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Thursday, October 8, 2015

Neuroplasticity Study

In September, I participated in a study at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) measuring brain plasticity in people with Asperger's (the full name of the study is 'Stabilizing Neuroplasticity in Adults with Asperger Disorder Using Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: A pilot study'). I had first heard about rTMS on a news segment describing its use in treating treatment-resistant depression. I asked my doctor about it, hoping that I could get into a clinical study going on at CAMH. I was excluded due to a family history of epilepsy (very disappointing), but I was offered the chance to get in on a similar study aimed at those on the spectrum. In July I went to Toronto for the screening process, which was basically just an IQ test.

The objective of the study is to compare brain cortical plasticity between neurotypical adults and adults with Asperger's. The theory, as I understand it, is that Aspies have hyperplastic brains, and with rTMS certain areas thought to be responsible for the perceived negative symptoms can be toned-down.

For three weeks in September I travelled to Toronto, for a total of four sessions. For the first session, we started with finding the right spot in my motor cortex to make my thumb (hooked up to electrodes) twitch 5 times out of 10 when hit with theta burst stimulation (TBS) to get my baseline. The TBS was delivered via a paddle with a figure-8 coil pressed onto my head. It made a CLACK! sound (like hockey sticks slapping together) when it fired, and made me blink, the muscle under my left eye twitch, and my jaw to move up and to the left, making my teeth smash together (along with the thumb twitch). After biting my lip during one of the bursts, I held my mouth open for all the following hits. After finding the right spot and marking my scalp with a bright pink marker, Dr. Desarkar, the head investigator, used either intermittent TBS or continuous TBS (I don't remember) to activate my motor cortex. This made my jaw move up and down rapid fire. I must have looked quite silly sitting there with my mouth open, chewing on nothing but air. The last part of this session involved the application of 10 hits of TBS in 5-minute intervals, up to 105 minutes after the activation. The reaction in my thumb was recorded on a computer. From what I could tell, the reactions were bigger, tapering off until eventually going back to the baseline we took at the beginning.

The second session, the following week, was fairly similar to the first, except that instead of activating, the TBS was used to inhibit. Again, from what I could tell from the computer screen, and the doctor's reactions, my thumb twitches were smaller, and gradually worked their way back up to the baseline.

The third session, the week after that, I received sham rTMS. I was both disappointed and relieved. Disappointed in that I was curious what it would do to me, if anything. I was relieved because I was afraid that if it did improve my social skills, it would so at the cost of my intelligence or memory. This would almost definitely not happen, especially after only one session, but I worried about it anyway. Even though I wasn't receiving rTMS, I still had to come in, lie down, and have the magnetic coil placed on my head (just at a 90 degree angle so the burst shot away from my brain) for a little over an hour, the machine clicking the whole time. No measurements were taken. Quite boring. I had trouble staying awake.

The final session occurred the next day. It was a repeat of the first session: activation (chosen at random).

It was all very interesting, though I've forgotten a bit, and probably got a number of things mixed up; too many acronyms. But it was worth the anxiety of travelling to Toronto by bus (2 things I dislike), and not just because I got paid for my participation, and had my travel expenses covered. I may do another similar study in November or December.

Friday, September 18, 2015

New York: Part 2 (Because I Forgot to Mention Some Things)

New York City is very clean (the areas I saw, at least). You can tell that they take pride their city. Every day I saw people sweeping up the leaves on the sidewalks, and hosing down sidewalks and buildings. There were very few cigarette butts littering the ground. Very unlike the places in Southern Ontario. It was refreshing. Toronto is a dump compared to what I saw in NYC.

The architecture was wonderful! Every building had style, had interestingly-carved edifices. Even the row houses had arches, and columns, and relief carvings of plants, dragons! Wrought iron gates! Tiny, but well-done gardens! I could really love New York, even live there, if it didn't have all the people.

Pizza in New York is disgustingly greasy. I ordered a plain pepperoni pizza to my hotel room one night, just to try it. The grease literally drips off of it. Still tasty, though!

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

New York

I visited New York City at the beginning of September. This trip had been in the works for nearly a year, after discovering that the John Singer Sargent exhibit in London would be coming to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I later learned that the Neue Galerie was to hold an exhibit on Gustav Klimt at the same time. Two of my favourite artists! The plan was to go with a couple of friends, but they had to cancel, so I went solo. With hotel reservations made, and bus tickets purchased, I set out for the Big Apple.

The bus ride, despite being a 12 hour trip, wasn't too bad, especially with a lovely young man named Emmett in the seat next to mine to chat with. Emmett was from Ireland, and was visiting NYC for a few days before moving to Brussels for school! [If you ever read this, I hope you had a good time]. The route took us from Toronto, across the border to Buffalo, then to Rochester, Syracuse, possibly through Pennsylvania, into New Jersey, and finally to New York. We arrived a little after 9 PM, where I hailed a cab (for the first time ever) and made it to the hotel. After surveying my new home for the next 3 nights, I went to bed, exhausted.

My first two mornings consisted of eating breakfast a place called Zabar's, which is like a convenience store/grocery store/cafe which takes up a city block on Broadway, and has these wonderful 1950's department store-sounding announcements on the PA. After breakfast, I walked a few blocks to Central Park, as the museums were directly on the other side. Central Park was nice: wide paths, lots of trees, beautiful ornate bridges. I had completely forgotten about it, and was happy to stumble upon, Cleopatra's Needle. I love obelisks.

Suddenly, obelisk!

On my second day (I'm doing them out of order, because I can), I went to the Neue Galerie to see the Klimt exhibit. The lineup to get in was literally around the block. A lot of people had seen the film The Woman in Gold...The painting, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, was brilliant of course. The exhibit itself was a bit pathetic, however; it consisted of 2 small rooms, one with 7 or 8 Klimt paintings, the other with photographs and some jewelry. The Cafe Sabarsky had a nice spring pea and mint soup, though.

On my first full day in the city, I went to the Met to see the John Singer Sargent exhibit. I started off in the Egyptian wing, but was feeling a little melancholy (seeing the statue of Hatshepsut as a female pharaoh helped a bit), so I decided to go straight to the Sargents. So many paintings by my absolute favourite artist! I don't think there has ever been so many of his works brought together in one place before. I was truly amazed at what they had on display, so many of the paintings I've only seen in books, and some I'd never seen at all before.

Violet Paget (Vernon Lee), 1881 [My best friend says I look like her; what do you think?]

Dr. Samuel Jean Pozzi at Home, 1881

The scandalous Madame X, 1884

The eerie Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, 1889

Mrs. Hugh Hammersley, 1892-93 [In my Top 5, though I never remember this until I see it]

The man himself, Self Portrait 1906

The only thing thing that could have made this exhibit better would be the inclusion of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, El Jaleo, The Daughters of Edward D. Boit, and Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.

It was a very good trip, and a big accomplishment for me (even if I can't feel it right now).