My name is Antarius Daniel and I am a senior
pursuing a Bachelor’s in Bioengineering. My professor, Dr. Joiner, gave me the
opportunity to work in his sensorimotor lab beginning in the Fall 2016
semester. He proposed the project idea of investigating temporal perceptions of
human subjects. I researched previous works on this subject and there were
multiple studies on temporal perception in mice. The mice were trained to
categorize sound lengths that were either longer or shorter than a reference
sound. Investigators found that there was a correlation between the movement of
the mouse and the ultimate decision by the mouse. We decided to extend this
study to humans to see if the same patterns can be extracted, giving clues to
how the brain encodes for time.
This project interested me because there is
limited information on this subject, so to be a part of expanding that
knowledge is very exciting. This has also been a great opportunity to
familiarize myself with the research process. There are many steps in creating
a great experiment such as literature review, procedural planning, data
acquisition, and data analysis. I hope to one day be a part of cutting edge
research that will better medical care and outcomes, so this experience is
giving me vital skills for my future career goals.
So far this semester, I have been aiding in
finalizing the procedure and requirements for the human testing. This includes
pilot testing to obtain preliminary data and ensuring validity of the tests. I
have also been in close contact with my professor to discuss different aspects
of the research.
Once the final touches are made, human subject
testing will begin to get real data that can further analyzed.
