Grace Lee

By: Maheep Chawla, Akshara Rajeshkannan

M: What year are you in right now?  

G: I just graduated from UBC this May.

M: Could you tell us where you’re from?

G: I’m originally from Taiwan but I currently live with my family in Delta, BC.

M: What are your preferred pronouns?

G: She/her/hers

M: Tell us one fun fact about yourself:

G: I made a short animated film with a few classmates and teachers back in elementary school and we won second prize in the International Children and Youth Animation Film Festival (VAFI) held in Croatia.

A: Tell us about the project you are working on. What is your research topic?

G: I was in the Laboratory of Behavioural Neuroendocrinology. My project was investigating sex differences in *negative cognitive bias across the lifespan in male and female rats. We wanted to see whether there is a sex difference in negative cognitive bias in rats and whether it changes over time as the animal ages. We studied 3 age groups––adolescents, young adults and middle age, and we found out that sex difference in negative cognitive bias isn’t apparent until middle age.

Negative cognitive bias is the increased perception of ambiguous cues as negative and a core symptom of depression. In humans, females have much higher rates of depression than do males, so we wanted to see if this sex difference could also be found in an animal model. In our experiment, we used a *fear conditioning design where we placed all male and female rats into a shock-paired context (Context A) AND in a no-shock-paired context (Context B) for 5 min each daily for 16 consecutive training days. Throughout the 16 training days, animals learned to distinguish between the two conditions. On the last day of training, they displayed more fear behaviour (freezing) in the shock-paired context than in the no-shock-paired context, showing that they have learned to successfully distinguish between the two. After their successful learning has been established, we put the animals into a third ambiguous context (Context C), which resembled both Context A and B to certain extents, on the test day. No shocks were delivered in this context. We recorded the animal’s behaviour, specifically the time they spent freezing, in Context C to determine the animal’s negative cognitive bias. High freezing meant more negative cognitive bias as it indicated that the animal was expecting an aversive event (electric shock), whereas low freezing meant more positive cognitive bias as the animal was not expecting anything bad to happen in this ambiguous context.

Overall, we only found a significant sex difference in amount of freezing in the middle age group. Percentage freezing was much higher in middle-aged male rats than in female rats, which indicates that negative cognitive bias is higher in male rats at middle age.

*Negative cognitive bias – the tendency to interpret ambiguous/uncertain cues and situations in a negative manner. This can have a great impact on our behaviours, decisions and even relationships.

*Fear conditioning – a type of conditioning that involves pairing an aversive stimulus (e.g. electric shock) with a neutral context (e.g. a particular location). This can result in the expression of a fear response (e.g. freezing) in the presence of the neutral context alone.

A: What sparked your interest in your research topic and how did you build your hypothesis?

G: Our hypothesis was based on the human prevalence in depression, so we hypothesized that freezing behaviours in the ambiguous content would differ by sex and age. We also looked at cell activation in the amygdala and the hippocampus as well as *neurogenesis in the hippocampus along with the behavioural aspects by performing immunohistochemistry after the animals have been sacrificed. Interestingly, we did find some sex differences in the activation pattern in the amygdala.

*neurogenesis – process by which new neurons are formed in the brain.

I became interested in this topic after listening to a guest speaker in one of my lectures––who then became my supervisor. I thought he would be a really cool person to work with, and so I decided to email him and thankfully he had a spot for me.

A: What question or challenge were you setting out to address when you started your research?

G: My principal investigator (PI), Dr. Liisa Galea, is a huge advocate for sex differences and women’s health. Therefore, all of the studies we do are focused on sex differences and women’s health. For example, our lab was looking at how many studies in the main neuroscience journals use sex as one of the main factors rather than as a co-variate. We found that there is very little research that only looks at female subjects or uses sex as the main factor in their experimental designs. A lot of medical and academic studies in general use only male subjects, and this is a problem because symptoms of various psychological disorders tend to be different in males and females. Dr. Galea really wants to emphasize the importance to take sex differences into consideration and make sure that researchers really do look at gender and sex differences so that females aren’t left out of the research.

A: Could I assume then that this is what made you feel like it was an important topic to research?

G: 100%. Especially because depression is so prevalent in females, it is important to look at sex and gender differences in depression research.

A: What inspired you/who influenced you to look into this topic?

G: The guest speaker who later became my supervisor––Dr. Travis Hodges. You guys can look him up, he’s an amazing supervisor and researcher! Before I joined this lab, I was in another cognitive neuroscience lab for about a year. Because my previous project in that lab has ended I wanted to switch my attention to a behavioural neuroscience research lab, and after Travis’ lecture, I felt like this could be the perfect opportunity.

