Finding Italy in France: Cultural Intersections in Research Abroad

With BRAVO!, I had the most invaluable summer! I will never forget my memories with all the friends I made in France and all the cities where I explored!

I conducted research in Lyon, France, with Dr. Ferrari at the Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod. Throughout my time in his laboratory, I took part in many different projects. I was mostly involved in two projects.

The first project was about the impact of early-life adversities in rhesus macaques. There were 2 groups of rhesus macaques: one mother-reared and one peer-reared. The peer-reared group represents the group with early-life adversaries, lacking the usual resources and protection provided by their mother. I look at each group's behavior while encountering unknown conspecific at ages 2 and 3. To do this, I learned how to code in R to visualize the data and how to perform linear mixer model analysis with longitudinal data.

The second project that I was involved in was the spatial numerical association of response codes effect. It is a phenomenon where an individual reacts faster to smaller numbers when they are on the left side and larger numbers when they are on the right side. We were trying to determine if our number space association was a learned or innate phenomenon. Moreover, we wanted to see if a positive or negative valence had any influence on the monkeys' perspective of this association. I was involved in the pre-processing of the data and quantifying behaviors from the recorded video.

Beyond scientific skills, I learned the importance of inclusivity within the scientific community. I was surrounded by friends from eight different countries! Ironically, even though I was in France, all the graduate students with Dr. Ferrari were from Italy, which allowed me to learn more about Italian culture than French culture! :) This diverse environment encouraged me to ask questions and suggest different ideas. In retrospect, I don’t think I could have done this if I had been in a less diverse community. Also being a visitor to a new country made me recognize the great responsibilities that come with representing my research group, state, and country on a global stage. I loved doing research with Dr. Ferrari as much as I loved with Dr. Gothard, which helped me to solidify my desire to earn a PhD. I am excited to see what I will discover as a scientist and how much the BRAVO! experience will support my decisions in the future!

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