Follow Your Curiosity, Not Your Major

Posted on by

By Mukund Desibhatla, OUR Peer Research AmbassadorFollow Your Curiosity, Not Your Major. By PRA Mukund.

As a Physiology & Neurobiology (PNB) major, I have always been surrounded by the expectation of joining a PNB lab. While my classmates quickly joined labs with professors within their majors, I struggled to find mentors who would be a good fit for my interests.

Feeling discouraged, I reached out to my PATH mentor, who is also a PNB major. He shared similar frustrations but ultimately joined research in the psychological sciences. Although his mentor was a faculty member outside of his major, the professor’s compassion and guidance helped my friend foster a genuine interest in the study of brain-behavior from a different lens.

I felt inspired by his story and started reading publications from UConn’s psychology department. I landed on a publication authored by Dr. John Salamone about effort-related decision making. The physiological link he drew between drugs that facilitate dopamine transmission and high-effort work stimulation in rats as model organisms intrigued me, but because I had never taken a PSYC class, I faced a huge learning curve.

Nevertheless, Dr. Salamone graciously welcomed me despite my limited background. I instantly had to dive into a dense pile of literature to follow his groundbreaking work on the motivational deficits of common antidepressants and mesolimbic pathways in rat models. During a typical meeting, he helped me narrow my focus and interests by testing my knowledge and guiding me towards new literature.

In this first semester, I realized that curiosity is the most important skill to begin my journey in research. And the truth is, there is really no “conventional” track to research. A professor’s article may intrigue you even if it is not within the reach of your major. My growth as a researcher in the psychological sciences has supplemented my PNB education and engaged my passion for interdisciplinary study. My advice for anyone interested in research is to follow your curiosity, not your major! If you are flexible, you will find something that speaks to you in UConn’s research landscape.

Mukund is a senior double majoring in Physiology & Neurobiology and Spanish. Click here to learn more about Mukund.