Week Two . . . Dreaming at Harvard

I can’t believe that two of my eight weeks here have already flown by.

This week I completed a reliability test in the lab, finishing Friday afternoon. In completing this, I helped verify the replicability of a study with which my research assistant, Kate, is involved. This study is exploring the correlation between a sulcus in the anterior cingulate cortex and the cognitive complications of schizophrenia. For a more detailed explanation of the study, see last week’s entry “First Days in the Lab.” I do not yet know how reliable the results are, but I’m hoping they will turn out well.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I leave the lab a little early to go to my course at Harvard, Introduction to Psychology. I’m really enjoying the class so far. The professor is brilliant (and hilarious) and I find the content fascinating.

On Tuesday, I learned about the visual system (structures of the eye, depth perception, etc). On Thursday, I learned about sleep (how to measure stages of sleep, various sleep disorders, and dreams). I found this lecture particularly interesting. For example, did you know that you probably had 230 different dreams last night? It is unlikely that you remembered most of them, but you had them!