Stonehenge

Finally made it to Stonehenge! Ben and I went to the men's house this morning to meet with Cheri and the staff. Cheri was lovely, as promised, and very keen to help. She had no problem at all with the idea of my doing some testing on the women (we emphasized that for this round, no drug-related stimuli will be involved) and has promised to ask her supervisor about it. I left my email address and am hoping that Cheri will email me soon to let me know what Heather (supervisor) said. Then I hope to either meet with both of them, if they'd prefer that, or go straight out to the women's centre and meet the staff and residents there. With any luck, I may be able to start testing shortly after that. Cheri seemed to think it definitely would not be a problem, which is very encouraging.

Also learned a little about the therapeutic treatment centre model. I am pretty ignorant about anything to do with actual treatment, having never taken anything clinical at all, so it was interesting. I was then given a tour of the buildings by a resident called Mike R. That was an eye-opener. Besides the tour, he told me a lot about what kind of things he is doing in the course of his treatment, and a LOT about his anger issues and the deeper issues that cause them (eg. hurt is acted out as anger). It was pretty interesting. Bit hard to know what to say, but I guess that will come with time. Anyway, everyone made me feel very comfortable (although it is a bit of a weird atmosphere if you're an outsider) and I think testing there will probably work out, since the staff are so helpful.

Mark & Anne Meeting April 29

Got a little distracted from updating there because I have a giant staph infection on my leg (they think). However, got two types of antibiotics now, so should be all good.

Anyway, another good meeting. Feeling that things are moving forward (finally, one could say). Got a draft of the gambling proposal done except for the actual experiments involved. However, I have a pretty good idea of how they will work, so should have a final draft done for next week, giving time for revisions (if necessary) and formatting.

Also decided on a specific list for the SD lit review. A nice concrete list of goals to focus on, my favorite! Showed it to Ben and he was quite impressed.

Stonehenge tomorrow, for real this time. We have an appointment, we have a way to get there, and we have a plan.

Also this week: started proceedings to switch into PSYC+NEUR. That should go quickly - Asma's already done hers.

And finally, mentioned our research interests to my friend Jo in London, and she told me that her supervisor and others in the department (I believe it's a hospital) are doing work along the same lines. She passed on my info to her supervisor and we are considering joining forces at some point. We shall see.

To do:

- write experiment descriptions for gambling proposal
- speak to Harvey M. about subjects for gambling exp'ts and what the gambling research centre is up to
- make suggested revisions and finalise gambling proposal
- trip to Stonehenge
- paperwork for PSYC+NEUR
- SD lit review on the topics discussed
- get new recruit Danielle up to speed on lab stuff

Mark & Anne Meeting April 22

Another meeting that addressed problems I've been having getting moving with some of these projects. Most of my problems stem from not being exactly sure how to tackle these things. It all seems obvious once we've discussed it, though! Sigh.

1). Ontario Problem Gambling Studentship
Feel like I've got a pretty good start on this. Transcripts ordered (not without difficulty!), letters of reference requested, etc.

The proposal is started, but is still in hacked-together format. I wrote up the affective devaluation stuff (to be posted on the wiki in due course) but now need to rethink the whole thing, develop an outline and go from there.

Discussed adding in some self-regulation stuff. I know very little about it just now, but sounds like it's a pretty good fit for this proposal. Mark has sent me some information from the SSHRC grant to have a look at.

Here is a skeleton outline of the proposal:
Attention/disordered attention are important in problem gambling.
This could help us treat problem gambling in two ways:
1). Improve self-control via self-regulation
2). Reduce the salience of gambling-related cues via inhibitory devaluation.


To do:
- read stuff on self-regulation
- decide if it's useful for this proposal
- draft proposal outline
- write up draft
- Ask Robyn Fraser re: letter of registration from the uni

2). Stonehenge
ARGH still no luck. Couldn't do last Friday. Ben has promised this Friday. Fingers crossed.

Agreed that if Friday is not a go, Mark and I will start looking at alternative ways to get me in there.

3). SD Review
Have been doing reading for this but feeling like I don't know where to start. Mark sensibly pointed out that I might think about starting at the beginning.

New plan: draft outline and find papers/evidence that fill in sections of that outline. Much more sensible.