M: What has been the most rewarding/your favourite part of the research and what was the most challenging part of the research?

G: The whole experience was rewarding! One thing that stood out was working with the rats. They were so cute and calming! I also thought the experience was especially rewarding in terms of the techniques I learned. I learned brain slicing and immunohistochemistry (staining different brain tissues with protein to see which parts activate under different circumstances). The techniques also happened to be the most challenging part – I took a long time to learn the skills, but I got there with time and practice.

A: What are the key findings that came out from the research?

G: We didn’t find any sex differences in negative cognitive bias until the middle age group, and in this group, the males were more negatively biased compared to the females. In addition, younger rats tended to be more positively biased regardless of sex.

A: I was curious to know, what is middle age for a rat?

G: Adolescence is 40 days after birth, young adults are about 100 days, and middle age is about 240 days after birth. The life span depends on the species, but about 1-2 years.

A: How do your conclusion and your results compare to other studies done in this field?

G: Most studies done on this subject use a different approach. We didn’t have an independent variable, we kind of just let the rats be, to see if there are any natural changes/differences in their levels of negative cognitive bias. That being said, we definitely did seem to have some similar findings. However, I wouldn’t say it was exactly the same because the nature of the studies was just that different.

A: What will you be doing with your data and conclusion now? How do you plan on/how did you present it?

G: Since I already left the lab, I’m not part of the project anymore, but the research is still ongoing. We’ve presented our data at several conferences so far. I think the paper will be published soon, too. (I’m excited about it!!)

M: What are the possible real world applications of your study?

G: We worked in collaboration with another lab that was conducting a similar study with humans. We are hoping for our data to help us come up with better treatments/interventions for depression while taking into account age and sex differences. The current researchers also might add additional factors, such as stress and hormonal changes, into the study later on. I personally think menopause is something we can look into in greater detail as menopause is a significant life event and an important factor that can affect depression in females.

M: How has your research helped you grow, both personally and professionally?

G: Professionally, this project helped me understand the ‘behind the scenes’ of a research project especially all the details and organization that goes into conducting research. Personally, this project helped me step out of my comfort zone. I know “stepping out of my comfort zone” might sound cliche but since I did not come to Canada till I was in grade 11, working in a highly professional English-speaking laboratory was my way to take a step outside my comfort zone. Personally, this project also made me more passionate about Women’s Health. The fact that there is very little research done on it has influenced me to become more passionate about this topic.

M: What course(s) do you think were most helpful in gaining background knowledge about your research topic?

G: It depends on your interests and the kind of research you want to get involved with. I thought all of my required neuroscience courses were helpful because each of them touched on different aspects of the field. I would personally recommend Psychology 461 (Neuroplasticity and Behaviour) as that is taught by PI and I think she is a great teacher. Psychology 350 (Human Sexuality) is also an amazing course!

A: Tell us about how you stay organized and manage your time while being in the DS program. How do you prioritize? How do you motivate yourself?

G: I did my DS project in my 4th year, so I only had 1 major course and all my other courses were just electives. This means that I had a lot of time to focus on my research. I also really enjoyed my research project, so it didn’t feel like something I HAD to do, but rather something I liked to do during my spare time. I prioritize my project over my electives from last semester. I feel like by your 4th year, you’ve already figured out some techniques to manage your time well, and if 4 courses are too much for you to do alongside a research project, then just take 3. It’s best to find the right balance for yourself and adjust accordingly. There’s no simple answer to this question because everyone is different.

A: What clubs, sports, initiatives are you involved with on campus?

G: I was part of an exchange program called NTGx (New Taiwanese Generation Exchange program). We recruited college students from Taiwan to come over to UBC for a month. We provided home-stay and planned extracurricular activities for them––like a weekend trip to Whistler. We also collaborated with the UBC ELI (English Language Institute), which is a small school at UBC for international students to go to learn English.

M: How do you network within the psychology community, and where have you made your most valuable connections? 

G: I guess there were three main platforms that helped me make connections – one was the research lab. Another one was my BNS program- since there were only 48 people in my year and we had all our classes together, we all knew each other pretty well. Finally, I also found the PSA monthly student-faculty socials quite useful in making connections.

M: What are your professional goals and plans for the future? What do you see yourself doing in 10 years time? 

G: That’s a good question. I am currently in a 2-year program at BCIT learning Electroneurophysiology (studying brain waves by attaching electrodes to an individual’s head). After I graduate and pass my board exam, I hope to work as an ENPY technologist with neurologists. In fact, ENPY is a highly specialized field and BCIT offers the only English speaking ENPY program in Canada. I would be happy to see myself working as an ENPY technologist in the next 10 years. However, I am still working towards my goal to become a physician down the line, so we will see!

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