Double Duty

Recently in the Team Bird Brain Lab, we have put together a new rig to do electrophysiological recordings, and a new surgery station. As part of the new rig we had to ground all of the equipment and make a new leak-proof bath chamber to hold the brainstem and the flowing artificial cerebral spinal fluid. I took on the job melting down wax and sculpting the new bath chamber. With two recording rigs and two surgery stations, between Jessica Whitaker (Ph.D. student) and I, we can perform two surgeries and then two recordings from two separate brain stems at the same time. It has been great to compare and contrast our experiments side by side. I am improving on my surgery skills to isolate and locate the accessory nerve. (Cranial Nerve XI). We are working out and producing double the results and experiments with our second recording rig.

#neuroplasticityandbreathing