Another Surprising Twist

I just got an email from my former advisor over the weekend. He was sending out another rewrite of an article that I have authorship on (4th out of 5 authors! Yes! I'm doing good...I'm also being facetious again). He's been having some difficulty getting it published, which is unusual because of how novel it is to conduct the same study on ERP and fMRI and examine whether the results are consistent. (For those of you who are interested, you can do source localizations on ERP data to find the area in the brain where the waveform originated and compare that to the activation area from the fMRI results. You'd think this would be cool enough for journal editors, right?)

So I thought to myself, "What a wonderful opportunity to get my former advisor to review my NRSA proposal!" So I spent all Saturday making insightful comments and tracking changes to the document he sent me in order that he might reciprocate with as much effort on my paper as well. Of course, I wanted to do what I could to contribute to the writing of the article (gotta earn that 4th authorship, ya know! Well, I analyzed the fMRI data, so that's why I get authorship.).

I just thought this was such funny timing that my former advisor popped up out of the blue right when all of these things have been dovetailing together for my comps project/NRSA proposal. My proposal is actually partially based on research I did with my former advisor. I'm simply looking at a different population and using a different paradigm and method of analysis. Okay, now it doesn't sound so similar. But, I am looking at affect and cognition and particularly cortisol and dopamine levels. My former advisor had an interesting theory about stress and dopamine. So he would be able to critically evaluate my section on psychopharmacology, which no one else around here could do. Yep, things are getting more and more interesting.

Next week, I shall rope in Fav Prof to be the methodology expert, and re-establish my contact in the Biology Department, who will provide the facilities and assistance with the immunoassay analyses.