods (EEG, fMRI etc) in my own research design and I will be studying issues in autism.

Cellular Neuroscience grade

I made an A in this super tough Cell Neuroscience course, filled with baffling weekly quizzes; a course which consumed most of my life this semester. 

OMG. 

 

Brain Blast

 Every spring, the Vanderbilt Brain Institute puts on Brain Blast event at Nashville Public Library for high schoolers and younger children, with various booths educating children on the wonders of the brain in fun and creative ways. Oh and the screen in the background was showing various images, including some things about autism and neurodiversity. 

Cellular Neuroscience

Last semester was systems neuroscience, this semester is cellular neuroscience. 

What's interesting is the way the course is organized. It's very different from what I'm used to. Every week we get a different professor teaching the class on a different topic followed by a Friday quiz on that topic. Of course the other parts are there like a midterm, final and a class presentation. While the class feels a bit disjointed with a new professor this week (autism & change are not the best of bedfellows), its also kinda cool to be taught a topic by a someone researching that area specifically. They know the topic absolutely inside out. But the quizzes are tough!!

Wk 5: Synaptic Plasticity with Prof Roger Colbran (Molecular Physiology and Biophysics)

Wk4:  Voltage Gated Ion Channels and Presynaptic Calcium Channels. If last week was glutamate receptors, this week its GABA receptors with Prof David Jacobson (Molecular Physiology & Biophysics). 

Wk2-3 Presynaptic & Postsynaptic specialization: Prof Ege Kavalali (Pharmacology) and Prof Teru Nakagawa (Molecular Physiology and Biophysics)

Wk1:  Electrophysiology : This week was Bioelectricity of Neurons with Jerod Denton (Anesthesiology). After all, electrophysiology forms the basis of how the nervous system works, it determines how we interact with our environment, how we process that information in the nervous system and how we respond (hopefully appropriately?). And I loved how he said we should be so comfortable with it that we can strike up a casual conversation on the topic at the next VBI (Vanderbilt Brain Institute) meet. 

A lot of material is covered in each class. Interesting, a maze and tough all at once. 

Some poems being inspired by the neuroscience I'm learning. 

All of Three Inches Wide

Picked up the Principles of Neural Science textbook for my cellular neuroscience course this semester. 3 inches thick, which I could barely lift.

Just 1 of 3 textbooks for this course. OMG!

And wrote a poem to go with it.

All of Three Inches Wide

A thick neuroscience textbook, oh my
It's all of three inches wide
I try to lift it, with all my might
I pull and tug, and give a yank
But mighty it holds, no matter my tries

I finally give up, and accept my fate
This thick neuroscience textbook, it's simply great

So thick and deep, I could dive in

Swim with neurotransmitters while dendrites wave at me
The brain and it's quirks so fascinate me

So bring on the textbooks, I'll read them all

Filled with facts, and sumptuous theories

I'll pull and tug, and give a yank as I read

Pull, tug and yank, apt analogies.

Knowledge essences in the textbook
Deciphering the autistic brain, an ultimate goal

 

Violators Toad

Interesting word play at yesterday's Nelson Andrews Leadership retreat site for the Vanderbilt Neuroscience Retreat. 

Have to wonder what the toads (Bufonidae) there think?

Violators, a new species of toad?

A wider picture

Along with the (oh so super-interesting) science talks, there was also an Unconscious Bias workshop at yesterday's Vanderbilt Brain Institute retreat

Paying attention - Very applicable for the highly distracted ADHD person like me, with a thousand thoughts running through my head. 

Rest of message very relevant too, for all.  "notice the patterns and treatments of experiences of members of both privileged and marginalized groups"

I was also very appreciative that there was mention of (dis)ability as an identity and often overlooked as a marginalized group along with race/ethnicity etc. It is good to hear such conversations at Vanderbilt. 

I think back to what Arlene Mayerson of DREDF had once said at my Autism Class at UC Berkeley - Civil rights for Disability mean that you not just take away the sign so you can sit anywhere on the bus,  but also giving the disabled person a way to get on the bus in the first place.  

This is really the bigger/wider view for Disability Inclusion. It's not just about allowing disabled people to occupy the same space but also about the accommodations (to get on the bus), supports (to stay seated on the bus) and making disabled people feel they belong, a sense of community, so that they can SUCCEED in that environment. 

 @VanderbiltU #VanderbiltBrainInstitute

Image Description. Text on large screen reads, PAN. Pay Attention Now. Just as a movie camera pans the environment to see the whole picture, we need to continuously pan all around us as we increase our ability to notice the patterns and treatments of experiences of members of  both privileged and marginalized groups. Awareness. While this was at a Neuroscience retreat, this so applies to disability. 

Neuroscience Retreat

Vanderbilt Neuroscience Graduate Program retreat. 

Day started with Hippocampal Place Cells and included a walk by Percy Priest Lake

A VBI webpage

I have a VBI webpage. 

Nice. 

 

Simple Beginnings

Got my own personalized Labcoat at the Simple Beginnings Ceremony today for incoming PhD students.

The term Simple Beginnings is taken from the end of Darwin's epic work as he has had such an impact on scientific thinking in the last 150 years.

This labcoat is so beyond cool. A labcoat for me symbolizes access to mainstream education.

Grad school is intense which super exciting and metaphorical fingers crossed I can succeed and get to do meaningful, ethical and impactful research (metaphorical as fingers crossed is not an easy motor-planning movement for me)

Image 1: Program head Dr Bruce Carter at podium announcing each student and their research interests. Kate Stuart, (Director of strategic affairs and events with Biomedical Research Education and Training) putting on my personalized lab coat. putting on my personalized lab coat. Audience and other students lined up in foreground.

Image 2/3. Sitting in audience before/after I got lab coat. Close up.of labcoat with my name embroidered. Other side of coat says Vanderbilt school.of medicine.

Related Post: https://uniquelyhari.blogspot.com/2022/06/simple-drops-of-joy.html

Grad School News - Student Spotlight

 https://wp0.vanderbilt.edu/gradschool-blog/2022/05/17/may-2022-student-spotlights/

Hari Srinivasan; an incoming Ph.D. student in neuroscience– , has been named to the 2022 cohort of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship Program for New Americans. This merit-based graduate award for immigrants and children of immigrants provides 30 fellows annually with up to $90,000 in funding to support their graduate studies. The 2022 cohort was chosen from a pool of more than 1,800 applicants on the basis of their potential to make significant contributions to the United States. Congratulations Hari!

Vanderbilt Admission

 A nice advance birthday gift. 

Dear Mr Srinivasan

On behalf of the Graduate School and the School of Medicine at Vanderbilt University, we are pleased and honored to offer you admission to the Doctor of Philosophy program in Neuroscience, beginning with Fall 2022 semester....