The Sensory Transduction Lab Report
In science, reporting what has been done in a laboratory setting is incredibly important for communicating, replicating, and validating findings. However, writing scientific reports can be a little overwhelming. There are a set of agreed upon components that the scientific community requires when reporting scientific experimentation. Answer the following questions to describe what occurred during the lab you conducted in Labster. Be sure to use complete sentences and descriptions that fully represent what you experienced. Writing a lab report is less about being correct or incorrect, than it is accurately reporting what happened and why. So, do not worry about reporting data that might seem counterintuitive or unexpected. Focus on clearly communicating what you did and what you observed.
TITLE:
What was the title of the lab you completed?
Sensory Transduction Simulation
PROBLEM:
What was the problem you were trying to resolve in the Lab?
Determining the best anesthetic drug for my injured friend.
HYPOTHESIS:
What information from the textbook and classroom is relevant for the problem you were trying to resolve in the lab? Identify the concepts and explain how they are related to the lab problem.
The textbook and classroom were significant to solving the lab problem as they provided information regarding the types of neurons and action potential. This information was significant in understanding how different responses are produced in response to different stimuli, the factors required to achieve the resting potential, and how an action potential occurs.
During the lab, what information from the THEORY section provided additional background information about the problem? (To review the theory section, launch the Lab and click the “Theory” tab on the top of the data pad). Identify the concepts and explain how they are related to the lab problem.
The THEORY was also equally relevant to solving the lab problem. Important concepts related to the lab in this section include the explanation of sensory neurons, the TRPV1 channel, capsaicin, voltage-gated ion channels, latency withdrawal, the patch clamp technique, and lidocaine, a drug that can be used to relieve pain. Capsaicin is an irritant compound produced by chili peppers. It causes a painful feeling of heat and activates the TRPV1 channel receptor, thus causing an action potential. The TRPV1 is a ligand-gated non-selective ion channel that can be activated by various stimuli like capsaicin.
The section on sensory neurons helped me identify a type of sensory neuron called nociceptors that are activated by a noxious stimulus that transduces pain. Further, the section on voltage-gated ion channels was helpful in understanding the role of these ion channels in signal transduction and action potential in sensory neurons. Also, learning about latency withdrawal gave insights into how an animal’s pain-like behavior is measured following its reaction to a noxious stimulus. Notably, the time the model organism takes to withdraw its paw is the latency to withdrawal. Lastly, the section on lidocaine noted that this anesthetic drug could cause numbness and hinder motor function by inhibiting the transmission of action potentials in other cells due to its lipid-soluble nature.
Most scientific experimentation involves examining variables and their relationships. A variable is a construct that can be changed and studied. Examples of variables are a condition or measurable quantity. What are the variables you examined in the lab? Which one were you controlling and changing? Which one were you observing was impacted by your change?
Variables examined in the lab include anesthetic drugs, pain sensation, and motor function. The anesthetic drugs were rebine and lidocaine, which were changed to observe their effect on pain sensation and motor function.
Developing a hypothesis requires understanding relevant background knowledge. Now that you have described relevant background information, it is time to develop a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a simple statement (not a question), grounded in previous research, that predicts the relationship between the variables being studied. Please make a statement that predicts the relationship between the variables being studied.
Rebine will decrease pain sensation without inhibiting motor function.
Lidocaine will decrease pain sensation but inhibit motor function.
METHOD:
Describing what you did during a lab supports other scientists in replicating your work. It is through this consistent replication that scientists are able to see repeating patterns and develop ideas that help move science forward. When you discuss your data, in a later section, you will have to describe what choices you made, why you made them, and any concerns about things that occurred that were unexpected. In order to have enough information to do this, you need to keep very detailed notes. What doesn’t seem important in the moment may end up being something that explains your findings later. A benefit of conducting virtual labs when learning science, is that many potential errors are controlled for you. The virtual lab environment often will alert you if something is not going the way it should. This does not occur non-virtual settings. The virtual lab setting can be very helpful to learners for this reason. However, we still have to practice documenting so that those skills are practiced for the lab experiences when technology will not be there as a coach.
You have already, identify the variables that you studied in the lab in the previous section. Now, take some time to fully define and describe what each variable is and how it was changed throughout the lab.
The variables that were studied are anesthetic drugs (rebine and lidocaine), pain sensation, and motor function. Different rats were subjected to capsaicin, lidocaine, rebine, lidocaine + capsaicin, and rebine + capsaicin. In each of these variables, the average time in seconds taken by the rats to withdraw the paw was recorded. Similarly, rebine, rebine + capsaicin, and lidocaine were tested on different rats to examine the effect of the two drugs on motor function. Therefore, the anesthetic drugs are the independent variables, while pain sensation and motor function are the dependent variables.
In 3-5 sentences summarize what you did during the lab not including your process of logging into the system. This section would be much more robust for a non-virtual lab. For this virtual lab, a short, high-level summary will suffice.
The first major step was exploring sensory neurons to identify the stimuli that activate nociceptors and transduce pain. The next step was performing the patch-clamp experiment to test the effect of rebine and lidocaine on ion flow and sensory transduction. The last step was the latency to withdrawal experiment to analyze the effect of the rebine and lidocaine on motor function.
Describe some of the observations you made. What numbers did you write down or keep track of? What did each of your senses observe during the lab process? What did you see (ex: changes in colors, movement, shapes, sizes, patterns)? What did you hear (ex: sounds from reactions, collisions, error messages)? What did you lab character touch? Did you notice anything that seemed unexpected? Did you notice anything that you did expect to observe?
