Meet Jabari
As I was riding the bus on my way to Longwood to head to lab, I had a familiar experience with another rider. It was a cool fall day, and as a result I was wearing my Harvard windbreaker. As I made my way to find a seat, I noticed that an older guy had an inquisitive gaze towards me along with a restless demeanor. Being the introvert that I am, I quickly seated myself and put my earphones in.
A few minutes went by, and the older guy tapped me and asked me a simple question with the utmost sincerity, “Do you go to Harvard? I quickly replied “Yes, I do research there.” His eyes lit up and he quickly fired back with another question, “What kind of research?” I shortly replied “Neuroscience.”
Over the next few minutes, the older guy bombarded me with praise and questions, but the recurrent theme was that he was proud that a young black man was pursuing a career in science.
The moment reminded me of a similar experience I had on the train while in my summer research program in Miami. While on the Metrorail heading back to my dorm room, I had on my lab coat for whatever reason. A black couple noticed my lab coat and similarly probed me with questions to test my authenticity as a scientist. At the end of both experiences, I was met with similar encouragement, “to keep up the good work,” “we are proud of you,” and “you’ve made my/our day.” As I continued to lab that day, I aimed to be as productive as possible. Interleaved throughout the day, my earlier experience on the bus caused me to have frequent moments of reflection.
Despite being a PiNBac student, I didn’t give much thought into how much my academic trajectory had progressed. Before COVID, I often questioned whether college was for me. When the pandemic happened the spring semester of my junior year, it essentially ruined my “college” experience. In the fall of my senior year, I mourned the passing of my older brother, and throughout this process I was required to dig deep within myself to be as focused and motivated as possible.
As a result, I surrendered myself to sacrifices mentally and socially. Despite some of my obstacles, I continued in pursuit of my interests and was genuinely driven by the desire to learn and ask questions. My experience with the older black gentleman on the bus not only provided me with further reassurance that I was doing alright as a young adult trying to navigate the world, but it also showed me that representation transcends just me as a student. My purpose is now not only fueled by my natural desire to want to answer questions, but to work towards upholding the values of my community and to work towards being able to provide mentorship and guidance to others that may follow me. I am now a few months removed from starting my first year as a PhD student. I understand that everyone is not afforded the opportunity to pursue a career that they love, and it is something that I don’t take for granted.
On a lighter note, I am happily working in the labs of Bernardo Sabatini and John Assad. I work closely with a graduate student, Eden Sayed, towards understanding how an animal initiates a volitional motor action. I was excited to join Eden in this project because we have many tools at our disposal to measure and manipulate large populations of neural activity while correlating the activity with behavioral datasets.
The model that we are using to study movements is licking behavior in mice. It’s a common model used within neuroscience to model movements. We primarily focus on the neural activity necessary for mice to protrude the tongue. The tongue is one of the few skeletal muscles that we can displace or move that isn’t immediately connected to any bone. We aim to localize the neural circuitry that is necessary for mice to perform this particular motor action.
My role in the project focuses on understanding the role that the motor cortex plays in initiating a lick bout. A lick bout is a stereotyped sequence of movements (licks, 6-10 Hz) that mice voluntarily perform to drink water from a spout. Classical experiments of electrical stimulation to spatially and functionally map the motor cortex set the framework for my current question. Depending on the duration or threshold of the simulations, the motor outputs can vary from simply muscle twitches to significant changes in posture. It is still unclear whether the cortex controls movements moment to moment via control of the muscles, or if it simply sends a brief electrical signal to downstream targets that generate the neural activity required for movements.
My research question parallels this problem: “Does cortical activity control each lick in a bout moment to moment, or does it simply send a brief signal to downstream targets that subsequently generates the necessary neural activity to generate each lick?”
I am using pharmacological, optogenetic, and electrophysiological tools to investigate this question. The goal of my research project is to help provide further understanding about the physiology of the motor cortex. Degeneration of cortical neurons within the motor cortex is known to affect patients with Huntington’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
In these diseases, patients either have difficulties controlling or initiating their movements. My aim is that my basic science question can inform future research questions that will lead to translational solutions.