Vestibular dysfunction is prevalent among all demographics and is commonly caused by the death of sensory hair cells within the inner ear. Vestibular dysfunction can significantly disrupt the quality of life of an individual and can have large impacts on emotional health. The primary function of hair cells is to respond to auditory and vestibular stimuli to facilitate perception of sound, head movement, and gravity.  In mammals, hair cell loss leads to permanent loss of auditory and vestibular function  due to the inability of mammals to regenerate these cells.  In contrast to mammals, zebrafish are highly regenerative and can robustly regenerate hair cells in the inner ear.  The zebrafish inner ear can serve as a functional model vestibular system to explore hearing loss, hair cell function, and to investigate genetic models of inner ear damage because of its homology with the mammalian inner ear on genetic and structural levels. Before studying regeneration in the zebrafish inner ear, we must quantify hair cell addition under homeostatic conditions. We will approach this by using a transgenic fish line(myo6b:NLS-Eos) that expresses photoconvertible protein Eos in the hair cell nuclei. By photoconverting nuclei at specific time points we can assess where new (unconverted) cells are added and determine whether old (converted) hair cells are lost.  Here, we describe efforts to optimize a method for dissection and imaging of the larval zebrafish utricle, a vestibular organ that contains hair cells, and quantify hair cell growth and turnover at early and late larval stages.  Using the zebrafish model system allows us to use a genetically encoded method of hair cell ablation to explore hair cell regeneration, and may ultimately lead to the development of therapeutics that promote hair cell regeneration in mammals.

There is often a stigma associated with bilingualism due to the mistaken belief that bilingual children develop language skills at a significantly slower rate than monolingual children. To combat this misconception, it is necessary to conduct research showing that bilingualism either helps or does not harm language acquisition when compared to monolingualism. This study attempts to meet that general need by determining how bilingual and monolingual children compare in metaphor comprehension. I decided to focus on metaphors because they can be challenging for children to interpret correctly, and I hypothesized that bilingual children would perform better on metaphor comprehension tasks than monolingual children because of their regular use of second labels. I investigated how 127 monolingual and bilingual children ages 2.5-4.5 years old responded to a set of metaphors by using a game-like format to gather data via Qualtrics. Specifically, I gave children a series of 10 metaphor questions in which they needed to choose which of two pictures best fit a provided metaphorical phrase. Children were also given 10 vocabulary questions derived from the metaphor questions to ensure that children knew the literal meaning of the words. Results showed that bilingual children performed slightly but significantly better than monolingual children on metaphor comprehension questions. Currently, I am also collecting data for a follow-up study to replicate and extend my findings. These results are important because they give us insight into how child language development differs between monolingual and bilingual children and counter negative stereotypes about bilingualism.

Episodic memory is a crucial element of the human condition. It allows us to remember what happened, where it happened, when it happened, and then piece these components together to form comprehensive memories. However, the ability to remember when an event happened lags years behind the ability to remember what happened and where it took place. At the root of this phenomenon is the concept that temporal reasoning ability takes a more gradual path to maturation as well. In several cultures, the challenge of reasoning with time is alleviated using a spatiotemporal model called the mental timeline—a representation of time based on a left-to-right linear frame. With the proposed research I aim to prime 32 6-year-old children with a left-to-right spatiotemporal model, and 32 additional 6-year-old children with a nonlinear model of events before examining each of their spatial and temporal memory binding abilities. The first phase of this study—in which children are primed to think about time in a spatial format—entails a short animation of a character visiting nine places around the world. Icons corresponding to each event are then placed either in order from left to right, or in a nonlinear format. After completing the priming task, children participate in an unrelated memory game to assess the effects of spatiotemporal priming on their temporal memory abilities. They watch three animations, each consisting of a character completing nine activities in nine different locations. After each animation, they answer three corresponding location-related and order-related questions each. I expect children primed with a left-to-right model to outperform children in the nonlinear priming group on temporal-order probing questions. We hope that the anticipated results can be used in academic settings to strengthen memory abilities in young children and shift the nature of how we communicate with children about time.