I'm a PhD student of Neuroscience, studying at the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
My study will utilize EEG, TMS/EEG, MRI and MRS techniques to compare three groups - methamphetamine induced psychosis, paranoid schizophrenia with psychosis, and normal controls. This study is exciting because it is the first in SA to combine TMS with EEG, it's the first to study methamphetamine induced psychosis with these techniques, and the first to look at both electrical and chemical signals together (EEG and MRS) in the same patient. There are many other reasons, but this is not a thesis posting. Let's just say that I can't wait to get all the results in and start taking psychosis apart, one signal at a time.
In a broader sense, I'd like to study the issue of "reality". How is "reality" represented in the brain? In the context of psychosis, patients fully believe their delusions are "real", thus it impacts on the way they behave, because these "real" events are significant to them. What makes something "real" in our brain? This question obviously also has a firm hold in subjects such as religion. For the faithful and religious, the God, or deity is Real. Does our brain differentiate between a "physical real" (like a table/chair) compared to a "mental real" like a delusion? or does it have the same presentation, thus leading to confusion. I have a feeling it sits in the speed and strength of the neuronal connections of certain networks. The faster the signal, the more "real" the experience. But I obviously need to test out this hypothesis. Be sure I'll get there.
An aspect of my life includes learning to live with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus - which requires so much "healthy living" it's exhausting, and going gluten-free, which are challenges worth including and updating on static pages on this blog as I find useful information from experience, or places where people can find things that will be able to make their lives easier.
I spend a lot of time Chairing on the Golden Future Project, which is a simple organization where we organize volunteers to tutor for free on Saturday mornings, to disadvantaged high school children who make their own way from Khayelitsha to take advantage of the volunteer offerings. See-A-Need-Fill-A-Need (SANFAN) provides hot dogs for us each weekend, so that the kids, who make an effort to better their own education, don't go home hungry.
Finally, all of this is supported my my family, friends, and of course my loving partner, Jason Hayden.
