Lab Lab Lab

Recently I have been working in the lab constantly. Last week, I worked on the ROI imaging, coloring in the motor cortex areas of the brain and their symmetrical spots. This week, for both Tuesday and Wednesday, I have been dissecting two hefty articles. The first one discuses a new discovery in biomaterials. A group of researchers found that they could use a scaffold and look at BDNF's reactions and how it can harm and/or benefit the brain. The researchers found that the BDNF can affect the axons greatly, perhaps making them more dense. Also, the scaffold the researchers created was very efficient because it can be preserved easily, lasting a long time for reuse. Tomorrow Dr. Adkins and I are going to discuss the article and I have three questions to ask her with regards to this article- 1. How does a cystic lesion cavity compare to the lesions we have been studying? What is it exactly? Is it just bigger and less precise? 2. How is the scaffold inserted? 3. Generally, what are the axons? How do they work? Do they help send out a lot of signals to the brain, specifically the motor regions? The next article I read discussed the ROI imaging I'm working on and the recovery sensorimotor function after an experimental stoke. This article discussed a perspective that really interested, but confused me. When the brain is exposed to a high impact injury, it tries to compensate and restore what it might have lost or what might have been damaged, sometimes referred to as neural plasticity. This group of researchers experimented a case of 70 days monitoring the rats after the strokes and observing their reactions via images. I had a really hard time understanding this article due to all the complicated and new words. Thus, I have quite a handful of questions for Dr. Adkins- 1. Would watching them for this many days be beneficial? 2. How does the neuronal tract tracing work? 3. What are they looking at in the images to find answers? Linear Regression? How does that work? 4. How does the guy who looks at the images I draw judge them and extract answers from them? 5. Could strokes cause increased abilities in other parts of the brain? Could there potentially be benefits to strokes because they force other areas of the brain to compensate, but become stronger?

Mini Strokes

This morning Dr. Adkins and I discussed another article concerning "Mini Strokes". The most interesting part about the discussion was excitotoxicity with regards to a drug flooding the body, killing an animal or person in a stroke. We also talked about different drugs that work to make a better rehab process and better stroke experience. After we discussed the article, I continued working on the brain drawings and coloring the impacted areas. I asked a lot of questions today, so hopefully I didn't annoy her like crazy :/. Any ways, it was a good start to the week.

Cortical Stimulation (CS) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

This morning I analyzed an article with Dr. Adkins about CSI and TBI. Throughout our 30 minute discussion, I learned that TBI and stroke rehabs are different. Stroke rehab requires different procedures than TBI because they are two different traumatic events. Also, we talked about the effects and differences between anodal, cathodal, bipolar, and no stimulations. We had to disregard bipolar because there weren't enough subject to put a treatment on. On the other hand I learned that the anodal was the negative current of electrodes and cathodal was the positive current of electrodes. We found that the graphs showed that if you put no stimulation, the results were better. Also, the cathodal and anodal had effects, but they were more severe than helpful in the end. Thus, I was able to expand my understanding about the brain's reactions to events and a little more about it's neural plasticity.

ER and Lab

Last week I went back into the lab for my routine Thursday, Wednesday, and Friday. I collected more data and learned how to use a new program called micron. In this program, I located specific areas of the brain to relate to where the lesion would appear. This past weekend I worked in the ER. I saw a variation of events: cat scans, a drunk woman, a dead 45 year old man due to ODing, a mental man, and a temperature taken rectally. It was a very interesting Saturday morning to say the least. Tomorrow, I will be discussing an article with Dr. Adkins in relation to a power point and plugging in more data to Excel.

Back to School

So it has been a while since I have blogged. That's not to say I have been idle. Over the break, I completed about 8 hours of work in the ER and ICU. Both were interesting as usual, with the ER being  more interesting. The ICU was pretty gross. It was a lot of bathroom complications in beds, making it rather smelly and slightly unenjoyable. Needless to say it was still a cool experience. On the other hand, the ER was pretty busy on Christmas Eve. I saw a variation of sicknesses and issues, sickle cell being one of the most interesting. I was especially pleased when a doctor approached me for my help though. I excitedly answered yes, only to find out I was helping with a stool sample. Even though it was gross, the doctor was incredible to me in that he explained every bit and part of it to me. Overall, it was hectic, busy, and tiring, but definitely fascinating.