Previous Experience

Courses at the University of Louisville pertaining to

biology, chemistry, and psychology.

Sydney Project Goals

Discover more about the field of psychophysiology

and its relationship to the field of medicine.

Summer 2011: Medical internship in Kalutara, Sri Lanka

Become further informed about proper procedures

and etiquette of research design, development, and data

collection with human subjects.

Psychophysiology Internship with the Sydney Cognitive and Affective

Neuroscience Unit

University of Sydney – Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

2. Lab Website Development and Promotion:

www.psych.usyd.edu.au/lab/scan

Research Projects, Participation, and Tasks

1. Audio/Visual Perception Experiment with Lars Boenke:

Focus: How bimodal and unimodal stimuli of light and/or

sound with varying amounts of time lapsing between may

affect the perception of a participant.

Results: Experiment is ongoing, but current data

indicates a subconscious effect in subjects that influences

perception of stimuli order based on prior stimuli exposure.

My Roles: Serving as an actual participant, setting up

experiment for other subjects, analysis of data.

Reduced HRV is indicative of potential harmful conditions, such as

myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, etc.

Correlating Experiment, lead by Dr. Andrew Kemp (ongoing):

Focus: To determine whether unmedicated patients suffering from

major depression disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder

(GAD), or posttraumatic stress disorder, suffer from reduced HRV.

Results: Experiment is still ongoing, but participants to date portray

reduced HRV, independent of the medication use for treatment.

My Roles: Serving as a model for ECG setup, actually setting up

ECG with participants, analysis of data.

Future Plans

Further connect enrichment

projects and studies with a focus on

water treatment and environmental

sustainability in regards to health

and medicine 3. Heart Rate Variability and Implications for

Cardiovascular Risk:

What is heart rate variability (HRV)?

Physiological event where the time interval (RR intervals)

between heart beats varies. Can be measured by ECG.

Water for Life - Kosovo:

Well rehabilitation, septic

installation, river restoration,

purification systems, and

equipment training.

Foundation for the International

Medical Relief of Children – El

Salvador: Water treatment,

waste/recycling program design,

nutrition groups for 6-12 year olds