Looking for Participants!

jokettle

Hi guys,
I'm a PhD student in neuroscience and I've a few different projects going on at the moment. One of them involves using an MRI scanner to look at the structure of certain parts of the brain.

I'm looking for young healthy men aged 18-25ish (I'm not too strict on the upper age limit tbh, but you do need to be in early to mid 20s) who are willing to go into the MRI scanner for 30 minutes. The scanner's in the Lloyd Building (beside the Hamilton) so there are no hospital visits needed.

We have no money so we can't pay you anything, but if you like we can give you a DVD with images of your brain on it

If anyone's interested PM me and I'll send on the details.

Also, basic exclusion criteria: you have to be male, right-handed, no neurological or psychiatric history, no metal implants (this includes braces), and if you're claustrophobic you won't like the scanner at all!

So get in touch if you're interested or have any questions

mathew

when do you need people?

just-joe

Sounds interesting, if I'm back around Dublin next week I'll give ya a shout.

PCPhoto

I would offer ...but im 31 .... ageism at its best ...tut tut tut ...

Sid_Justice

Can someone explain to me why ever single neuroscience or psychology research project excludes left-handed people? Is it really a left-handed people use a different part of their brain to do different tasks thing?

GlasnevinRed

Sid_Justice wrote: »

Can someone explain to me why ever single neuroscience or psychology research project excludes left-handed people? Is it really a left-handed people use a different part of their brain to do different tasks thing?

I know. Really annoys me.:mad:

PurpleFistMixer

jokettle wrote: »

Also, basic exclusion criteria: you have to be male, right-handed, no neurological or psychiatric history, no metal implants (this includes braces), and if you're claustrophobic you won't like the scanner at all!

Nope, nope, ???, yup, yup. Hmm. I don't think I can do this test. Could we get some tests done on left-handed females that don't involve MRIs?

jokettle

@mathew: I'm looking for people from now until I get all my participants! I want around 20 people and I have 3 so far, so it'll be an ongoing study.

Regards the lefthanded question, the structure of the brain is essentially the same but there are some slight differences between right and left handed people. On a very basic level, all right handers are pretty much the same as each other, but most left handers show differences both between themselves and compared to righties. So from the point of view of analysing our data, it's much simpler if we just look at right handed brains because the basics will be almost identical.

So it's not....racism? Hand-ism? It's just easier for us!

shay_562

Of course, if the lefties are really desperate to be scanned you could probably just fake it for an afternoon. I mean, sometimes it's hard to notice whether someone's left or right handed. You could go out with someone for, oh, I dunno, 10 months, and still not know that they're left-handed, right jokettle?

I'm well up for this, but probably included in the 3 you have already...

jokettle

11 months, actually.

ANYWAY, you're not one of the 3 so I'll take you as well

Agent Smith

i'm not a student in tcd anymore but would be well up for the DVD of my brain

jokettle

Agent Smith wrote: »

i'm not a student in tcd anymore but would be well up for the DVD of my brain

If you're in the age limit I'll still take you

jokettle

Thanks to everyone who's PM'd me so far; I'm still looking for more so don't be shy!

(Is it just me, or does that sound quite smutty?! Hmm... )

Victor

jokettle wrote: »

We have no money so we can't pay you anything, but if you like we can give you a DVD with images of your brain on it

Do you even offer research credits?

jokettle

Victor wrote: »

Do you even offer research credits?

We can't, because we're not actually part of the Psychology department. I'm in the Dept of Psychiatry, in the School of Medicine.

I know it seems like a petty difference! But unfortunately all I can offer is the DVD.

Thirdfox

You won't be showing pictures of porn will you? (Valid question - last time I helped them out for a MRI research project that's some of the images they showed me ) edit: as well as mutilated body parts...

If you were - you might be able to attract more males to the research project - though I'd prefer porn-less research...

Can people who have been involved in other MRI projects volunteer for this one? I'm a right-handed male, 22, who has previous experience of being a volunteer (the machine makes an awful racket!) and no metal in my body...

godtabh

Is 28 told old?

jokettle

No porn, I'm afraid....who the hell funded that project?! You're not shown any images, there's no task involved in this study. You'll be in the scanner for 30 minutes but all you have to do is lie there. Hee

It's no problem if you've dome other studies; Shay_562, for example, has been a guinea pig for most research groups in my department.

28 is not too old, we've now decided that 30 is the upper age limit. So PM if you're interested!

Thirdfox

Coolio - I'll get a DVD this time then - last time it was one measly tiny jpeg of my weirdly shaped skull (lie too much on one side as a baby :P )

Erm - that project was something to do with drugs and how they affect our emotions/lack thereof? So I guess the other group got free drugs too? (I was the control group) You crazy scientists...

Porn, kittens, mutilated body parts, babies...images sometimes in that order - hopefully it didn't read that I was turned on by images of kittens

jokettle

Thirdfox wrote: »

Porn, kittens, mutilated body parts, babies...images sometimes in that order - hopefully it didn't read that I was turned on by images of kittens

Those two words really don't belong beside each other.

jokettle

Quick update for anyone who's PM'd or thinks they might be interested:

I've scanned 3 of you so far (thanks again guys!) and I have about 5 more on my list that I'll contact whenever a slot opens up. I still need about half a dozen more guinea pigs, so get in touch if you want a taste of what MRI research is all about

The Black Oil

jokettle wrote: »

Also, basic exclusion criteria: you have to be male, right-handed, no neurological or psychiatric history, no metal implants (this includes braces), and if you're claustrophobic you won't like the scanner at all!

I think most psych/neuro posters had these criteria when I was in college. Sorry to be a bit ignorant, but what exactly do they mean by the two bits in bold? No diagnosis, no blips in that department? It's just I've never seen one give specific details and I didn't really bother to find out, either. Fortunately I didn't need research credits. Any clarity would be great, thanks.

jokettle

Neurological history would refer to any neurological diesease or illness like epilepsy or stroke, and also no history of head trauma.

Psychiatric history would encompass anything from schizophrenia to depression to eating disorders.

We're basically wondering if you've ever been diagnosed with a neurological and/or psychiatic illness/disease/problem, because 1) this can alter your cognition and perhaps also the structure of your brain (in terms of past head injury especially) and 2) the majority of research studies are looking for healthy controls, so you'd need to have a clean medical history to take part.

Any studies with psychology/psychiatry/neuroimaging would be most concerned with medical history which may affect your cognition. All studies have a basic health screening questionnaire which would cover all these major points.

So if you have a clean bill of health you'd be fine to take part in most studies! If you have any questions about a specific medical issue, send me a PM and I'll be able to give you more details about how that might affect your participation in these kinds of studies

Dublin_Gunner

Just mailed you there Jo if you still need volunteers

jokettle

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Just mailed you there Jo if you still need volunteers

Thanks for that Still looking for people to scan over the next few weeks and months, so keep those PMs coming

Edwardius

PM sent