Introduction to Dr. Konoike's lab and Sightseeing in Inuyama

            Hello everyone. I am Dakota Smallridge, a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Sciences at Kent State University. I was selected as a participant in the University’s NSF-IRES program designed around summer internships in primate biology at Kyoto University, Japan. I will be writing periodic reports from Japan, the research I’ll be doing and my overall experience. I will join a research study under the tutelage of Dr. Naho Konoike at Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior (EHUB), a branch of Kyoto University located in Inuyama, Japan.  I’ve just gotten settled into my life here and have started to prepare for the research project. Last week (my first week here) was spent getting used to the new environment I’m in and learning more specifics about the various projects in Dr. Konoike’s lab. Her research group focuses on analyzing electroencephalography (EEG) of non-human primates as they listen to tones played through a speaker. Her main research centers on schizophrenia and its influences on sound processing. It was found that the power of Auditory Steady State Responses (ASSRs) was significantly lowered in individuals who have schizophrenia. ASSRs are an indicator of whole brain communication and shows that in schizophrenia there may be difficulty with different parts of the brain talking to each other.

            In Dr. Konoike’s lab, the technique that I will be using for EEG is one developed here at EHUB. It is similar to how EEGs are done on humans, but it was modified for monkeys. The tubes are placed onto the animal’s head and are then filled with a gel to lower impedance, and finally the electrodes are placed into those tubes. This technique causes no harm to the monkeys and allows for high resolution recording of their brain waves.

My Project

            I will be analyzing ASSRs from marmoset monkeys during my nine weeks at EHUB. The challenge was deciding on what kind of sound stimulus should be presented. I had not previously seen a study in marmosets in which a different tone is presented to each ear at the same time. Following discussions with Dr. Konoike, I designed a series of tests to present 30 Hz, 40 Hz, and 80 Hz tones to different ears simultaneously in the same animal. These data will then be analyzed and the interactions on ASSRs generated by each tone will be seen. I hypothesized that the interactions between the ASSRs generated by each tone will cause the amplitudes to decrease when compared to both ears being presented with the same tone. I also hypothesized that the amplitude of the 80 Hz ASSR will be higher than the ASSRs caused by 30 Hz and 40 Hz. This prediction stems from other studies that reported marmosets have higher power ASSRs with higher frequencies compared to humans, (around 80 Hz to 120 Hz).

            Dr. Konoike has existing procedures for performing ASSR studies using one tone as a stimulus, so I will be modifying those procedures for a two-tone stimulus. I will also be spending the end of this week and start of next week refreshing my memory of Matlab (the program we’re using to create and analyze the stimulus) and working on getting the associated files prepared for my experiment. Since the previous experiments only had one tone stimulus, the two audio channels in a stereo sound system used one channel to present the sound and the other to record the trigger. The trigger would indicate when the sound stimulus was played, allowing for an accurate recording of the stimulus. We realized that, if we use the audio output for surround sound, we should have enough channels to play both the stimuli and the trigger. Next week I will start collecting ASSR data from my first marmoset. I will also be attending some experiments from other people in the lab and learning more about their projects, too.

Experiencing Culture

            During evenings and weekends, I will also be travelling and experiencing more of Japanee culture. I minored in Japanese as an undergraduate. So, I’ve also been meeting with some of my Japanese friends (former exchange students to the U.S.) and practicing my language skills in an effort to improve. We’ve been doing this roughly once a week. There is also a language practice class that is held in Inuyama on Sundays I’m planning to attend as well. I am hoping such practice will increase my fluency in preparation for (hopefully) returning to Japan someday as a postdoc.

            On Wednesday, I had lunch with Dr. Hiroyuki Tanaka and Dr. Michael Huffman from EHUB. We talked a bit about Japanese culture, the research being done at the institute, and set up a time later next week to meet for a dinner party where we will make bamboo shoot onigiri. On Saturday, I went to Inuyama castle with some of the other visiting students. It is one of only five remaining original castles in Japan and is believed to be the oldest. It was built sometime in the late 1500s and has some designs influenced by Chinese architecture. We went inside the castle and climbed to the top, where we took some photos. Getting to the top was slightly scary due to the steep and narrow stairs.

Going Forward

            Next week, I will start my experiments. To prepare, I will begin working with the marmoset so that it becomes familiar with me, and I will test the sound equipment to be used. I will also view the experiments of my labmates, one of which includes an MRI to record more precise information of the study animal. I’m looking forward to interacting more with the members of the lab and everyone else in EHUB. I’ll post periodic updates, usually every two weeks. Thank you for reading!

See you!

Dakota

This opportunity to conduct research in Japan is supported by NSF-IRES Award #1853937 to Drs. Tosi, Raghanti, Meindl, and Lovejoy at Kent State University.