Yale! and more neuroscience stuff
So I got my J-1 visa in the post and the plane tickets are booked, so I guess it's official - I'm off to Yale! (Only for a practicum, don't get too excited). I'll be leaving January 18 and returning to Guelph June 23. I have a six-month visa but they wanted me to arrive slightly later in the term so they would have time available for me, and I wanted to get out of there a week or so before my visa's up so there is no question of being put on any horrible US blacklists :)
It will be a very interesting project. We don't know exactly how the effect I am looking at works, but we suspect it relies heavily on a brain area called the anterior cingulate cortex, which detects conflicts between your expected or prepotent response and a cue that you see that tells you to do the opposite (e.g. you would normally press a button, but you see a stop signal telling you not to press it). EEG studies have found that when you use scalp electrodes to record brain waves during this sort of task, you see a particular waveform that is thought to be coming from the anterior cingulate.
But down at Yale, they have been doing a longitudinal study for 13 years on a group of people who were exposed to cocaine in utero (their mothers did cocaine while pregnant). One thing they have found is that this exposure likely caused developmental anterior cingulate damage. These adolescents have trouble with response inhibition in the first place, and EEG studies show that they seem to be recruiting extra brain areas to help out with this sort of thing instead of just relying on the anterior cingulate as in non-cocaine-exposed people. It will be very interesting to see whether they show the effect at all, since the main brain area for it may be damaged. Also it will be interesting to compare their results to my adult drug user population.
Anyway, sorry for all the neuroscience detail, but I know at least one or two readers might have an interest in this sort of thing!
So basically this is all very exciting, if not a little terrifying. It will be a lot to learn in a short period of time, plus I have lots and lots of extra work to do this semester to make sure things on the home front will be caught up. But I guess if life wasn't crazy it would be boring...
It will be a very interesting project. We don't know exactly how the effect I am looking at works, but we suspect it relies heavily on a brain area called the anterior cingulate cortex, which detects conflicts between your expected or prepotent response and a cue that you see that tells you to do the opposite (e.g. you would normally press a button, but you see a stop signal telling you not to press it). EEG studies have found that when you use scalp electrodes to record brain waves during this sort of task, you see a particular waveform that is thought to be coming from the anterior cingulate.
But down at Yale, they have been doing a longitudinal study for 13 years on a group of people who were exposed to cocaine in utero (their mothers did cocaine while pregnant). One thing they have found is that this exposure likely caused developmental anterior cingulate damage. These adolescents have trouble with response inhibition in the first place, and EEG studies show that they seem to be recruiting extra brain areas to help out with this sort of thing instead of just relying on the anterior cingulate as in non-cocaine-exposed people. It will be very interesting to see whether they show the effect at all, since the main brain area for it may be damaged. Also it will be interesting to compare their results to my adult drug user population.
Anyway, sorry for all the neuroscience detail, but I know at least one or two readers might have an interest in this sort of thing!
So basically this is all very exciting, if not a little terrifying. It will be a lot to learn in a short period of time, plus I have lots and lots of extra work to do this semester to make sure things on the home front will be caught up. But I guess if life wasn't crazy it would be boring...
Labels: brains, nerdiness; worker bee, Yale
posted by Anne at 7:45 AM
6 Comments:
Hurrah!
That is super exciting!
Rah, rah, rah Anne! Don't understand the neuroscience, but what a great experince for you & how prestigeous.
You say "only a practicum" but I casually mention my daugher who is going to Yale next year. No need to muddy the water with details.
it is exciting!
ha, I wonder if I now get to start referring to myself as "Yale-educated".
Well done old bean. So are you ever gonna update your blog, or should I erase it off of my bookmarks?
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