Today we started off by doing some slides of the brain from B724, which we recorded with last week. I've found it really exciting to become more independent with the histology work... although I am still a little fearful of the oxygen tube required to make dry ice (so that we can freeze the brain to the slicing stage and prevent it from wiggling around while we slice... not that it can wiggle on it's own... you get the point), so Krista still makes the dry ice for me, but other than that, I fly pretty solo when it comes to slicing and histology!
← Brain on the slicing stage!
← Brain on the slicing stage!
Today we got our first slices in which we could really visualize the fluorescent dye. We apply the dye to the end of the electrode probe we use for recording so that when we're finished recording, and we work through some histology, we can see where it was that we did (or didn't) see a lot of activity in the brain. The region we're focusing on is auditory, and it's scientific name is "Caudal Mesopallium" or "CM."
We found with the slides from B724 that we most likely did reach CM, which is great news, since we got a lot of activity while recording.
For each hemisphere of the brain, we can create three slides with eight 100 micron slices, for a total of 24 slices. Based on what I saw today, I'd say that a little less than one third of the slices showed evidence of dye (evidence of dye = evidence of penetration in that region of the brain with the electrode while recording). We use the fluorescence when we review the stats and results from recording... which I have yet to do, but I'm pretty sure it'll be exciting since there was so much activity during recording! (Besides, everything I've seen in the lab has been exciting for me!)
We found with the slides from B724 that we most likely did reach CM, which is great news, since we got a lot of activity while recording.
For each hemisphere of the brain, we can create three slides with eight 100 micron slices, for a total of 24 slices. Based on what I saw today, I'd say that a little less than one third of the slices showed evidence of dye (evidence of dye = evidence of penetration in that region of the brain with the electrode while recording). We use the fluorescence when we review the stats and results from recording... which I have yet to do, but I'm pretty sure it'll be exciting since there was so much activity during recording! (Besides, everything I've seen in the lab has been exciting for me!)
In order to visualize the slides with the microscope after mounting the slices of brain onto their slides (in order, in 100 micron slices) we photograph the slides without the fluorescent lighting from a mercury bulb, then with the fluorescent lighting. With some of the slides, we can really see the dye without the aid of fluorescence - but we check all three slides from each hemisphere for fluorescence just in case.
We've (mostly Krista has been) debugging our behavior program today as well. It's been really rewarding to see all the preparation come to a circle (I'm not ready to say full circle yet - I'm not ready for it to be over!). Today the pair of us acted as subjects to our trials, responding correctly and incorrectly in order to test the program. We found a few "bugs" (such as the lack of a recording of data when the subject responds incorrectly)... I think I hear Krista running the program right now! I was a little proud of myself today - After watching Krista run the program for two weeks (man, time flies fast...) I finally killed and started the program before and after she debugged! (The score between the program and I is "Sophie: 1, Program: I've lost count...")
Hopefully my excitement is showing through, I've been having the time of my life in the lab! I feel insanely lucky to have such an incredible mentor - she's allowed me to really approach this internship full-force and get the best learning experience possible from these three weeks. I can't wait to continue working with her (and the rest of the lab) throughout the summer!
I'd best not get ahead of myself, we still have one week left (two presentations to go!) and the day's not over yet!
Krista's been recording from another bird and we're planning to nissel stain the tissue slices from this morning sometime this week as well! Busy times as always, but the work never fails to seem like fantasy and fun...
We've (mostly Krista has been) debugging our behavior program today as well. It's been really rewarding to see all the preparation come to a circle (I'm not ready to say full circle yet - I'm not ready for it to be over!). Today the pair of us acted as subjects to our trials, responding correctly and incorrectly in order to test the program. We found a few "bugs" (such as the lack of a recording of data when the subject responds incorrectly)... I think I hear Krista running the program right now! I was a little proud of myself today - After watching Krista run the program for two weeks (man, time flies fast...) I finally killed and started the program before and after she debugged! (The score between the program and I is "Sophie: 1, Program: I've lost count...")
Hopefully my excitement is showing through, I've been having the time of my life in the lab! I feel insanely lucky to have such an incredible mentor - she's allowed me to really approach this internship full-force and get the best learning experience possible from these three weeks. I can't wait to continue working with her (and the rest of the lab) throughout the summer!
I'd best not get ahead of myself, we still have one week left (two presentations to go!) and the day's not over yet!
Krista's been recording from another bird and we're planning to nissel stain the tissue slices from this morning sometime this week as well! Busy times as always, but the work never fails to seem like fantasy and fun...
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