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I am interested in the underlying neural mechanisms and anatomical structures of patients with various neurological disorders. I plan to study brain mapping and neuroimaging techniques to gather detailed, personalized perspectives on structure and function.

Advisor: Brad Mahon

Jenah is a Ph.D. student working jointly with Drs. Lori Holt and Bonnie Nozari. She completed her M.S. in Psychology at Villanova University in 2021, working under Dr. Joe Toscano. Previously, she completed her B.A. in Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Iowa. Jenah is currently focused on examining how abstract knowledge about a discourse or an event influences low-level acoustic processing. When she’s not in the lab, you can usually find her indulging in her ferocious coffee habit, going on a power walk, or enjoying some quiet time with her two cats, Edmund and Sunny.

Advisor: Lori Holt & Bonnie Nozari

Katie is a Ph.D student in music cognition and cognitive neuroscience. She earned her Bachelor of Music in voice performance from Oberlin College Conservatory and her Masters in Business Administration with a focus on sustainability and process improvement from Bainbridge Graduate Institute (now part of Presidio Graduate School). Her research interests include spatial hearing and localization, proprioception and auditory cuing, and the neural correlates of learning new music, to name a few. Outside of research she enjoys time with her family, her dog, Nico, making music, walking, and baking.

Advisor: Barb Shinn-Cunningham & Abby Noyce

I am broadly interested in how brain networks organize across development to support cognitive behavior and perception. I am particularly interested in reorganization and plasticity in individuals with neurological disorders, injuries, and other disruptions to these processes, and I have a long-term goal of guiding clinical understanding, decision-making, and interventions through my research. I aim to integrate behavioral, neuroimaging, and neural recording methods to probe these questions. Within these interests, I am currently studying eye movements and visual processing in pediatric patients who have undergone cortical resection to treat epileptic seizures.

Advisor: Marlene Behrmann

I am broadly interested in how aging impacts working memory, using multimodal techniques to investigate underlying neural and behavioral mechanisms. Specifically, I am interested in microsaccades as a potential window into the temporal dynamics of cognition during the working memory delay period (from encoding to maintenance to consolidation) and how these processes are regulated by memory load.

Advisor: Susanne Ferber

My research focuses broadly on the intersection of identity and health, with a particular emphasis on the LGBTQ+ community. More specifically, I am interested in exploring associations between social stressors and maladaptive coping behaviors, the role of identity in interpersonal interactions, family dynamics, and health-promoting behavior, and the reduction of bias, stereotyping, and prejudice.

Advisor: Mikey Trujillo

My research interests are in executive function, hearing loss, and speech comprehension. My area is cognitive science.

Advisor: Lori Holt & Barbara Shinn-Cunningham

My research interest focuses on how the mechanisms of stigma, prejudice, and discrimination can influence social behavior, decision-making, problem-solving, and intergroup relations in various social contexts and identities like poverty, gender, forced disappearances, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, political affiliation, or voting processes.

Advisor: Mikey Trujillo

I am interested in decoding how the brain processes continuous, natural speech, with a particular emphasis on the role of attention in modulating this process. Using behavioral experiments and neuroimaging, I explore the brain’s hierarchical and dynamic speech processing. My long-term goal is to apply these insights to the understanding and rehabilitation of hearing and speech-related disorders.

Advisors: Barb Shinn-Cunningham & Abby Noyce

I am broadly interested in the intersection between cognition and action. Specifically, I use (1) computational modeling to study action selection and (2) psychophysical tasks to understand the role of time in motor memory formation. Outside research, I enjoy playing board games, reading, and experimenting in the kitchen.

Advisor: Jonathan (JT) Tsay

My research interests broadly encompass examining the interactions, and relationships between modalities. More specifically, I am curious about the role of attention in cross-modal relationships that include auditory perception, and real life implications (e.g., vehicle warning systems) such interplay holds.

Advisor: Laurie Heller

I am interested in visual cognition, especially in how perceptual representations interact with attention, memory, and higher-order cognitive processes.

Advisor: Jonathan Tsay

I am interested in the functional separation of different visual pathways, and how these often anatomically separated information streams integrate to inform our knowledge and perception of the world. I plan to use a variety of neuroimaging methods, such as fMRI and sEEG with specific neuropsychological populations, such as adults with cortical blindness as result of a stroke; using these methods, I plan to investigate various processes like object use and recognition, face processing, and visuomotor actions.

Advisor: Brad Mahon

My research focuses on how the brain infers environmental structures and how these inferences shape behavior. I study how learners navigate and make decisions in uncertain environments, with a particular emphasis on sequential learning.

Advisors: Jonathan (JT) Tsay & Tim Verstynen

Broadly, I am interested in mind-body interventions and protective biopsychosocial factors that aid in positive health outcomes in populations coping with chronic health conditions. More specifically, I am interested in the mind-gut connection and investigating interventions (i.e., mindfulness meditation) and factors (i.e., emotional validation) that can improve well-being in patients with gastrointestinal disorders.

Advisor: David Creswell