Diana King, Week 3&4 Visits, Graphing and Pups


In the 3rd and 4th weeks, I have expanded my statistical analysis duties to screening mice virgins for retrieval behavior as well as recording pup calls. Besides working with my current grad student I have started to assist an undergrad student with her project. At the moment she is testing the behavior and neural activity of a non-retrieving Virgin in different situations involving calls, pups, and other mothers. I am not directly involved in her experiments because she is not my grad student but I have still been assisting her by screening the virgins.

I take a Virgin and place her with the pups of an unrelated mother in a behavior cage. I then take a pup and remove it from the nest. If the Virgin retrieves the mouse or shows signs of panic or nesting the Virgin is unfit to participate in the later experiment. Recently there was a shipment of pregnant mothers and we needed their babies for several experiments that are running around the lab. The mothers gave birth on 7/17 and by 7/19 all of their pups had died. These mothers for some reason did not have the mothering instinct and as a result, the lab lost precious time and money in the form of dead pups. There was a lot of panic and stress that day with the rearrangement of time and sharing existing mice as well as the ordering of new mothers. This was an interesting experience and insight into the workings of a lab as I realized it is a sort of business and not just research.

At this point, I have also gathered enough data from my analysis of the pup calls that I am able to start graphing my findings. I compare the frequency, pitch, length and speed of pups of 4 ages: p3, p5, p7, and p8. Paired with the mother's recorded behavioral and neurological reactions to the various calls should give insight into how the mother learns and understands the calls being presented to her. I would show you the graphs but I'm not sure how to upload excel files onto here...

This week my PI also came back for the first time since his paternity leave. We had a party to celebrate as well as the leave of the lab manager. Rob showed pictures of his baby and the members of the lab gave gifts to the lab manager. There were champagne and snacks.

Finally, last week I visited Stephanie at her lab and went to meet the rest of the UPenn kids with Dr. Peretz at shake shack.

This has been a very productive two weeks and I am looking forward to the few weeks I have left.

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