Study trip to Bordeaux
Wednesday, October 22: Traveling to Bordeaux
For most of the masters (not the behavioural track) there were many deadlines on the 22nd of October, some of whom were still finishing their reports till 3 in the morning. 5 hours later the bus was waiting at Amstel station for Bordeaux, like the previous year we managed to leave the station with only a half hour delay, congratulations!
Everyone was super excited and cold but the anticipation of a 15 hour bus trip eerily crept deep within everyone’s minds (brains). After an hour or two we had a short break where we had breakfast/lunch at a Belgian Mcdonalds. Only moments after crossing the Dutch border it was (un)surprising that they spoke French, even though it was officially a Flemish region. We were officially in foreign territory. When we arrived in Paris we got to see a glimpse of the Eiffel tower, which was only mild comfort as the trip was barely past halfway. After 2 really interesting movies the physical/mental limits of many students were being reached. Luckily we finally arrived at the Ibis Hotel at around 11 PM in Bordeaux, hooray. Some students went out to the local pub for an hour or so but quickly went to sleep.
3 hours past midnight the fire alarm went off.
Most* residents of the Ibis hotel were intelligent** enough to think “Hey, the fire alarm is going off, maybe I should evacuate the building”, so in their foolishness, they did. Whilst trying to traverse the staircases the reason to why the fire alarm went off became apparent. The building was flooding. Massive amounts of water was pouring down from above the 6th floor down the stairs to the ground floor. Luckily, there were 2 staircases, of which one was not occupied with water. At the ground floor we were greeted by a mass of tired, cold, and anxious people which included a fire truck and panicked staff. After the initial kick of adrenalin wore off, tedium kicked in once again. Only after 2 hours were we permitted to go back to our dormitories through the damp hallways of the Ibis waterpark. 2 ½ Hours later breakfast was served and at 8 the bus left to Bordeaux Universit.
* Some people decided to ignore the alarm and kept on sleeping, good for them.
** In hindsight intelligence, in this particular case, was not a trait with high fitness
Thursday, October 23: Lectures and lab rotations at University of Bordeaux
Thursday started out very early and sleep deprived yet somehow we managed to arrive at the university. First impression “Looks like a high school” . The first lecturer was Christophe Mulle, who lead a research group studying the Physiology of the Glutamatergic Synapses and gave a general introduction to his field. One of the people in his group, Laurent Groc, explored the molecular adaptation of developing glutamatergic synapses at a single receptor level. Groc explained that most imaging techniques are 300x too low resolution to see synapses, but that their technique can be used to track single particles to see what paths are taken, how often, and by what kinds of particles. He then stressed the importance for regulation of synapse plasticity. The second researcher in his group, Stphane Oliet, then explained astrocytes as active partners of chemical synapses. Who presented interesting work on glial cells as not just providing physical support for neurons but also modulating neurotransmission, insightful!
The first half of the presentation was followed by a coffee break with really really nice French mini pastries which were absolutely delicious.
The following lecture was by Cyril Herry, who did research on the “neural correlates of fear”. The methods used were electrophysiological recordings and optogenetics. Followed by a lecture by Catherine Le Moine on affective memories associated with withdrawal. Her research innovation comes from her combining electrophysiological data with genetically modified animal models. Lastly we had lectures by Nora Abrous who focues on early life stress and development. In particular she focused on how early life stress affected adult neurogenesis (particularly hippocampal) which is important for memory, addiction, and anxiety. Coupled with the interaction with the HPA-axis (stress response) her research was extremely interesting.
We then proceeded to have lunch at the university cafeteria, which reminded me a lot of highschool. After the short refractory period we continued the day with lab rotations. We were split up into 4 groups and we visited the labs of the lectures from the morning. The “wet lab” is always fascinating as looking at brain slices and seeing live surgeries take place is not something one gets to experience every day.
Despite the fact that the day was very interesting and educational it was also very exhausting. Especially from the hotel disturbance the day before the amount of information which was processed by many of the students was sub-optimal. Furthermore, many of the students which were not of the behavioral track lost “track” of many of the lecturers due to insufficient background knowledge, which further increased difficulty in maintaining attention. However taken together it can be said that the day was a success and very fun.
In the evening people had the opportunity to explore the beautiful city of Bordeaux and to find a quant French restaurant for dinner. Personally, I went to a restaurant which had no vegetarian menu whatsoever. I am not vegetarian but my friend is. I thought it was very strange but shrugged it off as a French thing, who know? After dinner people explored the historic city, awed at the opera house and spent (too much) money at the fair. At night some people enjoyed the nightlife of Bordeaux.
Friday, October 24: Visiting University of Bordeaux and evening wine tasting
Once again the day started at 8:00 in the morning with lectures! The first lecture was by Muriel Thoby-Brisson who did research on the neural networks involved in breathing. Her research was primarily focused on the autonomous functions which reside in the brain stem. It was quite refreshing to hear someone speak about a “neglected” part of the brain, so to speak. The second lecture was by Erwan Bezard who focused primarily on the fundamental benefits and dangers of using animal models for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The main message was to always be critical and to be careful when interpreting results of animal models to the humans. Thirdly we had a lecture by Veronique Deroche who did research on addiction. Her focus lay in the neurobiological individual differences in addicts. Her research used animal models and looked at synapses, plasticity, neuron counts, etc. Then we had a break with the wonderful croissants. The fourth lecture was by Gwenaelle Catheline who explained (f)MRI imaging techniques used to study Alzheimer’s. The fifth lecture was by Lucile Capuron, who as a clinician investigated depression from a neuropsychiatric-immunological approach. Her ideas on the relation between inflammation and depressive symptomology was highly enlightening as it gave a completely new approach on how to see depression. The final lecture, the cherry on top, was a lecture on color discrimination in medieval art. Sandrine Delord does behavioral tests with humans on color perception. The color blue in medieval times was very expensive and was thus replaced with grey. Through the use of clever optical illusions the color grey is perceived as blue. After lunch there were more lab rotations.
In the evening we were treated to an exquisite wine tasting in the beautiful building, if I recall correctly the medical faculty, in the center of Bordeaux called Place de la Victorie. There we were guided through a fun (and very difficult) wine tasting quiz. Students learned the history and the art of tasting and making wine in Bordeaux, and, by the end of the night, could identify the varieties of fruits, flowers, woods, and gravel, that went into the different wines, and differences between wines made in various areas of Bordeaux.
Saturday, October 25: Free day
On Saturday the group split off to enjoy the day in Bordeaux. The 15 hour trip back was perhaps more exhausting than the way to. The next day would welcome a new course and studies were awaiting.