Coronavirus, Cognition, and CTE

Last week I had my first mentor visit with my new mentor, Dr. Nyaz Didehbani, a licensed psychologist and assistant professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the UT Southwestern Medical Center. During the visit, I had the opportunity to learn from her experiences diagnosing COVID patients in her clinic and the impacts the virus has had on the field of neuropsychology as a whole. I was successful in introducing the necessary documentation for the mentorship, such as the background check and handbook, and easing the mentorship experience into a virtual setting. We were also extremely efficient in brainstorming ideas for my final product, which could range from a research paper on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) to educational infographics on Alzheimer's to even conducting original surveys on COVID-19's impact on brain cognition. As I am embarking on a project completely different from my Original Work, I am struggling in narrowing down a research topic that is more time-intensive and applicable than before. Having the guidance of an experienced mentor will be extremely helpful in this process, but I still wonder, how do I effectively allocate my time to conduct such in-depth research in just 14 weeks? Regardless of the progress that still needs to be made, I am proud of myself for finally starting my mentorship and venturing into a foreign field of psychology and neuropsychology than I initially intended. I have scheduled another mentor visit with Dr. Didehbani for this Wednesday, January 20th at 10:30 a.m., so I am planning to gather more research on the topics we discussed and approach her with my ideas to hopefully settle on a final product plan this week.