First Day at Pediatric Mood and Anxiety Disorders Lab, New York City

Yesterday was my first day as an intern with the Pediatric Mood and Anxiety Disorders laboratory, a lab affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Hospital. This lab studies children with various impairing psychiatric disorders, which range from Depression to Tourette’s Syndrome. When I arrived, my mentor, who is a post-doctorate student, greeted me and suggested that I spend time reading over some of the lab’s recent publications, as she was trying to catch up from the long weekend. I logged into the spare computer in her office and proceeded to do so, unaware that her office was next to the office of the director who leads research on tics. (Tics are sudden, uncontrollable, repetitive movements.) Unfortunately, the cases that this woman sees are quite severe, so I was startled when I heard loud bangs on the wall next to me. The screaming that accompanied the loud bangs on the door made for an interesting work environment. She smiled at me and said you get used to it.

Moments later, the lab coordinator, Amy, came in and told Dr. Henderson that the control for their scan today had cancelled. In many internships, the summer interns get stuck doing paperwork, running for coffee, or logging data. In neuroimaging labs, we are the controls, thus we are the ones who get gel pipetted in their hair for an EEG or lie in an fMRI scanner for hours. They looked at me and asked if I would be interested in getting scanned. I smiled and said absolutely. I was scheduled for an MRS (Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy) scan at 2:30pm. As nerdy as it sounds, I was so excited.

When I arrived, I had to change into scrubs and take off any metal that would disrupt the scanner. I met the technicians would monitor the scan and looked at the huge machine through the glass window. They took me in and asked me to lie down on the table. They gave me ear plugs, the inner ear headphones, and then what looked like beats headphones for an outer ear set of headphones. Double protection from the loud noises the scanner makes. They also gave me a button to squeeze if at any time I wished to stop the scan. Before they slid me into the scanner, they placed what looked like a cage over my face. It had a mirror across from my eyes, which allowed me to see the upside-down television mounted on the wall behind me that now was right-side-up. To be honest, I expected to be more frightened than I was when I slid into the scanner. It wasn't as small as people made it out to be. I paid careful attention to the noises the machine made to be able to explain it to patients later. After an hour and forty-five minutes, I came out of the scanner. It was an exciting first day not only because I had my first MRS scan but because it is clear that this lab looks to give me hands-on experience with the neuroimaging technology. Beyond my MRS scan, the director of the lab assured me that I will likely have the opportunity to collaborate with her on a publication. I am feeling very optimistic about this experience, and I look forward to the next seven weeks. 

Caitlin Shneider

My brain on... Imaging