BSc students – what to expect

There are two types of BSc positions in the lab. One is to run a project (which may be a sub-project of a larger study) and one is as a research assistant. This section refers to the first position, see the section below for research assistance.
Before joining the lab, try to define what your goals and expectations are. This will help us give you a project that will best match what you hope to gain. The different types of projects have different advantages and disadvantages. Very broadly:

1. Behavioral studies: These have a smaller scope than fMRI studies and it is more feasible to experience multiple stages of research. You will also be more likely to lead such a project, and have a sense of ownership. A drawback is that we often use stimuli that are complex to create, meaning a chunk of the time will probably be devoted to stimulus creation.

2. fMRI studies: These are of a larger scope and you will only be able to join a part of the project, depending on the stage it is at. You will likely help scan participants and with initial data processing/analysis. The advantage is that you will get the opportunity to experience fMRI.

3. Analyzing existing fMRI data: We have in the lab existing datasets for which there are planned analyses that haven’t yet been run. The advantage of such a project is that you will jump much more quickly into data analysis. The disadvantage is that the project will be a little out of context, and slightly more like an exercise (for which we do not know the answer in advance). Such projects are more suitable for students that have relatively extensive programming experience and at least some knowledge of the brain.

4. Intracranial recordings: These studies are of the largest scope, and you will be joining a relatively small part of the project. Some of the work may be more technical (e.g. aligning MRI and CT scans, preprocessing data). The advantage is that this is perhaps the most exciting data we have access to, as we are able to record neural activity directly from the hippocampus. This is a relatively new tool used by the lab so there will be a lot of independent learning and trial and error.
   These are general rules of thumb, and there is quite a lot of variation depending on the specific projects currently running/planned in the lab. We will match you with a project based on your interests, your background (especially the degree of programming experience) and the amount of time you expect to be able to devote to the project. But whichever project you take on, it is important to remember that in the real world, data is messy and we don’t know whether we’ll reach a conclusive answer and what it will be. Many BSc students ask to experience the ‘research’ part. There is no one part that is the research – designing the experiment, creating the stimuli, running the experiment, analyzing data and interpreting the results are all part of the whole that is research. During a BSc project you can expect to experience a subset of this, that will provide you with a taste of some (but not all) aspects of research. Research is both fun and frustrating, exciting and discouraging at times, and very different from undergraduate exercises.

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BSc students - research assistance

A second route for joining the lab is as a research assistant. In this case you will not necessarily run a project of your own, but help support one of the studies in the lab. We nearly always need help with stimulus creation, and occasionally with running experiments or programming. Please get in touch if you are interested in a part-time position creating stimuli for experiments (typically using ‘The Sims’ and Adobe Premiere).