Ben postponed yesterday's meeting till tomorrow. My goal at that meeting is get him to agree to a REALISTIC timeline for this, so we have something to work towards and it doesn't fall by the wayside. Also, I plan to pick his brain re: his use of erotic stimuli as a model for the attentional effects of SD cues in the normal population. Sounds like Angele will be in on this one too, but in the meantime at least I can find out about how Ben's been using this.

And that about covers it. Meeting tomorrow to go over experiment ideas. Asma and I plan to work together to get as much as possible done in both our areas. Also, Journal Club started and was really awesome. Nice to toss some ideas around and get Alex's input particularly.

Dr. Gabor Maté

Went to an excellent talk by Dr. Gabor Maté today called "The Four Compassions: A humane response to addictions". It was really worthwhile. Dr. Maté was excellent on the topic of reasons for addiction - ie. adverse childhood experiences. He also talked about epigenetics, in a nice counterpoint to Dr. Kolb's talk at Neuroscience Day. Dr. Kolb talked about animal models of infant neuroplasticity, while Dr. Maté's talk was effectively about the exact same thing, only he used examples taken from his work in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He works with addictions and mental health problems, and most if not all of the people he works with show this pattern of childhood trauma and lack of attachment. He said they compare the feeling of using heroin to getting a hug. These people never received affection, and the closest thing they can find comes out of a needle.

There was also a very strong theme of "judge not lest ye be judged", which is definitely going to be something to keep in mind while working with these kinds of populations. (I would imagine, anyway - hopefully this Stonehenge visit will happen soon!)

Finally, in the questions section, Dr. Maté talked about the very strong link between ADD/ADHD, gambling problems, and addiction. Hmmm. Possibly something to screen for in our populations? Maybe even address?

However, this did depress me a little in research terms. Most substance-dependent individuals clearly have a lot of underlying problems. How likely is it that a purely cognitive manipulation will help? I'm eager to get started on seeing if we can get this devaluation effect in undergrad using sexual stimuli or however we decide to do that - or maybe in a population like smokers. Just to see if it's going to work so we can get moving on the bigger stuff.

Mark meeting April 8

Had a good long talk about some things that have been on my mind.

1. Advisory Committee:
This needs to be decided by six weeks into the semester. After having a talk with Ben about the whole committee-choosing thing, I think maybe we should ask Dan Meegan to be the internal committee member. As for external, I've been having a look. There is that guy who came to give the talk on emotions being adaptive for NACS. His lab does some attention/emotion stuff. Beyond that I'm not really sure - suggestions welcome.

2. Qualifying Exam
Don't need to worry about this so much until the committee is selected. However, it is worth checking with Robin when exactly the thing has to be done.

3. Switching to PSYC + NEURO
I think this is kind of a given. I think it might be quite challenging for me, but I think the knowledge will definitely come in handy. Plus, as Mark points out, it definitely doesn't look bad to have something with "Neuroscience" written on it on your degree...

4. Atmosphere in the lab
- chatted about getting more collaborations going on
- Asma seems to have taken this to heart, and we're starting a reading group (which means Asma, Alex and I) Mondays at noon. I think I might start bringing cookies. We will take turns choosing 2-3 journal articles in our area of interest and we'll all discuss 'em.

5. Stonehenge - have pinned Ben down to bringing me the Friday after next (April 17), although he is testing before the meeting so he is worried about what to do with me during that time. So awkward not to have a car.
- once I'm in, can hopefully test some females and get that inhib deval stuff out the door
- Ben reminded me once again that this is a very hard population to work with, etc. etc. As if I'd forgotten...

6. Review Paper
- feel MUCH BETTER about this now. Agreed to make a wiki for it, and Alex just showed me how this morning. That wiki is up and running (as is my PhD-related wiki for keeping track of everything to do with my research - far too cool a tool not to use for myself!)
- subsequently met with Ben, who has agreed to do it. He will take the "attentional deficits in SD" bit, and I will look at "cognitive consequences". We agreed that the brain areas will become apparent through both of our reading, so probably not necessary to specifically assign that to someone.
- furthermore agreed to meet every week, starting the Tuesday after next at 2pm. Then I will be fully up to date for the Wednesday Mark meeting :)
- Ben has also agreed to mention this to Francisco, just in case Mark hasn't already

So that about covers it. I feel 100% better for having a specific idea of what I need to accomplish and when, plus a shiny new tool for keeping track of it all! Even if I just use the wiki for a dumping ground of documents, that's still progress. Here's to a productive summer...