Student Testimonials
In this section, we have compiled a series of testimonials from students conducting neuroscience research in different fields, followed by their advice for students getting involved in research. Students who have consented to be contacted about their experiences have their email addresses listed below:
Testimonial #1
Program: Neuroscience Stream B - Neurophysiology/Neural Computation
Research areas: Cognitive, Computational, Neurology
Research project and techniques used: Neuroanatomy, functional neuroimaging | histology, multivariate modeling
Relevant courses: COMP202, PSYC311, MATH324
The experience: Well begun is half done. To begin successfully, warm e-mailing selected PIs after attending talks or reading papers was a better idea than cold e-mailing every PI ever. I deem myself beyond lucky to be involved with two labs that pursue the quest of “brain-mapping” using different approaches. This experience taught me to think integratively. Lab 1 (8mo): I began as a TEAM mentor for a course before the instructor (a research associate) took me as a student for a PSYC396 project. Via my first project on the secondary somatomotor cortex and its anatomical landmarks, I learned the A to Z of writing a research paper. Then, I was awarded a summer scholarship to work with a visiting post-doc. This second project was a cross-species comparative neuroanatomy study, and required hours of manual work preparing brain slices for histology. After the summer ended, I maintained ties with the laboratory and collaborated on my next projects. Lab 2 (18mo): the research associate from Lab 1 recommended me to join this lab before she was able to take me for the aforementioned PSYC396 project. A PhD candidate interviewed and took me to help her organize neuroimaging data for release. Starting out, I organized data and transcribed documents – not exactly sciency yet. She gave me a lot of independence and treated me as an equal while giving me all the resources I needed e.g. Linux cheat sheet. After the data was released, we already had a close working relationship which flourished in formal research on brain dynamics. We also became friends outside of work through common hobbies. With the extensive practice in organizing data, I learned first-hand to always look at data before analyzing them! This helped me save time beginning my NSCI 420 project, so I could focus more on analysis than data wrangling. Overall: lab involvement enhanced my undergrad experience. The positive experience I had and the mentors I collected along the way encouraged me to continue academic research.
Yigu Zhou, U3 (2023)
Testimonial #2
Program: Neuroscience Stream B - Neurophysiology/Neural Computation
Research areas: Computational neuroscience
Research project and techniques used: Read fMRIs of macaque brains using ITK-SNAP and delineated white matter, gray matter, and CSF.
Relevant courses: COMP 204’s image analysis unit helped me understand why I was doing the work I did!
The experience: I am currently a volunteer in my lab. I gained skills in fMRI reading, collaboration, and self-motivation. I am hoping to do more wet lab work in the future. (5 months)
Amelia Whitcomb, U1 (2025)
amelia.whitcomb@mail.mcgill.ca
Testimonial #3
Program: Neuroscience Stream C - Cognitive/Behavioural
Research areas: Psychiatry
Research project and techniques used: I was involved in two projects studying sleep in bipolar patients. Each one required that I learn how to use and analyze data from actigraphy and hexoskin devices, and one required training in various tests and questionnaires (YMRS, PHQ-9, C-SSRS, etc.). I was also responsible for writing regular literature reviews to help guide our research and running statistical analyses on the obtained data.
Relevant courses: My mandatory stats class certainly came in handy, as well as my neuroethics course. I found my scientific communication course (WCOM314) also prepared me for the more writing-heavy tasks.
The experience: I emailed the head of the lab (along with many other professors whose research I found intriguing), and asked if he had any space for a summer research student. Many other professors did not respond, but fortunately, this particular one did and I was eventually offered a 3-month contract. I gained a better understanding of just how important collaboration is in research, and how many different skill sets are required to produce one single manuscript. My communication and presentation skills improved, as well as my capacity for independent work and statistical analysis. I was lucky enough to have met some incredible people in my lab, with whom I am still friends to this day, but it taught me the importance of joining a lab whose general vibe you are compatible with. Make sure to meet with PIs and members of the lab before committing to anything. (3 months)
Dominique Lumley, U3 (2023)
dominique.lumley@mail.mcgill.ca
Testimonial #4
Program: Neuroscience Stream B - Neurophysiology/Neural Computation
Research areas: Skeletal mechanobiology
Research project and techniques used: Dissections (chickens, mice), scanning bones (micro CT), reconstruction and analysis of bones (NRecon, XamFlow, CTAn). Animal Training for Mice Modules 1-3. DNA analysis.
Relevant courses: BIOL 200, NSCI 200, COMP 204
The experience: I was a summer research student during CEGEP, and continued as an undergraduate research student during U1 (current). I gained skills in data analysis, and organizational skills. I really appreciated my PI. She is a great leader and managed to make everyone feel like they are a part of the team, even if they are just there for the summer. I get the impression that she genuinely wants everyone in the lab to do as well as possible for their own sake, not just for the sake of the lab. This really incentivized me to work hard and take advantage of all the opportunities that the lab presented -- such as learning new experimental techniques/processes. (2 years)
Carolyn Denton, U1 (2025)
Testimonial #5
Program: Neuroscience Stream B - Neurophysiology/Neural Computation
Research areas: Neurophysiology
Research project and techniques used: Independent research project on protein dysregulation in glial cells in Fmr1 KO mice (autism mouse model). Handled and perfused mice, operated vibratome to cut sections of brain, genotyping and PCR, IHC, FUNCAT, confocal microscopy, a bit of data analysis, literature review for the report.
