Mark & Anne Meeting May 27

- fMRI conference went really well
- been a busy week!
- am in charge of journal club articles this week, so am going to suggest doing the mind-wandering papers mentioned by Kalina Christoff at the conference

1). Hot or Not:
Totally forgot to get Ben's ethics. (Oops). He has now agreed to send them and his stimuli but still hasn't done so. Met with Angele yesterday and we went over possible experiment design and found the form we need to make changes to ethics. Problem is, I haven't seen the original ethics form we are proposing to change so I couldn't fill it all out. Meeting this afternoon to hopefully sort this out. Mark wants Angele to write the ethics, but without seeing what we're working with I'm not sure what to get her to do.

We have IAPS now, and Angele and I went through and categorized potentially useful ones. They are fine, but there aren't a lot of them, so really depends on the experiment design. Or I suppose we could do one IAPS block and one block of random hot people off the internet (or borrow Ben's).

At today's meeting I hope to get the ethics entirely sorted (to the point where I know what to do and can go do it), decide on stimuli for sure, and find out if there is an existing E-Prime program I can use or if we should make a new one (which I will get Angele to do, for practice/learning purposes).


2). STC

In very good shape here, in my opinion. Managed to collect four participants' worth of data on Monday and Tuesday, which is pretty good going. It went well. Unfortunately that is all we can do for now, as the other two women currently at STC are not interested. I am returning to Stonehenge on June 5 to give another presentation to the new women who will have started by then. I plan to bring the laptop along in case I can set up a few bookings for that day. Otherwise, I will sign them up for the following week.

Something important to bear in mind: one girl mentioned she has ADHD, which we hadn't been asking about. I will add in a question regarding ADHD, depression or any other diagnosis which may be relevant. This girl had a very hard time with the go/no go task, which makes perfect sense as those with ADHD find it difficult.


3). SD Review

Lit search is done (for now) and we are started on reading/summarizing/making a greatly detailed outline. Met with Mark yesterday, which was very helpful. I am burning through papers and plan to make the outline super detailed, to the point where it will practically write itself. Both Ben and I are motivated to have it done by the end of the summer.

4). Potential collaboration with London people in Jo's lab

Jo has passed on information about her supervisor. We will discuss potential projects next week. Will email Jo to let her know.



In other news, had a hugely hard time with my Python homework this week. Am hoping to give it another shot on the weekend. Been a busy week, though, and very productive.

Meeting May 20 and further updates

I was sick pretty much all week, so not too much progress.

- Studentship proposal handed in (mean post office lady notwithstanding) and all seems good

- Meeting at Stonehenge as reported below
- major problems with figuring out who has signed up led to missing participants on Tuesday when staff did not return my email asking if anyone has signed up and what time
- to avoid this in future, will try to start a schedule of leaving a sheet one week/picking it up the next, although with only 6 women in currently will not be testing too much
- Ben and I have met and I now have all the info (consent form, debrief, questionnaire). Also up on the-craic.


- bit of work done on lit review, but have just met with Ben and revised outline - is starting to come together!

- Met with Mark and Angele last week. Stimuli will hopefully be in for Hot or Not soon, but either way am meeting Angele tomorrow and hoping to get started

- Python homework

Other news: my friend Jo (in London) has been down with some kind of horrible disease, but will speak to her supervisor today and send us some info on their lab.


To Do:
- work on lit for SD review
- Stonehenge - nobody today, but will go in Monday/Tuesday to get started
- meet with Angele and sort out stimuli (if arrived)
- fMRI conference this weekend

Meeting May 13 and May 11 and 14 Stonehenge visits

Ben and I went to visit Stonehenge on Monday to attend a staff meeting and update the staff on our research. I brought along copies of our Neuroscience Day poster and a print-out of the experimental paradigm itself, in case anyone was concerned. They were a very attentive audience and seemed quite keen to continue our collaboration. They were even kind enough to give us a ride back to the bus (cutting down on cab fare!)

During that meeting, I set up a meeting with Jan from the women's centre for the following Thursday (May 14). That went extremely well also. I didn't realise she was planning have me give a presentation to the women while I was there, but actually it worked out really well to do it that way as now they've all met me and had a chance to ask questions. I talked a little about the background of the research and what we hope to accomplish eventually (hopefully helping to reduce drug-stimuli-induced cravings etc) and told them exactly what the experiment would involve. They all seemed interested and have asked me to come back and present the results once I've got the data collected and analyzed (which I would be happy to do). Jan then spoke and emphasized how this sort of research might help people like them in the future, and how not much research has been done with women struggling with addiction.

Ben sent me his sign-up sheet, and Jan filled in times that the women would be free for me to test. I made the on-the-spot decision to accept everything she was offering, even if that makes it awkward since Ben and I will have to share a laptop. The sooner we get through this, the better! Currently I have next Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, as well as the Monday after the bank holiday.

Meeting with Mark: Just a chance to check in, really. Things are starting to hum along, finally. Stonehenge project is getting started, as above. Ontario Problem Gambling studentship is done and handed in (as of now) except that I still need to post my documents before 5pm.

Met with Angele last Friday re: the Hot or Not project. We decided the first major issue to get our paws on a copy of IAPS, unless Robin has some other database of stimuli that would be more useful. From what I understand, Angele is currently conducting a lit review. She is keen to learn E-Prime, so I will go over that with her once we have our stimuli ready to go.

Lit review for the SD/Attention stuff is moving forward. Met with Ben this week, who has promised to update the wiki with the literature that he has collected over the course of his PhD. We did go over our respective lists and noted which papers were duplicates. Ben has agreed to do a short meeting every week, then spend an hour or so sitting somewhere and working on this project, which I think will help a lot in keeping things moving.

To do:
- Ontario Problem Gambling studentship handed in
- continue lit review
- Python homework
- meet Mark/Angele re: Hot or Not
- talk to Ben about consent/debriefs etc for Stonehenge and arrange laptop custody
- see if I can jury-rig Ben's laptop so the plug doesn't fall out!

Mark & Anne Meeting May 6

Things are ticking along. Gambling proposal draft is done (Mark to edit via Track Changes and get back to me), lit review is well underway, and planning to get Hot or Not project started ASAP.

To Do this week:

- continue lit review
- contact Cheri at Stonehenge and ask if I can come by on Monday
- give presentation to Stonehenge on Monday
- meeting with Angele Friday for Hot or Not
- look up IAPS
- Python homework for Christian
- finalise gambling proposal
- collect all letters and transcripts and post
- write CV
- look up price of next level of PBWorks so we can get backups (if necessary)