Why Research Wednesday (SURE Edition): Nicklas's Story

Nicklas Gose is a SURE participant double majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology & English. SURE Research Ambassador Adi Pucha had the pleasure of interviewing Nicklas about his research experiences.

What are you up to this summer?

I am currently conducting research in Psychology on rearing behavior in rats during an emotional memory task.

How long have you been involved in research, and how did you first get involved?

I started doing research in August of 2021 with Dr. Thompson at Oxford. I was interested in joining his neuroendocrinology lab, so I approached him at the end of one of his classes and asked if I could get involved.

What motivated you to select your current research topic?

I work in a lab that uses electrophysiology to understand how emotional memories in rats are encoded, but I wanted to focus specifically on the ethological relevance of the emotional memory task. Another motivation was that it seemed feasible to complete within the time constraints of the SURE program.

What are the benefits of being involved in research, and what ways have you grown?

The scientific process forces you to develop useful critical thinking skills! Perfecting your scientific communication skills is another benefit of getting involved in research. I would say that I have noticed growth in both of these areas!

What are your current and future goals involving your research?

I am currently trying to write code to do all of my statistical analyses from data that I collected at the beginning of the summer, but I hope to continue to gather more data of this type in the future! I am also interested in understanding thigmotaxis and grooming behaviors in the rat model.

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