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Behavioral neuroscience graduate John Hammond ’03 (Highland, Md.) is working as a senior lab technician at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.
“My research experiences at Lafayette have proven to be very worthwhile,” says Hammond. “While taking classes as a behavioral neuroscience major, I performed many different types of surgery as well as working with different cell preparations. Everyone at Hopkins was very impressed that I had such a rich experience with animal dissection while I was at Lafayette.”
Hammond, who ultimately plans to return to school for further education, graduated in May and was elected to Psi Chi, the national honor society for psychology.
At Johns Hopkins, Hammond is working in the Wilmer Eye Institute under Dr. Harry Quigley, whose work involves determining what causes the cellular damage that occurs in glaucoma patients.
“I have always been interested in the way that changes at the cellular level can have a dramatic impact on the way people act and live,” says Hammond. “As a neuroscience major, I was able to examine how neurons specifically can influence physiology. My work now is an extension of this because we are looking at how cellular changes and nerve cell death result in glaucoma.”
Hammond says that, with further research, cell death may be able to be prevented or reversed, which would in turn eradicate glaucoma. “This position will allow me to further expand my knowledge of how the microscopic affects the macroscopic.”
Hammond participated in several unique educational opportunities that helped him gain research experience. During the spring semester of his junior year, he completed independent research exploring the potential link between social contagion and brain function. His adviser for the project was Alan Childs, professor and head of psychology.
The anthrax scare that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks sparked Hammond’s interest in the topic. He explains that social contagion has the power to be positive — Americans joining together and celebrating their country — or negative — the fear that every envelope may contain anthrax, when statistically very few actually did.
“While watching the news, I began to wonder what makes people so susceptible to the influence of those around them. People see their peers doing something and join in, usually without much forethought. This lack of forethought is the basis, in my opinion, of social contagion,” Hammond says. “I have always been interested in why people act the way they do, and social contagion is a great place to start.”
Hammond hypothesized that there may be some area of the brain, or related chemical, that is only active when a person is in a group, which might explain group mentality behind certain situations such as riots and waves of emotion spreading through a crowd. Although no one has done research on social contagion from a physiological perspective, Hammond did propose several different brain areas or neurochemicals that may have the well-documented psychological effect he explored.
In the summer of 2002, Hammond participated in the Lafayette Alumni Research Network, in which students are paid for eight to ten weeks of full-time work under an alumni mentor. Travel to their mentor’s institution and room expenses also are covered through the program. Hammond worked with James Simmons ’65 in the department of neuroscience at Brown University in Providence, R.I. Hammond learned about the echo-location abilities of bats and participated in projects exploring the flight and sonar activities of echo-locating bats while they fly in difficult acoustic conditions.
“While this ability (echo-location) is well known, our field studies indicated that the bats are actually able to distinguish the echoes that they send out from the echoes of multiple other bats,” explains Hammond. “We witnessed dozens of bats flying around one another, in the rain, catching insects. It was thought that this type of resolution from echo-location was not possible.”
Their lab research was an attempt to discover what areas of the brain were responsible for distinguishing the frequency and timing of sounds. This information was then to be used to develop imaging techniques with higher resolution for a sound system.
Last spring, Hammond was offered the opportunity to assemble an electroencephalograph, an instrument that measures electrical potentials on the scalp and generates a record of the electrical activity of the brain. Gabrielle Britton, assistant professor of psychology, and Wendy Hill, Rappolt Professor of Psychology and chair of the neuroscience program, helped Hammond obtain the information and parts necessary to put it together.
“The professors involved in the neuroscience program, especially Dr. Hill and Dr. Britton, are some of the friendliest I met while at Lafayette,” says Hammond. “Both were very interested in learning about what interested me and in helping me to direct my studies and job search.”
Hammond also touts the state-of-the-art equipment available to the students in the new neuroscience and psychology building, Oechsle Hall.
“Some of the equipment that we used for our classes [at Lafayette] is the same that I use now at Hopkins. Lafayette is very fortunate to have such great facilities.”
Hammond says he is meeting people at Johns Hopkins who have various degrees and has been discussing his future plans with them in order to determine what kind of degree to pursue. He is now deciding among a Ph.D. in neuroscience, a dual Ph.D. in neuroscience and genetics, and an M.D./Ph.D. in neuroscience.
“I would ultimately like to do clinical research to determine if there is any genetic basis for debilitating brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s,” says Hammond. “Along the same lines, I would like to be involved in developing a way to either replace the missing gene or to restore the cells that are lost with such diseases. My interests lie in the incorporation of new cells into the brain as functional units.”
Hammond was a psychology tutor, resident adviser, and president of Crew Club.