Chris Oh Week 5 - Gabrieli Lab, MIT

On Monday, I had a brief meeting with Zhenghan to discuss further analyses of the data.  She introduced to me some advanced statistical terms such as OLS Regression and ANOVA that I can use for data analysis.  She also suggested that I try plotting graphs that look at the correlation between the out-of-scanner phonetic scores and the average duration of just the 5-syllable words.  At the end of the meeting, I asked Zhenghan if I could get a chance to observe a scan this week, and she said I could come to a scan on Thursday.  For most of the week, I spent most of my time trying to familiarize myself with the statistical concepts that Zhenghan had mentioned.
Excited to observe a scan for the first time, I came to the lab on Thursday morning to hear that the scanner we had reserved was shutdown due to technical difficulties.  The scan was postponed to the following day.
On Friday, there was a lab meeting at noon primarily due to a new member of our lab.  After a series of brief announcements from Dr. Gabrieli, the new postdoc gave a presentation on her research.  Her topic was functional specializations of emotion and memroy processing using MEG.  Although I couldn't understand everything from the presentation, the topic was fascinating.  Around quarter to three, I had a meeting with Dr. Gabrieli.  It was my first formal meeting with him, and I was initially a bit intimidated by his imposing stature.  But soon, he turned out to be very, very friendly and funny.  We briefly discussed my work so far at the lab, and he thanked me for all the hours I put in for the research.  We then moved on to talk about several other topics.  Shortly after the meeting, I went to the first floor where the imaging center is to meet with Zhenghan for the scan.  Madlyn, another high school intern, volunteered to be our participant as it was her last day at the lab.  For Josh, the new technical assistant taking over for Michelle who is leaving in a week, it was his first scan.  Before we got into the scanning room, Madlyn had to fill out a form to make sure she doesn't have any metal in her body and Josh brief explained to her the task.  Then we got into the scanning room, and the amount of prep work before the scan stunned me.  Before we began the task, we had Netflix on for Madlyn so we can get a rough scan of her brain.  Then, we started the functional scan.  Because the new scanner did not have a microphone, we did not conduct the Non-word Repetition and the only task for Madlyn was syntax task, where she pressed left or right button depending on the correctness of the phrase presented to her.  After the three trials of syntax task, we turned on Netflix again while we took Diffusion Tensor Imaging, or DTI.  As Josh was still going through the learning process, Michelle and Zhenghan's hints and instructions taught me so much about brain scans.  The task only took about 5 to 10 minutes, but the time we spent in the scan room was almost 2 hours due to much prep work and post-scan work.
It was probably the best moment I have had at the lab so far.  Here are some pictures from the scan:

Josh preparing the machine before the scan

The scanner that we used

During the syntax task