The first significant observation I made regards the stimuli that activate nociceptors; these included heat, cuts, and chemicals like capsaicin. In addition, I noted that lidocaine inhibited the voltage-gated sodium ions and rebine inhibited nociceptors only when the TRPV1 channel was open. I also observed that lidocaine inhibited motor function, while rebine did not prevent motor function. Throughout the lab, my lab character interacted with all the lab reagents and materials in each part; I could also move around the lab by rotating the camera. Lastly, I noticed the sign that read, “KEEP CALM AND DISCOVER ON.” This was a unique way of keeping one engaged in the lab and was unexpected.
Which parts of the lab required you to think more than others and required more time? Which parts were simple and completed easily?
The part involving exploring the types of sensory neurons was the easiest. Conversely, the patch-clamp and latency to withdrawal experiments were critical and took more, as they involved experimenting with many variables and analyzing data.
DATA & RESULTS:
Many lessons learned as a result of scientific experiment come from the reporting and analysis of data. This part of scientific reporting requires detailed descriptions of technical information and quantities as well as high-level synthesis of information. High-level synthesis requires a mastery of foundational content in the related scientific field and a complimentary mastery in some field of quantitative and/or qualitative analysis. For this report, let’s focus on big picture patterns.
What relationships did you notice between the variables you examined? When you changed the variable(s), how did the other(s) change?
I noticed that the lidocaine exhibited an extended latency to withdrawal time compared to the control (13.7 seconds) and capsaicin (12.3 seconds), meaning that it inhibits pain sensation. Rebine alone did show significant inhibition of pain sensation. However, with capsaicin, the drug inhibited pain sensation significantly.
Further, the scores on motor function for lidocaine were high, implying that the drug prevents movement. On the other hand, for rebine, only two model organisms exhibited a score of 1, while the rest had a score of 0; thus, this indicates normal motor function.
Did you notice any patterns in your data? Any patterns between the variables?
In the latency withdrawal experiment, I noted that lidocaine + capsaicin had the highest latency to withdrawal time (24.7 seconds), followed by lidocaine (24.5 seconds), rebine + capsaicin (23.4 seconds), and then rebine alone (14.4 seconds).
In the latency withdrawal experiment, I noticed that 45 minutes after administering lidocaine, all model organisms had a score of 0. This suggests that lidocaine inhibits motor function for approximately 45 minutes, after which normal function is restored.
DISCUSSION:
The discussion section is used to explain why things might have happened the way that they did in your experiment. Here, scientists describe any potential anomalies or mistakes and why they think they may have occurred.
During your lab, what happened that might have impacted the accuracy of your data? Did the simulation alert you that an error was occurring? If so, how did you resolve it?
Contamination of reagents would have resulted in inaccurate data. To avoid this, I used a clean syringe for each reagent. Besides, the simulation reminded me to discard used syringes.
CONCLUSION:
The conclusion section of a lab report describes how the learnings from the lab experimentation fit in to prior scientific knowledge. This is done by comparing new information to previously known information that was identified in the section of your report that discusses background information.
Review the hypothesis section of your report from above and describe how the results of your lab compare to the background information that you discussed before.
The tests on lidocaine revealed that it can inhibit pain but also prevents motor function. This is also consistent with the background information, which noted that lidocaine inhibits the propagation of the action potential to other cells due to its lipid-soluble nature. Thus, the hypothesis that “lidocaine will decrease pain sensation but inhibit motor function” was accepted. The lab findings also revealed that rebine inhibited pain sensation in the presence of capsaicin and did not affect motor function. Therefore the hypothesis that “rebine will decrease pain sensation without inhibiting motor function” was accepted.
Since rebine reduced pain sensation when capsaicin was present and did not inhibit motor function, it was chosen as the best drug for my injured friend.
Once scientists have identified how the new knowledge fits into the old knowledge, they discuss the implications of the new information for moving forward. In this class, the purpose of study is to learn some foundational science ideas represented by the course student learning outcomes. Review the course student learning outcome aligned to this lab in the assignment directions in Blackboard. How is the information from this lab related to the course student learning outcome? What knowledge has the lab supported you with learning that is related to this course student learning outcome?
This lab relates to the course student learning outcome about constructing scientific descriptions of the nervous system. This lab aligns with the course outcome as it helps in understanding signal transduction. The knowledge from the lab that supports the achievement of this learning outcome includes understanding the types of sensory neurons, how the action potential is activated, and the role of voltage-gated ion channels in signal transduction and action potential in sensory neurons.
Following scientific experimentation, scientists usually come up with new questions that result from what they learned. These new questions often end up leading to new experiments in the future. What additional scientific things do you wonder about after completing and writing about your lab experience?
After exploring the sensory transduction in nociceptors, I’m left wondering about the sensory transduction in the other sensory neurons: mechanoreceptors, chemoreceptors, photoreceptors, and thermoreceptors. How does sensory transduction occur in these neurons? Does it follow the same mechanism as the one in the nociceptors?
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Question 
The Sensory Transduction Lab Report
How do drugs affect our performance? How does the neurological reaction to a minor injury differ from a larger injury?
The final step for this assessment is to complete the lab report. As you work through the lab, compile the pieces of your report. To make the experience more interesting, complete the Hypothesis section prior to diving into the lab.
When you are satisfied with your report, please complete it, and submit your lab report.