Diana King, Week 7, Wrapping things up



With one more week to go, I have been trying to finish up my project and prepare for my presentation both in school and in the lab. I have officially finished analyzing the recorded calls and have added my data to the file already in the database.

At this point, we have over 10,000 data points which will be used in determining the acoustic boundaries of the USVs and thus how maternal mice are able to categorize and understand the pup calls despite alterations. The next step is to graph this information and compare it with the recorded behavior and neural activity of the mothers when exposed to the USVs. The tones, frequency, speed etc. per age will be used to determine a general structure for an average pup call which will then be played back to a mother with varying alterations. By process of elimination, they will be able to understand what the mother is hearing and how she is categorizing the sounds she hears as calls.

They have been procrastinating the analysis of these calls and they were very thankful that I had finally finished it for them. Now it will be much easier to move along with this project and make the discovery they have been meaning to.

I am also prepping for my upcoming presentation. On the 4th (my last day) all the summer students will be presenting their projects and the data they have collected. Since the PI is finally back full time we will be having regular lab meetings.

My grad student left on Tuesday for a conference in Brazil and won't be back until next Wednesday and since I finished the bulk of my project I have had a lot of free time.  There aren't many people in the lab and the work is a bit slow so I have been exploring the city again!




This week I went to the Empire State Building for the first time since I was 7 (maybe I'll go every ten years). It was as incredible as I remember and am so happy I did it. Even though I went in the afternoon the lines weren't too long and the observation deck was not crowded at all. There were so many tourists there that I think I heard every language and accent that exists lolol. The view was so beautiful and it is an unforgettable experience.






With my grad student gone and so little left to do it really feels like my time here is ending. I am excited to go home to my family but I will definitely miss my time here.

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