October 16, 2026 | Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Jun Yan, Statistics

Title of Project: Brain functional connectivity and Alzheimer's disease

Brain functional connectivity changes significantly from normal cognition to dementia. Early Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects brain function, making fMRI data valuable for early detection. This proposal aims to understand AD-related brain connectivity changes by: 1) Developing a deep learning framework to detect abnormal connectivity; 2) Exploring links between brain network differences and traits; and 3) Assessing connectivity changes and biomarkers. Statistical innovation will be applied to an existing dataset in collaboration with Dr. Panpan Zhang of Vanderbilt University.

Xiaojing Wang, Statistics

Title of Project: Fusion of Bayesian Statistics and Network Analytics to Understand Brain Function

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as the leading cause of dementia, brings many challenges to quality of life and economics to the community, especially the aging community. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a promising biomarker for AD detection. In this project, we will develop novel, robust and interpretable Bayesian methods to reduce the impact of the noise on fMRI data and thus to improve the accuracy of functional brain networks learned from the data. The work will help associate the network-based predictors more precisely with cognitive biomarkers of AD and will make significant modeling advancement in AD.

Shengyun Gu, Linguistics

Title of Project: Processing iconicity: Insights from signing and non-signing minds

This study addresses two overarching questions regarding sign language linguistics and deaf cognition. First, how does the notion of iconicity (i.e., resemblance between form and meaning) possibly interact with a linguistic process called “weak hand drop” (i.e., a 1-handed realization of a 2-handed sign) in a deaf sign language? Second, whether and how deaf eyes may differ from hearing eyes in their perception of iconicity, as a result of knowing the sign language under consideration.

Flora Oswald, Psychological Sciences

Title of Project: Tracking Visual Attention to Environmental Signals of Belonging

Marginalized individuals often experience social identity threat, or concern about how they will be treated based on their marginalized identity, which is linked to downstream health disparities. Environmental cues, such as lacking representation, can activate this threat; conversely, cues indicating belonging – like a rainbow flag – can mitigate these detrimental effects. Our research uses eye-tracking technology to understand how marginalized individuals visually attend to environmental safety cues, highlighting the cognitive processing mechanisms underlying minority health disparities.

Natale Sciolino, Physiology and Neurobiology

Title of Project: Effects of in vivo endocannabinoid signaling in the locus coeruleus region during stress

It is well known that stress activates norepinephrine-containing neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC) to promote anxiety-like responses. However, the molecular mechanisms that terminate the effects of stress are unclear. Using viral-genetic targeting strategies, neurotransmitter sensing, slice electrophysiology, pharmacology, and behavior, we will uncover a role for endogenous cannabinoid (eCB) signaling in modulating LC activity and stress-induced responses. Our research will provide key insight into the neural mechanisms that curtail stress and anxiety-like responses.

Gayle Edelstein, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: My current research focuses on drug development studies using animal models of effort-based choice. This includes assessing the effects of the dopamine (DA) D3 partial agonist, aripiprazole, on effort-based choice
tasks in male and female rats and in mice. DA D3 partial agonists have become a central focus in studies targeting multiple psychiatric disorders, and aripiprazole is being tested for its ability to reverse the effort- related effects of tetrabenazine (TBZ) and increase selection of high effort actions. I also have been testing drugs that have actions on various monoamine transporters (serotonin transporter, SERT; norepinephrine transporter, NET; DA transporter, DAT), and assessing their abilities to reverse the effort-related effects of TBZ. My results show that drugs with the highest affinity for DAT and NET are the most effective in reversing the effort-related motivational effects of TBZ. Compounds with the highest affinity for SERT ineffective, consistent with clinical studies illustrating the limitations of SERT inhibitors for the treatment of depression. In parallel, I am conducting neurochemical studies with microdialysis to compare the extracellular levels of
the monoamines after injections of these drugs. This line of research crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries, blending methods and scholarly activity from multiple fields (i.e., psychiatry, behavioral/cognitive sciences, neurochemistry), with the ultimate goal of developing novel treatments.

Meara Geraty, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: I will investigate the physiological and psychological effects of collective political events and how attending such events impacts group cohesion, support for violence, sense of meaning and belonging, and political attitudes. The project will have important implications for issues of political polarization and politically-motivated violence by helping us understand the role of high-arousal collective events in fomenting support for violence or violent behavior, such as that that occurred on January 6, 2021. It will also explore what draws individuals to these collective events in the first place, specifically by investigating whether attendance facilitates a sense of belonging or meaning. The research will combine classical anthropological theory, political science, psychology, and cognitive science. We will gather physiological measures and survey data in a naturalistic field setting, bringing psychological methods to bear on anthropological theories, and doing so in a context which has never been examined in this way: political events. My coursework at UConn in anthropological and sociological theory, non-linear dynamical processes, cognitive science, and statistics has and will continue to prepare me for this project by giving me the theoretical and methodologies tools necessary for such interdisciplinary research.

