Interview with a Senior Research Assistant

Last summer we asked several staff members about their experiences working on the Spit for Science project, so that blog readers can learn more about what it's like to be involved in research and science. We thought it would be nice to hear from some of our other team members, including one of our Senior Research Assistants, Hrag Pailian (pictured above with our 10,000th participant).

What are you taking in school? What year are you entering?

I am a first year Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins University, conducting research in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and visual cognition.

What made you apply to be a research assistant for Spit for Science?

During my undergraduate career at the University of Toronto, I was given the opportunity to work within Dr. Russell Schachar's ADHD Laboratory at the Hospital for Sick Children. My experiences within Dr. Schachar's laboratory allowed me to develop a solid understanding of psychiatric illnesses, and specifically, the etiology of ADHD. However, during this same period of time, I had enrolled in a course at the university, in which the validity of ADHD was constantly debated (as a handful of academics argued that ADHD is the product of disease mongering by pharmaceutical companies). In this vein, "Spit for Science" presented itself as the ideal opportunity through which I would be able to add to this debate, and hopefully contribute to validating the disorder by helping to discover its genetic underpinnings.

What is your favourite part of the job?

Though it is difficult to champion one specific aspect of the job as my favourite part, I would argue that I find two things to be the most enjoyable. I find it quite refreshing to witness young children wanting to take part in our study by virtue of the fact that they would essentially be helping out sick kids who need their help. Though we do offer prizes in exchange for participation, I find it heart warming to see children prioritize helping others above receiving extrinsic rewards. My second favourite part of the job is the opportunity that it provides to educate young children on scientific matters. In this token, my colleagues and I find it quite rewarding to hear kids say that they would like to become future scientists as a result of their experiences at Spit for Science.

Why are you interested in science?

I've always been fascinated by human nature, and have yearned to understand why people do the things they do. In this vein, I find myself particularly interested in cognitive neuroscience and psychology as they provide insight into human behaviour by taking both biological and social factors into consideration. Moreover, I think the ability to conduct scientific research is just so exciting!

What surprising thing have you learned about yourself while working on this project, or what new skill have you learned?

I've realized that I am a lot more patient that I thought I was ;)

"Manhattan" Plot

This is a "Manhattan" plot -- so named because of how the groupings of dots look like skyscrapers on the Manhattan skyline. This plot is based on a small sample of children (less than 200) who took part in our study and is for illustration purposes only.

This plot shows differences between the extreme high and extreme low groups for genetic variants across the human genome. Each dot represents the results of a statistical test run for a specific genetic variant.

On the X (horizontal) axis of this plot are locations of chromosomes across the human genome (22 chromosome pairs, plus sex-determining pairs). The differences between the high and low groups can be found on the Y (vertical) axis which displays how significant, or meaningful, these differences are according to our statistical analyses. The higher the value, the stronger the genetic association. If the result lies above the dotted line, it is considered statistically significant after accounting for all of the many tests that have been performed.

The power, or strength, of our statistical analyses will be much greater once we have finished data collection and we have a full sample. We anticipate that multiple results will cross the dotted line, or be significant!