Healthy adults, age 18-59, are being recruited for a study of the commonly-used inhaled anesthetic sevoflurane. This involves MRI scans while performing a memory task and experiencing periodic painful electric shocks, at a level you set in advance.
You may eligible if you…
- are not pregnant or attempting to conceive
- are normal weight (BMI under 30)
- do not have significant memory impairment or hearing loss
- do not have sleep apnea
- do not have chronic pain or other pain disorder
- do not regularly take medicine for pain or sleep
- do not take anti-depressants (including SSRIs)
- are not a current smoker
- are able to undergo MRI (no metal or implants)
- have no history of adverse reaction to inhaled anesthetics, including malignant hyperthermia
- have no history of a reaction to the anti-nausea medication ondansetron (Zofran)
- do not regularly use marijuana (prescription or recreational)
- have no history of street drug abuse
Interested subjects must complete a brief appointment to undergo memory testing. If your memory performance is above the entry cutoff, you may be enrolled in the study. This involves 2 additional study visits, typically during weekday working hours.
Subjects will be paid $250 for completing all study visits.
For more detailed information, please email: Anesthesiology.Research _AT_ pitt.edu
A postdoctoral position is available for a highly motivated individual to join a growing effort to study the neuroscience of anesthetic effects on cognition and pain relief using functional neuroimaging and complimentary techniques. The position is within the University of Pittsburgh, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, under the direction of Keith Vogt, MD, PhD. The NIH-funded research program is cross-disciplinary, with collaborators in the Departments of Bioengineering, Medicine (Division of Geriatrics), Psychiatry, and Psychology. The appointment is intended to be two years and may be extendable. The candidate will be encouraged and supported to apply for their own mentored research training grants prior to the end of the postdoctoral fellowship. The
ideal candidate would have a strong technical and reearch background, and completed a residency in anesthesiology. Applicants should be committed to pursuing an independent research career relevant to anesthesiology and perioperative medicine.
Requirements: Applicants must have an MD, DO, PhD (or comparable
medical/graduate degree) in a relevant field and be eligible for appointment to an NIH-funded training grant. Candidates must be comfortable with data analysis and basic statistics and have excellent oral and written communication skills. Training would include involvement in and oversight of a variety of clinical and volunteer human subject research projects with focus on the intersection between anesthesia, pain, and cognition.
Volunteer undergraduate research positions are available within Anesthesiology Neuroscience Research for highly motivated students interested studying anesthetic effects on cognition and pain relief using functional neuroimaging and complimentary techniques. Opportunities for interacting with and directly collecting data from human subjects are a part of some projects. Undergraduate research assistants will primarily be engaged in processing and analyzing data, with complexity commensurate with experience and technical ability. Candidates should have completed some statistics coursework and be proficient with programming (preferably MATLAB). Some prior experience with image processing or analysis of timeseries data would be ideal. For motivated premedical students, complementary clinical shadowing opportunities in anesthesiology and pain medicine can be arranged.
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