Students

I am interested in studying the molecular mechanisms that contribute to healthy brain development, as well as abnormal brain development often underlying neurological and psychiatric illness. I hope to study various factors that influence development, including genetics, function of other organ systems, and diverse environmental inputs.

Research interest - Regulation of synapse development, function, and plasticity

Development and function of neural circuits

I am broadly interested in a computational and circuit-level understanding of sensorimotor systems. Specifically, I am interested in how motor information interacts with sensory processing to drive perception and behavior.

I graduated from Yale College in 2012 with a bachelor's degree in cognitive science. There, I completed a senior project, advised by Brian Scholl, that investigated a relationship between eye movements and memory. I have also conducted psychology research with Daniel Richardson at University College London, and with Marcia Johnson at Yale. Beyond many interests within psychology, I enjoy music and dance -- and I have studied and performed traditional and contemporary West African dance.

I am interested in studying how sensorimotor information is encoded in the cerebellar cortex and how this level of processing is impacted by neuromodulation.

Unveiling the working principles of neural circuits will be the Holy Grail in neuroscience. With the cutting-edge technologies, I am interested in discovering the basic structural patterns and functional motifs of neural circuits, and how these fundamental units generate diverse mental functions, such as perception, memory, and action.

I am interested in understanding the computational basis of multisensory perception. In particular I am investigating how neurons handle conflicting signals from different sensory modalities.

Emerging properties of neuronal populations can explain phenomena that were once undetectable at the single neuron level. I'm interested in combining an array of powerful tools including calcium imaging, electrophysiology, and viral manipulations of brain circuits in order to elucidate how learning manifests at a circuit-wide level.

I am interested in neuroprotection and the molecular basis of cognition.

I am interested in how the mammalian nervous system coordinates motor output. Currently,  I am investigating circuit level characteristics of motor learning and coordination in the mouse cerebellum. 

I aim to investigate specialized routing of visual Information from primary visual cortex (V1) to higher areas to guide visual tasks in mice. 

I am interested in cell surface and secreted molecular cues which guide the development of neural circuits in the retina. Additionally, I want to understand the signaling pathways downstream of these cues that ultimately activate the cytoskeleton.

I am interested in finding and understanding the molecular factors that instruct neurons to wire into circuits. I want to study the function of the molecules involved in circuit formation and the consequence of misconnection in the retina through genetic and biochemical manipulations.