Week 4

My favorite part about working in this lab is getting to work with and meet new people almost every day. At first I was nervous to have to work with human subjects because I was afraid of messing up or accidentally saying something offensive, especially because when someone has suffered from a stroke as it can be a sensitive topic. However, every one who I have met so far have been extremely nice and cooperative (even though I only am a high schooler). This week I focused mainly on the stroke BCI project and had to travel between WIMR and the medical science laboratories on campus.

Each intervention session with a patient lasts for approximately two hours and involves a series of "brain games" while a patient is wearing an EEG cap. The goal of these sessions is to develop ways to reconnect communication throughout the body after one has suffered a stroke. Often when one has suffered from a stroke a connection is broken between the neurons in the brain and the muscles of the body (causing temporary or permanent paralysis in the body.) The EEG and the computer serve as communicators and can replace that broken connection and lead (hopefully) to movement of the upper body or intent of movement.

This week one of my biggest fears came true, being complete clueless with no one to help. When I'm working on the stroke BCI study I am always paired with a grad student because I don't know how to administer the EEG and BCI sessions by myself yet. However, my job is to initially pick up the patients from the parking lot and bring them to the lab. Everyone in Dr. Prabhakaran's lab does their work from WIMR, but when we have an intervention session we go to the Medical Science Center which is on campus. Normally only 1 or 2 people from the Prabhkaran lab is at the Medical Science Center at a time. Friday, I was paired with a grad student who I had never met before. I picked up the patient from the parking lot and we walked to the room to get them prepped for the EEG. However, when we got to the room the grad student still wasn't there. I figured that he would be there shortly since the patient was about 20 minutes early. I started talking to the patient making sure they were comfortable and preparing them for the EEG. Ten minutes passed and still no one was there. Then 30 minutes passed and still no grad student. I got worried and started texting and emailing everyone I could from the lab, because I didn't have the grad student's number and I had no way to contact him. 40 minutes had past and the intervention session was supposed to have started 45 minutes ago. I was trying to not panic so that the patient wouldn't panic, finally I saw an email from the grad student saying he would be there in 15 minutes. He was an hour late and when he came in he was completely flustered, and I did my best to help him set up everything to get the session started as quickly as possible.

Being faced with this challenge was scary, but also helped me feel more comfortable because I was able to handle the situation without panicking (only slightly) and while dealing with a new patient who I had never met before, and in a new building that I didn't know very well at all. I also learned a lot about the subject and was able to build a more personal connection. I also learned that even as a High School student that I can be responsible and self reliant. I am looking forward to being able to run the tests myself.