I’m at Day 2 of the second Human Single Unit conference, this time held at Johns Hopkins. It’s been a strong program, and inspiring, given that I’m trying to get a related manuscript of my own out the door. Highlights from today:
Kahana lab apparently posts its raw data online for others to analyze. Mad respect. Would love to do this eventually. Human data of of this kind are so rare that we shouldn’t be hoarding.
Itzhak Fried saying that, “Everyone knows that about the minimum it takes to publish one of these single unit human studies is 3 – 5 years.” Well, I didn’t know when I started, but that’s turning out to be a pretty accurate time frame. This is what you don’t read about in the papers: the time, technical challenges, and frustrations. But man, oh, man, is the good stuff in this vein cool.
Another gem from Dr. Fried (loosely paraphrased): “Typically, as a physiologist, you have a question, then you put an electrode into the brain. In this work, you have an electrode, and you have to ask a question. And not a boring question, or a stupid question, because it’s going to take you a long time to answer it.”