Caroline Casey - Week 9 - Complex Systems Group - University of Pennsylvania

This week, I spent a majority of my time preparing for the PowerPoint presentation on my project that I will be giving to the lab group on Monday, August 18.

On Monday of this week, I completed finding all the interference values from the ANOVA of the four scenarios with the before, within, and after scanning session movement times that I started working on last week. I then plotted the distribution of the interference values. The distribution was not normal (not much of a surprise since the ANOVA values from the original pre-post scanning session data were not normal either). I then began finding interference values from the difference between the movement times at the two time points for the four scenarios, for each of the 20 subjects (pre-scanning session 2 movement time - within scanning session 2 movement time, and so on). If the value from the difference is negative, then the subject has interference, if the value is positive, then the subject does not have interference. This took a while, I continued this process through Tuesday. Monday, we also had our weekly lab meeting where two undergrads presented their work in the lab this summer. The presentations were very interesting, one undergrad spoke about networks in materials, specifically sand. I enjoyed learning about how networks can be applied to fields besides neuroscience.

The interference values distribution using interference values from the ANOVA. This is the third scenario: ANOVA between pre-scanning session 3 and within scanning session 3.

The interference values distribution using interference values from the difference between the two time points. This is the third scenario: difference between pre-scanning session 3 movement time and within scanning session 3 movement time.

Tuesday, I completed finding the interference values from the difference between movement times at the two time points for the four scenarios, all 20 subjects. I then plotted the distribution of the values for the four scenarios. These plots were much more normal than the ones from the ANOVA interference values. I spent the rest of the day adding and editing my paper with my new findings. I also found out on Tuesday that Dr. Bassett was not going to be in the office for the rest of the week. I created and sent her a  PowerPoint of the work I completed since our last meeting.

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I worked on my paper, read more relevant papers, and worked on the PowerPoint that I will present on Monday, August 18. I am excited to present my work to the lab and hear what suggestions and ideas the lab members have about my project. I cannot believe that I only have one more week in the lab, I am both sad and surprised that that my experience is already almost over. I hope to continue working on my project throughout the school year, finding more results and finishing the paper. This has been an amazing experience so far!