Okay, I lied...

I need a couple more days with the pictures....I have some, but they're not that impressive...

BIG NEWS!!! I PRESENTED IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE PNL!!! WOOO!!!!

I presented my entire project in front of the entire group of research assistants, summer students, and PhD's/M.D.'s....VERY INTIMIDATING....But I did it! and they said I was the most confident of any of the presenters! Dr. Shenton, director of the PNL, said that she was impressed that I, a high schooler, had done it so well (That made my day). And when you look at the fact that a whopping two out of my 6 projects actually were confirmed...Well, I was happy to take what I could get. And when I say I presented my project, I mean THE WHOLE THING. I'm talking excell spreadsheets with 13 sheets and 5000 rows by 43 columns compressed to a table and two slides with images....I'm kind of impressed with myself...I broke the project into 6 hypotheses and reported the scientific method (hypothesis, experimental method, results, discussion, etc.) for all of it. I also reported on schizophrenia itself, MRI scanning, and freesurfer (Which I explained to all of you before). I was pleased to say the least....It was about a month of work and the stuff I did came out of tons of drafts and refining and headaches (seriously...I plowed through a bottle of advil). To give an idea OF my presentation, (Which I will be showing at Brooks next year for all the other applicants) I'm posting an image straight from my powerpoint which I generated and labeled using the AMAZING freesurfer,

Check it out!

But yeah, the presentation was the final exam for my stay at the PNL, and I have to say it went pretty well. All that's left is the Psych exam next Monday ( which I need to study like a madman for) and then I'm done with SFS.....Which is surprisingly depressing...Again, 3 years of endless prep for this, and its almost over....Its really sad...I'm going to miss this so much (So much so that I asked to work next week even though my presentation is through-I REFUSE TO LEAVE!!!!)

But I think I'll take a break here....In case you can't tell, my ego grew over the summer; I need to go air it out..

Also...

Expect roughly a zillion iphone pictures by next week....

Well its certainly been a while...

So quick update-I'm out, completely healthy, and relativley certain it wasn't H1N1.

Of course I missed about a week in the lab, and my mid term....which I'll cover in a minute...

ANYWAY: Everybody at the lab was happy to see me, and I officially LOVE everyone there now. I've come to the understanding that being awkward for the first week is acceptable...Its a completely new environment, and I'm extra-sensitive...which doesn't really mix, but It really is amazing once we got going.

I will now, FINALLY be telling you all about my project. Not the results, but at least what I'm doing. My project in its entirety is to determine whether there is any significant differences in gray matter volumes between Schizophrenia patients and Non Schiz patients in certain regions of the brain used primarily in working (or short-term) memory. This means looking for statistically significant group differences in relative volumes of gray matter between the schizophrenia and the control groups (20 cases each). I need to generate these "relative volumes" by taking the gray matter volumes in freesurfer and converting them to ratios by using the entire brain's gray matter volume measure....this cuts out any error due to brain size differences between cases. These regions are the Caudal Anterior, Posterior and Rostral Anterior Cingulates, as well as the Inferior Parietal Lobules and the Rostral Middle Frontal Gyri (A Gyrus is a bulge on the brain, giving it its characteristic look). This goes for both hemispheres. We'll also use results from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, which is primarily used for testing working memory to see if there is any correlation between schizphrenics and poor working memory (as well as the converse). Volume differences is one thing (takes about a thousand t tests) but correlating those volume differences with scores on this Wisconsin card test is another....hoo boy...

Phew....its a lot, but writing it all down makes me feel significantly more intelligent, so it was worth it.

I took my midterm, which I heavily underestimated, and wound up with a B. To all of you future SFS kids....PREPARE!!! Its a COLLEGIATE exam....which is an AP EXAM!!!! DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE IT!!!! It was really hard, even in a class that's soooo much fun.

I primarily blame the aforementioned stupidity on Swine flu.

Those are the two major updates right now! I can't think of anything else, except that I only have TWO WEEKS OF HEAVEN LEFT!!!!!! NOOOO!!!!!! Next wednesday I need to present my findings to the entire PNL, in an amazingly awesome brilliant perfect colorful outstanding intellectual powerpoint presentation I've made....(I may be exaggerating a little). And then theres the actual FINAL EXAM, which I will hopefully OVERESTIMATE and do EXCEPTIONALLY well on...

Here's to wishful thinking...

Straight-Jacket not included...

So just a quick update....

I have H1N1...or, rather, a virus that greatly resembles pig flu (fever, chills, cough, cold sweats, sore throat, fatigue, and headaches) to the point that Harvard University felt it in their best interests to put me in my own "special" triple at the top floor of the scariest dorm on campus...

