Friday, March 3, 2017

URSP Student Antarius Daniel Researches How Humans Perceive Time

My name is Antarius Daniel and I am a senior, Bioengineering major. My professor, Dr. Joiner, gave me the opportunity to work in his sensorimotor lab this year to help investigate and better understand how humans perceive and make decisions about time. I researched previous works on this topic 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. This study was adapted to be able to test on humans. While the tone is playing, the forces on the robotic arm used to choose a target is monitored and can be analyzed.

This project interested me because there is limited information on this topic, 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 aided 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. My main goal and what I do on a weekly basis is recruit and run participants in the experiment. This way we have data to analyze and eventually be able to validate or refute our hypotheses.