A great Brasiliian professor once said to me..."you know, Vanessa, why do people in love always want to be around each other all the time??...think about it...since you are here living in Brasil and the one you love lives in the US, you are not allowing your love memories to be reactived which then means that they won't be reconsolidated and further strengthened...so bascially, it just won't work out. Put that in your research proposal!!!!"
-Dr. AP Carobrez
The only thing that I hate and regret about Brasil is the fact that I thought that the day after I got off the plane, that it would be balls to the wall at the lab. Nope. I straight chilled for about.....eh....the whole first month I was here!!! Which, ok, I know you're like...why the HELL would you be complaining about that. and I'm not complaining, but I'm just saying that, I wish I could have better prepared myself for that. It was like being in that "work mode" and not having any work to do. It wasn't so bad though...I am in Brasil :) Now that I'm in travel and party mode...I have experiments and presentations and have to collect data and analyze behavior and write. The days in which I would spend hours upon hours in a music room, just me and the piano, playing Brahms' Rhapsody to perfection, seems a faint memory...
I've always been interesting in behavioral and cognitive science...it was the perfect combination of the core science coarses and psychology/philosophy. All of which I absolutely love.
So my man Ivan Pavlov, who received the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his discoveries, is who I have to thank for my being able to play with lab rats I suppose...currently the term "memory extinction" means that an original memory is suppressed to the point of non-expression by another learned and newly formed memory. This isn't ideal since the original memory may at any point spontaneously reactivate...not good if this particular memory is a traumatic one. So I, Vanessa Walker, will try to shed some light and determine the neurological events that occur during memory extinction training which utilize pharmaceuticals. AND if in fact previously stabilized memories, once reactivated and protein degradation initiated, may become non-existent and will not be susceptible to spontaneous recovery. hmmm, that was definately a mouthful. a scientific mouthful.
I like how when Team Padua and I got together to discuss my project...it went a little somethin' like this...insert and visualize about 45 minutes of what you think 5 Brasillian scientists sounds like in the midst of a discussing a protocol, and me...just sitting there, then imagine one of my fellow researchers turing to me at the end and saying..."Ok, Vanessa, you will take 9 rats in 10 minute sessions...and.....juuusssst see.....if they prefer the well lit exposed area or the innately preferred dark enclosed area with the fear conditioned odor, ok go!"...i want to know what was all said in the other 40 minutes of the conversation....I heard "ela" and "Vanessa" SEVERAL times, haha.
I haven't been able to work out as much this month...I'm just going to suck it up until I get back to Memphis. So I haven't had to eat as much. When I'm hardcore into my training routine I tend to eat alot more to conpensate for the massive calorie loss, when I'm not training as much I'm usually not as hungry. Has this become an issue? Is this a slap in the face to Brasillian culture? I've not been going to lunch with the people in the lab...last week, it was because I was coming in later and eating at home later...I think they think I just don't want go with them or that I'm "going back to the ways of Americans". haha, its not like that at all. I just don't need to be eating that much if I'm not training. Its that simple.
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