Taking Drugs for Science: Day 1

So today is the first Real day of my first study with De Wit Research Center at The University of Chicago. It's the closest thing I've gotten to a job since I moved to Chicago 6 weeks ago. It's pretty sweet; I get paid $200 for 4, 4 hour sessions and a 2 hour orientation. At the beginning of each session I take a Mystery Capsule (or two), that contains one of four things: Valium, an Amphetamine, Alcohol, or a placebo. I hear placebo gets you pretty fucked up. It's a double-blind study, meaning neither the researchers nor I know which of the four drugs I've taken. I decided it would be fun to write while I'm on th mystery capsules and see if the writing style or subject matter changes. I feel like I write a variety of things, so it is likely to change due to my crazy brain alone and not the capsules. I should probably go ahead and let you know that I took today's capsule about 45 minutes ago. Every half hour the researcher comes in to take my blood pressure, then I take a puzzle type test that measures my reaction time. Next I take a survey asking questions regarding my mood and how I'm felling. That all takes about 10-minutes, then I get to go back to doing whatever I want, in this case writing this and listening to my iPod on shuffle.

If I had to guess what I took today, I'd probably guess Valium or the placebo. Definately not the upper. I feel calm and relaxed. Peaceful. But sometimes I feel this way even when I'm not on drugs. Crazy huh? I've only had Valium once and it was combined with WAY too much liquor and dancing. I blacked out for a couple hours at a club downtown and woke up Sunday afternoon sprawled out on my office floor. No joke, haha. So, I'm not sure how Valium is really
supposed to feel, but probably some thing like this.

I'm back from another test, so that means I'm about +01:15 into it right now. Starting to think a little more that I got placebo. I am still very relaxed. The researcher told me that the next "test" is the big one. I guess they make me do more stuff. I hope I don't have to run on a treadmill. I am really tired, but it's very likely because I had to wake up at 6:00 this morning for this thing, so I got about 4 hours of sleep. They have a list of VHSs you can watch if you want. They have 3 copies of "The Mask." I told them I would like 2 copies of The Mask and "Adventures in Babysitting," whatever that is. Then I changed my mind and asked for "John Tess Christmas Worship." They actually have that. She knew I was kidding, but then she thought I was still joking when I asked for "10 Things I Hate About You" and "Life Is Beautiful." I wasn't joking. I don't really think I'll get to either of them though. Oh well, maybe in the next session.

If this isn't placebo-pill it's pretty lame. Not bad, just nothing too incredible. They need to find a better dealer.

I just took some of the other reaction time tests. Most of them are actually pretty fun, except for the stupid snowflake test. That's one where a small snow flake symbol appears in the middle of the screen and you click the button on the mouse as soon as you see it. It's boring and goes on too long, but the other ones are cool. I actually kinda want to do them again. I'll try to describe them. On one, either an X or an O appears on the center of the screen. If it's an X you press the Z key as quickly as possible, and if it's the O you hit the ? key as quickly as possible. The catch is that if there's a beep with the symbol you're not supposed to press anything. It's tough.

The next one's cooler. You see 4 cards at the top of the screen that look something like this:


You see one card (below these that stay at the top of the screen) at a time and you have to press the button to the card it corresponds with. It could be the shape, number of shapes, or the color of the shapes. It tells you rather you're correct or not, then goes to the next card. You have to try and figure out the pattern as quickly as possible. Then the pattern changes without telling you and you have to figure out the new pattern. So maybe you were matching shapes, now all of a sudden you'll be matching color for the next few cards. It's hard to explain, but it's really cool...well, pretty cool.

{Tanget - So the experimenter girl is pretty cool. I ended up just talking casually about sex with her. She came in and I told her I was listening to "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" because my iPod was on shuffle. She told me she hadn't figured out how to get her audiobooks off of shuffle. "It's really bad when I'm jamming out, then some book comes on," she said.
My response: "It's worse when you're having sex and then Genesis chapter 4 starts playing. Or some weird sound effects that you downloaded for a video you were making."
I like messing with her. When I got here she asked if I was ready to take the urine sample. I told her I wasn't ready so she brought me some water and left while I took a survey. She came back and said "Let's go get the urine sample."
I said, "Oh, I already di it" and tried to hand her my insulated coffee cup with a lid on it. She wouldn't take it so I took a drink. (It didn't really have urine in it...I don't think).
I'm pretty sure she's into me.}

Ok, I'm almost out of here. One more blood-pressure test and another survey, then I'm done. I was going to tell you about the last cool reaction test that I I think I did really well on, but I realized it would be even harder to explain than the last one. I guess you'll just have to sell your body to science if you really want to find out what it is.

My next session is Monday so I'll have some more for you then!