Tiffany Budiman, Entry #5, Last Week

This week Reem and I finished conditioning the mice on Monday and on Tuesday I post conditioned the mice and analyzed the videos on Ethovision. I spent most of the day in the computer room and adjusted the arena and detection settings for the Coc vs. MS mice. The next day Reem and I used Prism to analyze the data from the second group of mice the way we did last week on the first group of mice (Ms vs. Oxy). 

Adjusting the arena settings of the boxes on Ethovision

When we analyzed the combined data of the two trials, the outliers were already identified in the first trial by Chris but Sarah and I couldn't figure out why the specific mice were chosen so I spent the day watching the state dependent videos from the first trial of the Oxy vs. Ms mice. Then, Sarah thought me how to use excel to identify the outliers in our trial. 

The mice in box 1 preferred the stripes side as seen on Ethovision using the track visualization setting

The mice in box 3 only stayed in the stripes side and we had to figure out which drug ti received on the that side

The plan was for my PI Dr. Cahill to go over the combined data with Sarah, Chris, Reem and I by the end of this week since it is my last week here however she was busy and we didn't have the time to do so. However, since Reem and I analyzed most of the data ourselves I have an idea of what the final data and graphs would look like and will be able to work on my poster. Dr. Cahill also sent me the grant for the study so that I have additional information that i can work with. I will be in touch with most of my lab mates since they are going to send me the finalized data and results for my poster.  On my last day I bought doughnuts from Sidecar doughnuts, a popular chain in Southern California for my lab. 

I was surprised that my six weeks here went by so quickly and it was sad to not be able to come back next Monday. I am thankful that Dr. Cahill allowed me to work in her lab and for the opportunity to have been able to work with all the people that I have met there. I have learned so much during my time here and I wouldn't have been able to do it without Dr. Peretz and Dr. Venanzi.