At last, my first first-author paper which is based on my first project with Wani is published today in Science Advances with the title of When self comes to wandering mind: Brain representations and dynamics of self-generated concepts in spontaneous thought. This study used a newly developed task-the Free Association Semantic Task (FAST) combining fMRI data for a deeper understanding of self-generated thought. At last, this study demonstrates that where in the brain self-generated, endogenous thoughts are represented and how self-relevance modulates the brain’s affective representations.

⬇︎ My twitter when updated this work on bioRxiv and published in Science Advances

Decoding the affective and conceptual aspects of self-generated thought is much more complicated🤔How is highly self-relevant thought different from others in terms of the brain representation of emotion?🤓 Check our new paper to get a hint✨https://t.co/nvYNFVLPdf @choongwanwoo https://t.co/EBEprdxt4P pic.twitter.com/U2bxdFTqaL

— Byeol Stella Lux (@ByeolStellaKim) September 7, 2022

My first first-author paper is just accepted to Science Advances today. This is the glorious moment I've been waiting for so long, but I can't believe it when it actually happens 🥹 Finally, 5 yrs of hard work paid off, but it's all thanks to my previous advisor @choongwanwoo🥳 https://t.co/g0Oj7G1yDi

— Byeol Stella Lux (@ByeolStellaKim) July 7, 2022

This project has special meaning to me as it was the first project I took charge of after I graduated from undergraduate and joined Wani’s lab in 2017. Wani, Jessica, and I started designing experiments in 2017 Fall. I wasn’t good at Matlab at that time and I learned how to use the Psychtoolbox to make experimental scripts, how to run the MRI scanner, Matlab codes, and how to operate Biopac and Eyelink eye tracker. With the experimental codes and fMRI experimental settings made in that way, I completed ~100 fMRI scan sessions that lasted 2.5 hours with Minie Jung and Jinwon Park, the research assistants who helped me conduct the experiment from the 2017 Winter to the 2018 Spring.

⬆︎ I and Jinwon were running the FAST fMRI scan experiment in the Center for Neuroscience Research at Sungkyunkwan University, Korea.
⬆︎ Dear Siemens Prisma 3T scanner we used for data collection. I missed it now.

It was only the beginning, and there have been numerous analyses and writing over the years since then. Eventually, I am very proud and honored to publish it in Science Advances. I’m very grateful to Wani for giving the opportunity to lead this wonderful project to me and guiding me patiently from scratch. Also, thanks to our awesome co-authors, this paper has been transformed into much better work. I’m very lucky to have this amazing research team.

You can also check out this work with my other publications in here. Now, it’s time to move on new projects!