Yes, that's right people, they put me in medical isolation for 1 week in my own private quarantined bubble....and I may or may not be going insane...

Okay, I'm being a little melodramatic. They bring me my three meals, and the room's actually pretty nice! Its a triple, but I'm the only one in it!!!

I was sick last Wednesday, and have been in isolation since, and to be honest, right now, I feel pretty good. But no lab work or classes until I'm granted clearance, which should be tomorrow. So this is basically an extended weekend for me...lots of sleep and enough cranberry juice to turn me purple, but I think its a nice break from my usual hectic schedule.

Interesting side note: I missed midterms....hoo-boy...this should get interesting. The professor, Dr. Wenzel, is actually very accommodating, so I should be able to make it up relatively soon...which may or may not be a good thing.

Now for some quick math:

Harry Potter Movie = Awesome.

Harry Potter Movie at the Park Street Movie theater (which used to be a Ritz) playing in at least 10 movie theaters = holysofantasticlyawesomemyheadsgonnaexplode

Caudal Anterior Cingulate say WHAAAAT????

So I'm learning all of this newfangled brain anatomy now....pretty darn well if I say so myself.

Its all Latin, so that certainly helps (Mrs. Davies BE PROUD!!!), but more importantly, you sound smart when you pronounce them correctly.

ANYWAY!!
No word yet on whether I can mention my project in my blog, but I can explain some of the parts of freesurfer I'm using to do it. I'm taking the gray matter volumes between groups of cases (Schizophrenics and Normal Controls) and am comparing their total volumes to see if there are any SIGNIFICANT (huge key word for all you stats students) differences....which I believe I already mentioned. WHAT I HAVEN'T MENTIONED, is that I'm generating these measurements and calculations by taking thousands of data values at a time. I kid you not, THOUSANDS!!!

Tomorrow is also Doughnut day at my lab....I started that. I hate Thursdays with a passion, so I like to bring in doughnuts for everyone on Thursdays....It also helps with my rep....I think...

So Midterms are next week in Psych. Today we learned about Memory, how it works and where its stored. We already beat Brain anatomy to death, but ITS AWESOME because it meshed EXACTLY with what I'm doing at the PNL. I can walk in and completely understand what regions do what, and what working memory is and how it correlates with schizophrenia. I think it impressed my PI too. If any of you future SFS kids get this internship, I HIGHLY reccomend taking Intro to Psych. Its an awesome class, with an awesome professor, and you learn quite a bit in the process.

Thats all thats on my mind for right now....I'll start uploading pictures to keep it interesting, don't worry. I promise at least one blog post thats 90% pictures, and 10% Crazy (aka text written by me.)

Neil Diamond just turned 3000.....

FIRST OFF!!!

The Boston Pops are amazing. Fireworks on the Charles are more amazing. Chinese food mixed in all this makes Cambridge look like Disney World. Me, Charlotte and Wes (All the SFS kids) all went with a couple other Brooksians to MIT and watched the fireworks on the Cambridge side of the Charles. It was OUTSTANDING!!!!! The fireworks were HUGE!!!! It made the ones back up in Haverhill look pathetic....like, depressingly pathetic.

HAPPY FOURTH!!!!

So....I'll describe A little bit of what life next to Harvard Square is like, as well as a little bit more about my job.

So I'm working with 2 RA's who supervise me, and one investigator, who essentially commissions the project. My investigator is Zora Kikinis, one of the nicest bosses I could probably ever hope to have. My RA's are Laurel and Andrew, both really nice people who unfortunately ALWAYS make me feel stupid (Just because of how smart they are and all of my random questions. I now realize many of them are normal for someone just starting, but me being as self-conscious as I am, I feel like I'm bothering them). Just as an aside....I'm starting to love my job, It was just really overwhelming at first. I'm picking up some of the basics though. (By the end of this, I'm downloading Linux) As of right now, I am unsure what I can and can't say about my project (What Zora wants available for public consumption...It IS a research project....), but I will check with them, and hopefully CAN describe it in excruciating detail by Tuesday or something....

ANYWAY:
Back to my original point, Harvard = Disney World, or paradise if your not really into Disney World (can't blame you...there are WAY too many whiny kids....). There's the COOP, which is a world renowned book store/dorm stuff store/vintage harvard clothing store....so they sell everything (theres a cafe there too, but There are other good food places near by.) Theres a movie theater RIGHT next to us, which is where I saw a really bad movie (public enemies, which you'd think would be good, because it had Batman and Johnny Depp in it, but was really disappointing....lost 2 and a half hours of my life....). There's Tons of Restaurants-Fire and Ice is my favorite. You get a table, and run up and grab a bowl at a buffet like table and fill it up, but with raw food, like chicken and steak and noodles, and then a cup full of sauce and bring it to an enormous grill in the center where they fry everything up for you....ITS SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!! Theres also JP Licks, an amazing icecream place that was established in my dad's home neighborhood/section of Boston (Which he never lets me forget). Theres Bertuccis, a chipolet (Butchered the spelling, I know its spelled wierd though...) grill, and a Starbucks on every corner. They have a ton of clothing/apparel stores, and a crazy amount of random street performers...which are amusing some times, bizarre other times....And if they don't have something in Harvard Square you can take the T like 5 minutes anywhere to get whatever you want whenever you want....We hung out in Copley Square today, next to the John Hancock Tower (WHICH IS GINORMOUS).....

