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Aidan Mulvey '21 Speaks To The Life Sciences Club

Aidan Mulvey '21 Speaks To The Life Sciences Club

On October 10, Aidan Mulvey '21 spoke to the Life Sciences Club about his neuroscience research at Vanderbilt. He conducts his academic research on non-human primates at Bastos Lab. During the presentation, Aidan exposed the students to the field of neuroscience as well as the importance of academic research. He explained that academic research is not only STEM-based, but also expands across other disciplines (history, literature, political science, etc.). He also went in depth about his topic of research: predictive coding, a theory of consciousness. The idea is based on how the brain uses predictions and how the brain adapts when those predictions are incorrect. His lab primarily focuses on autism and schizophrenia. He explained to the students how there is overprediction with autism and underprediction with schizophrenia.

His specific research focuses more on schizophrenia and involves monkeys performing tasks through positive reinforcement to help understand predictive coding. One of his responsibilities is teaching these primates the tasks as well as analyzing the data that comes from the experiment. The lab utilizes brain waves from these monkeys while they perform the tasks to learn more about the brain. Researchers utilize a laminar electrode to accurately measure brain waves. Aidan discussed the difference in a laminar electrode versus an electroencephalogram (EEG). The laminar electrode is more precise but involves direct insertion into the brain while an EEG is non-invasive but less precise. At the end of Aidan's presentation, he performed a demonstration on how an EEG works. He showed the students what brain activity looks like without movement and then with movement. He also explained how depending on the part of the brain being recorded on the EEG, you can get different results (based on vision, thoughts, etc).

Comments from students: 

Vice President Max Kalinichenko: " I really liked the demo at the end because we could see kind of how the research and brain actually work. I also liked the whole discussion on “surprises” and thought it was interesting how the brain reacts to surprises and learns for future scenarios."

Secretary Erik Saradjian: "I found the demo very interesting, but specifically the difference in brain activity when Quinn moved his body versus when he was sitting still. Another interesting part was the difference between Autism and Schizophrenia, as they are opposite disorders that effect a person's ability to make guesses about the future."

Thank you to Aidan Mulvey for sharing his research with us!


Watch a brief video from Aidan's presentation: