THE END PLACEHOLDER

UPDATE

TETRODES and RATS


Jumping, air pressure blower, new guys handling, how to hold a rat... etc.....

Rat Surgery/Perfusion

Rat surgery and perfusion are things that happened.
-sterile importance
-anasthesia... pinch tail

Nearing the end of drive- making!

Drives are the official name of the thing that we implant I think.  I also think (hope) that we are close to done with making the three that we need for rats 26, 27, and 28.

I made the plastic part of the drive which was cool, liquid plastic that hardens... with holes in it...

Made a lot more tops (the black plastic with three holes, 23 gage in one hole, screw in the other, nut holding it all together...

Taught the little rats to dig some more.  One of them is so good that he goes to get another fruit loop before I have replaced the one he just ate!

Beginning to get the hang of it

We are still in the preparatory phase of sorts now, making tops for the drives (which are the "headsets").  I do things like cutting plastic holders, cutting canulas, "reaming" the cannulas (making sure the hole goes all the way through), gluing these tiny parts under the microscope, etc.

I ran a rat in the maze for the first time this past week.  I ran rat #25 (the rats aren't named to keep the necessary end-process less painful for the experimenters).  This rat has been running the maze for a while, a did nearly all 40 trials with no mistakes.  Basically the maze consists of two "contexts," and then banana scented paper shreddings in a small ceramic pot and hazelnut scented beads in another small ceramic pot.  In one context, one pot always holds a fruit loop, and in the other  context, the other pot always has the fruit loop.  Rats love fruit loops.  Once they realize that if they eat them it wont hurt them.  They are one of the few (only?) animals that cannot throw up, which can be a problem if they ingest something dangerous to themselves.

First few weeks

Started working at a neuroscience lab at BU a couple of weeks ago.  So far it has been great.  Things go in shifts.  2 week shifts.  For example right now we are making tetrodes (4 wires spun together to most accurately "look" at the cells around it), "handling" the rats to make them used to our touch/smell, and making other parts for the headpieces that will soon be implanted in the rat's brains!