Intro to Psychology is a course I'm recommending for any and ALL future SFS kids. Dr. Wenzel is hysterical, but you learn soooo much. He actually makes me happy to sit in a class of 150 and listen to his lecture for 3 hours....seriously....ITS SOOO MUCH FUN!!!! The reading is a lot, but after Dr. K's AP Bio marathon run at the end of the year, its cake. And some of the stuff is pretty interesting-Dream Psychology have always been entertaining to me.

Annenberg Hall is where we eat our meals. It LOOKS LIKE A FLIPPING CATHEDRAL!!! No lie, it looks like Hogwarts....My proctor (Every dorm has one or more to run the place) told us that Harvard has the largest stained glass collection in the country....AND ITS A DINING HALL!!!! It was built solely for eating, never religious purposes, which blows my mind. It actually looks like a castle. And while the food couldn't come close to Brooks,' the place does have a soda dispenser for all my crazy diet coke cravings....which easily makes it better than Brooks....sorry Mr. Manos.

Okay, I've written waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much....If anyone actually read to the bottom of this, and you're reading this now, you should probably pick up a hobby. Stamp Collecting sounds like fun....I'd try that.

Whoops...

It occured to me that in my last post I never actually mentioned the DYNAMICS of my job.....like, what I'm actually doing.



So I'm working at the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Lab (Which I already stated) primarily doing research on schizophrenia and other related psychological disorders. Okay, so thats fantastic (seriously), but how the heck do you do that? Well, its simple really. Data, Statistics, and a TON of processing speed.....wicked fast computers..... Everything at the lab is done in Linux, which is primarily driven by code. Its like windows, but when you ask it to do something, it actually does it-Crazy, I know. Learning the code was a pain, but I'm slowly starting to pick it up.



So, as many of you know Schizophrenia has a considerable amount to do with THE BRAIN (Duh). Which means theres a ton of imaging done. There are thousands of cases logged into the PNL's database (Both Normal Controls and Schizophrenics) and each one has tons of scans done to it:MRI (Both T1 and T2 images), fMRI, DTI, the list goes on, but most of these measure the activity levels in the Brains of these case studies. So once all these scans are collected, RA's at the lab "polish" them off, going through slice by slice in an MRI scan (In a program aptly named "Slicer") and "masking" them, which means filling in the holes that the scan missed. They do this to make sure the total area/volume of the brain and regions within it can be measured, and analyzed itself...



Which is where Freesurfer comes in....OH. MY. GOD. This is the COOLEST FLIPPING PROGRAM EVER!!!!! It takes all the "polished" brain scans and makes an outrageously close model of that case's brain. AND THEN LABELS AND DIVIDES THE BRAIN BY REGION!!! ITS SO COOL!!! I'll see if I can post an image or something, but IT REALLY IS AWESOME!!! By dividing up the regions, their Gray Matter volumes, Surface Area, Cortical Thickness, And a whole bunch of other really huge stats. Basicallly, this provides the bulk of the information which is analyzed in the projects. Which brings us to its trade-off.....In order to "create" a brain for freesurfer, that is, in order for freesurfer to create a model of a Case's brain, the t1 and t2 images have to be processed....for THIRTY HOURS.....So you need some crazy processors (Everythings Xeon at the PNL) and a lot of patience....

BUT WAIT, THERES MORE!!! So freesurfer gives us the info, but how do you statistically beat the crap out of it until you can recall the Gray Matter Volumes for all Forty Cases in order of region of study? WITH THE DATA MINING SPSS SOFTWARE, OF COURSE!!! This is like Excel on Steroids for all you Microsoft Office Fans out there....You put all the data into a spreadsheet just like excel, but each column acts as a variable, and you tell the program to define which variable is which, and which depends on which, and then you analyze. Independent Sample T test, Covariation, Correlation, R squared, P values, Statistical Significance.....Eat your heart out, Mr. Burbank.....

And that raps up today's rant. Tomorrow, I'll tell you all about my actual research project, and what I get to do this summer....But I think a three page wall post covers everybody's questions...