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...