While I’ve enjoyed all the seminars presented this summer, Dr. Christina Williams’s talk on aerobic exercise and its impact on the hippocampus stood out to me. I knew generally that the health of all the systems of our body is linked and exercising obviously is good for more than just building muscles, but I’d never realized that running can play such an important role to memory. Dr. Williams’s lab studied different rats bred to have different acquired and inherent aerobic capacities. They found that the groups with the highest aerobic capacities not only had higher levels of neuron proliferation in their hippocampi, but were better at performing specific memory experiments in which researchers tested the rats’ ability to discern between different toys. In her presentation Dr. Williams explained how these findings may lead to better understandings of how to help people such as chemo and dementia patients for whom neurogenesis is impaired.
Dr. Williams was a wonderful speaker and her work seems very promising . As someone who is interested in both medicine and research, I enjoyed hearing from Dr. Williams and thinking more about how you don’t necessarily need to be a M.D. PhD or research in a lab to answer questions that can directly help human health. The talk sort of expanded my view of possible careers. I also enjoyed hearing from Dr. Williams because she was obviously so interested in her work. Though all the speakers we have met so far are very dedicated to and happy with their research, I still thought it was helpful to hear Dr. Williams’s advice about working in a lab whose studies you are excited about. It was nice to hear that Dr. Williams’s dedication to her passion has paid off for her and those who may benefit from her work one day. However my future career turns out, I hope I will be able to look back on my work with the same enthusiasm she has.
