Week 6:
Score, Review, Chart, Repeat!
The city of Rochester from the nature path. A family of geese were out and about. There were even baby geese who reminded me of the ones at Ink Pond!
July 17, 2022
This past week was entirely made up of scoring patient files and reviewing them. We also spent a lot of time patient charting through the medical software, Epic. Patient charting is an incredibly interesting process. I am particularly enjoying reading all of the different types of hallucinations patients have had due to their Charles Bonnet Syndrome or other hallucination producing diseases. The doctors put a lot of detail in the patient chart, so I am very appreciative of all of the creative descriptions!
In journal club this week, we reinforced the idea that there is an importance to sleep. Primarily, we looked at how even one night of sleep loss can be detrimental to your brain health! In the article, beta-amyloid clearance in the brain was discussed. In a study with mice, it was suggested that when sleep deprived for just one night, the mouse brain saw an increase in beta-amyloid that needed to be removed. I really enjoyed how much this article mentioned the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. The hippocampus was mentioned in depth due to the memory components it houses. It’s important to know the relationship your brain has with sleep. Scientists know that beta-amyloid build up can be a precursor for many dementias, specifically Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s targets areas like the hippocampus in the early stages of the disease. This is why it is common for Alzheimer’s patients to have poor memory, if memory at all. Other sleep disorders such as insomnia are particularly concerning for the build up of beta-amyloid and the relationship it has with future dementia. As a preventative, the article we read for journal club quite obviously suggests that maintaining proper sleep is ideal. Dr. St. Louis finished the journal club by joking that we, as young adults, would never want to be sleep deprived again!
As we are nearing the end of the Charles Bonnet Syndrome project, the time to write the manuscript has arrived! This past week, I created a similar outline to the one I made for the HCT (hypocretin) project. This has been extremely helpful in our writing process! We started working on our background information. Finding quality articles has been very enjoyable. I’m learning so much by just perusing what I come across. I highly recommend going down a science rabbit-hole to get lost in some good, informative reading!
We aren’t far in the manuscript, but after the background information is complete, we will fly through the first draft!
Since we are starting to reach the end of our second project of the summer, Dr. St. Louis has brought up the idea of a third project. On Thursday, he had a general idea of what he was interested in doing for the project, and mentioned he would continue sketching out the design so we could start working as soon as possible! I’m super excited to hear his idea. It has been so fun learning about the two projects we have been focusing on. I intend to keep learning about all of the interesting brain complications after this Fellowship is over and into my career!
This week’s Friday activity was actually a Saturday activity. Dalin and Ramneek invited me to spend the evening with them and their host. We all went to the Night Market – a new summer activity in Rochester. The Night Market aims to support Asian culture, creations, and culinary arts. I had a blast exploring all of the different vendors. Ramneek and I even tried some boba tea! And, since I’m not one for being adventurous with food, I was surprised when everyone somehow convinced me to try lychee – a small red fruit with a coconut white inside.
It was quite the evening! Emily, Beth, Ramneek, Dalin and I all took a long walk by Silver Lake. It was a beautiful evening, so I am very happy that we all took the time to enjoy nature – one of my favorite activities!
In the coming week, I am mostly looking forward to hearing what the third project for this summer is. I’m also excited to continue with our second manuscript. For this coming week’s Friday activity, we will be doing something that might put all of our friendships to the test. I’ll leave the anticipation for my next blog!
Makayla is a behavioral neuroscience major from Newton, Iowa.