Akosua Kesewah Asare is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience program under the supervision of Dr. Deborah Giaschi in the Visual Neuroscience Lab in the ophthalmology department at BC Children’s Hospital. We caught up with Akosua to learn more about her research interests and advice.
What kind of research does your lab do?
In our lab, we study the neural processes that underlie motion perception, depth perception and visual attention. Much of our research involves understanding how developmental disorders such as amblyopia (lazy eye) and dyslexia affect the aforementioned visual functions.
Akosua Kesewah Asare
What is your thesis project on?
My PhD work is focused on investigating the brain mechanisms involved in processing motion and depth information. I am particularly interested in how developmental visual disorders such as amblyopia (lazy eye) impact our ability to perform daily functions which require the use of motion and depth information. I employ a combination of psychophysics and neuroimaging techniques such as functional MRI to answer these questions.
Why did you choose neuroscience?
Lazy eye or crossed eye was a phenomenon which particularly intrigued me back in optometry school. This same curiosity must have played a huge role in my decision to understand the intricate nature of the brain in conditions like this. Choosing to pursue a graduate degree in neuroscience enables me to answer these whys and hows.
What is a typical day like for you as a graduate student?
A typical day for me as a graduate student varies by season because my work mostly involves children in the school-going age. In the summers or during spring breaks, my days are often filled with setting up and running psychophysical and functional MRI experiments. When I am not running experiments, most of my days are spent working on the data collected, writing proposals, preparing talks and posters as well as mentoring other undergraduate research assistants in the lab. Even though we are working towards becoming experts in very niche areas, the variety of skills we gain during our training as graduate students which can be applied in many other different areas is interesting.
What are your future career goals?
My ideal career goal or title if there is a thing like that, would be to work as a clinical research consultant for a medical device company. I want to have a career where I can combine my research and clinical skills.
What advice do you have for students interested in graduate school?
Take up volunteer roles or research assistantships in labs. If you find a lecture or topic that piques your interest go for it and don’t hesitate to ask for help.
