The first time when I was exposed to what neuroscience research really was, I was only in tenth grade and yet to learn University level Biology. I did not know what a PCR is, nor how each neuron was connected to each other in various different types ways(via neurotransmitters like glutamate-excitatory- and GABA-inhibitory) and in such a temporally sensitive manner. From start to finish, I was at lost of what was going on, and my kind, super-smart bench mentor had to teach me everything from the basics. That was my tenth grade summer.
Fast forward four years and I have dedicated much time into learning Biology and Neuroscience. At this point in time, I considered myself to be much more prepared for lab (“I got this!”). However, although I was able to understand some basic procedures and general knowledge related to the brain, I quickly noticed a lot of the knowledge that was specific about lab’s research topic pouring in, and was ready to read to get started. Two days in, I observed one of the postdoc members of the lab giving a presentation for his seminar next week. He talked about how some GABAergic neurons could actually function as excitatory in the striatum, depending on the type of stimulation. Already on the first week, new research was shown that challenged my previous notion of how neurons were connected.
What I expect this summer is not to understand every single detail of what we are doing in the lab, but to contribute to Calakos lab’s efforts to reveal circuit level changes as striatum adjusts from goal-direct to habitual behavior. I will be learning how to analyze and use confocal microscopes to help me get going, and probably have a ton of learning before me. Does this intimidate me? Yes, probably. A little bit. But I also know that this is the start of a long journey ahead. My goals for the summer is to understand the group dynamics in lab, and perhaps identify a gap in knowledge about this topic that I can fill in during my independent study in the future. Most importantly, I want to learn a really crucial skill in the Sciences: how to ask the right questions. I think I can have plenty of practice doing that this summer.