Relevant courses: BIOL 200 is really important so that you have a basis in the different techniques used like genotyping IHC etc. NSCI 200 and NSCI 201 are good for localizing brain areas and basic neuroscience information.
The experience: I got involved in the lab for a PHGY 396 course and then continued as a research assistant for the summer. I gained skills in communication, time management, and built confidence working in a wet lab. The experience surpassed my expectations. The PhD student who was training me and who I worked for in the summer went out of his way to teach me everything and made sure I was comfortable with the material. Everyone in the lab is very nice and welcoming. It's a fairly large lab so it was overwhelming at first but eventually, I became comfortable with everyone. Also, I didn't meet a lot with the PI but instead met mostly with a Ph.D. student. (10 months)
Emma Nadler, U3 (2023)
Testimonial #6
Program: Neuroscience Stream C - Cognitive/Behavioural
Research areas: Cognitive
Research project and techniques used: I am learning to conduct fMRI projects. Learning about the different things that can be done with fMRI, eligibility criteria, project design, multi-echo combination, preprocessing data, 1st and 2nd level analyses. I am also learning how to conduct behavioural and IQ assessments.
Relevant courses: In my experience, it was good to know how fMRI works and how the brain is divided (e.g., Brodmann's areas) so maybe PSYC311 offered some relevant theoretical background, but there is no McGill course I have / could have taken to prepare me for the practical work I am doing. I am grateful for COMP202 because the foundations of programming learned in this course are somewhat transferrable, but I am not using much Python.
The experience: I got involved because I knew a Ph.D. student from this lab. She was the TA for another course I took and I asked her for help with assignments. In getting to know her, I formed a solid connection, and once I sent an email to the PI asking to join the lab, instead of being thrown into the pile of undergraduate applicants, the Ph.D. student vouched for me and I got a response! I am presently a research assistant in the lab for NSCI 420. I gained skills in data analysis, asking for help, presenting findings, being comfortable reading and writing neuroscience literature, and taking and giving feedback. This experience met my expectations of what I wanted to learn; I was clear about my intentions from the start. I told my PI I wanted to learn how to understand and work with MRI data, and that's exactly what I got out of the experience! (9 months)
Testimonial #7
Program: Neuroscience Stream C - Cognitive/Behavioural
Research areas: Cognitive, Behavioural neuroscience, Addiction, Pain neuroscience
Research project and techniques used: I was involved in a project studying the effect of chronic pain on addiction behaviours for opioid analgesic drugs such as morphine. We used a mouse model to study this link between pain and addiction behaviour. I learned how to administer injections, handle (and care for) mice, spot signs of drug withdrawal in mice, and test mice using operant conditioning paradigms.
Relevant courses: PSYC 302 (psychology of pain), PSYC 318 (behavioural neuroscience)
The experience: I was involved in this lab as a volunteer, and then as an undergraduate research student for an NSCI 420. I gained skills in data analysis, teamwork, communication, leadership, autonomy, organization skills, and literature review. (1 year)
Janik Felcarek-Hope, U3 (2023)
janik.felcarek-hope@mail.mcgill.ca
Testimonial #8
Program: Neuroscience Stream B - Neurophysiology/Neural Computation
Research areas: Computational, Behaviour
Research project and techniques used: My research is mainly analytical. The data I work with is two-fold: one dataset is behavioural data, and the second dataset contains calcium images of hippocampal cells. My goal is to combine the information from both datasets and to link behaviour and neuronal activity.
Relevant courses: PHGY 314, COMP 202, PHGY 425
The experience: I was involved in this lab as an undergraduate research student (NSCI 420). I gained skills in literature review, analysis, communication, organization, and research planning. (1 year)
Samantha La Rosa, U3 (2023)
Advice for students getting involved in research
Someone once gave me this advice: "Seek a lab that you can vibe with" and that will stick with me forever.
Learn to code. And, if you plan to work with human data, learn some MATLAB.
Be clear with your intentions - your intentions don't have to want something super specific but if you know what you want to take away from your lab experience it will probably be more fun and meaningful.
If the project you're working on is different than what you want to research specifically, that's okay - it's not easy to complete a whole project in 8 months, and what you're working on now might be a relevant stepping stone towards that specific thing you're curious about.
The best thing is to try and be involved. Meet with the graduate students and postdocs, try to ask them questions. Most of the time, they want to help and would be happy to discuss your work or their own and to share code/resources etc. My second suggestion is to keep track of everything that you are doing in the lab, even if it's a mundane technique that you've learned. You want to get the most you can out of your undergraduate research, and forgetting will not help you out.
For more information about finding research or contacting professors, please check out neuro research 101