Michael Lehane, Pharmacy

Current Research: Although we have shown that (2R,6R)-Hydroxynorketamine attenuates withdrawal-like behaviors, the brain regions and cell types that mediate the therapeutic response of HNK during opioid withdrawal remain unknown. Further, it is unclear if HNK produces a unique effect on neural activity compared to ketamine during opioid withdrawal. To address this knowledge gap, I am measuring brain c-Fos expression (a marker of neural plasticity) in oxycodone-dependent mice treated with saline, HNK, or ketamine prior to precipitated withdrawal. I hypothesize that brain regions in the extended amygdala (central amygdala (CeA) and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST)) will be significantly affected by HNK and ketamine. In my preliminary data, I have found that HNK and ketamine decreased c-Fos expression in the oval nucleus of the BNST and periaqueductal gray, while no changes were observed in the central amygdala. In ongoing experiments, I am analyzing c-Fos expression in other brain regions and subregions associated with OUD and withdrawal.

Antonio Reck, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: I am analyzing data from follow-up studies to my master’s thesis project, which I will submit for publication within the next month. The thesis focuses on the anti-pruritic, or itch-reducing, properties of cannabinoids and the underlying mechanisms. I have taken a behavioral pharmacology-based approach to systematically determine compounds effective at reducing experimentally-induced scratching, without psychotropic cannabimimetic side effects. I am also using my prior knowledge of programming, with the assistance of our collaborator Dr. David Siderovski, to develop an automated tracking system for mouse scratching. My dissertation research will build on my recent discovery that regulators of signaling proteins (RGS) mediate the development of surgically-induced neuropathic pain. Using an in-house bred mouseline of RGS12 constitutive deficiency, I aim to characterize differences in nociception and neuropathic pain
development following nerve injury compared to wildtype mice. Additionally, KOR agonists will be used to determine if RGS12 loss has altered KOR sensitivity. I will use my background in animal behavior, coupled with the training I’ve received at UConn in pharmacology, molecular biology, and data analysis, to further characterize the underlying mechanisms of these pain conditions. Support from IBACS will give me the opportunity to receive training in cell culture,
Western blotting, and other biochemical techniques that will aid in my dissertation research.

Naomi Sellers, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: My current work is a continuation of the study I presented at Psychonomics. I am digging into how the effect of sentence predictability differs across individuals as there are wide variations in the behavioral (probe word response) data and pupil dilation data that seem to be related in interesting ways. We also have explicit prediction data from these participants that I want to use to characterize participants as high or low context users based off the types of predictions they make, how semantically similar they are to the actual word, and how similar they are to the average responses. If there is a distinction between high and low context users, I would want to see if high context users also demonstrate larger sentence predictability effects on probe word accuracy and on pupil dilations compared to low context users. This work connects work in the speech sciences and psycholinguistic domains most. This work additionally connects to the clinical domain where researchers have been examining of the effects noise has on speech processing, particularly for older adults and people with hearing loss. Moreover, I want to look at the effects of sentence predictability in individuals with aphasia by collaborating with those in the SLHS department, extending its interdisciplinary nature.

Afshin Seyednejad, Pharmacy

Current Research: Cocaine use causes persistent neuroadaptive changes that are mediated, in part, by epigenetic factors. While much research has focused on the roles of post-translational modifications in substance use disorder (SUD) models, RNA modifications have received little attention. Over 170 RNA post-transcriptional modifications (rPTMs) exist, impacting stability, localization, and abundance of RNA. Antibody-based methods have been used to link rPTMs to SUD, but these methods are indirect and prone to nonspecific
binding. Mass spectrometry (MS), while direct and comprehensive, has not been applied in SUD models. Recently, Dr. Fabris developed a novel MS-based approach for mapping rPTMs. Our newly generated data shows that multiple rPTMs are altered in a sex-dependent manner in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) 24 h after repeated but not acute cocaine administration. Expanding on these results, we propose to identify cocaine-induced rPTMs in NAc and dorsal striatum (DS) and at multiple timepoints (2 h, 24 h, and 7 d) following acute and repeated cocaine injections and following intravenous cocaine self-administration. Also, to explore receptor signaling cascades involved in cocaine- induced plasticity, we aim to stimulate dopamine receptor subtypes, AMPA receptors, or TrkB receptors in primary neurons and measure time-dependent rPTMs changes. The data will reveal the rPTMs with the
most significant temporal variations, warranting further mechanistic insight by a full-fledged R01 grant.

Emma Wing, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: Typicality is a dominating factor in psycholinguistic research which, based on my prior offline experiments, appears to be influenced by phrase type (VP/TP/CP). My current project uses an online measure, eye tracking in the Visual World Paradigm, to examine the effect of linguistic structure on typical object concepts during processing. Linguists more often test offline effects, whereas psycholinguists test online effects. Thus, examining the relation between offline and online effects of phrase type on typicality effects will support bridging the divide between the fields. Typicality effects have a strong influence on conceptual representations activated during processing. For example, when reading the word CHAIR, the default concept activated is a typical chair: intact, perhaps wooden with a high back. My findings suggest phrase type (VP/TP/CP) determines the extent to which typical object features are activated during processing: morphemes in VP have a wider range of effects on typical object features than TP, from defaulting to only typical object features to exclusively activating atypical object features. This project aims to test at which point in the sentence particular morphemes reduce typicality effects and to what extent. I will track participants’ eye movements while they view images of objects in more and less typical states and hear sentences manipulating VP, TP, and CP morphemes. This work will map out interactions that are crucial for my proposed research.

Akinlaja Yetunde, Physiology & Neurobiology

Current Research: My current objective is to understand the role of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) beyond myelination in modifying neuron-OPC synapses when neurons are in a hyperexcitable state. Although OPCs are known to contact neurons and receive synaptic inputs, their function during neuronal hyperexcitability is still unknown. OPCs are known to have glutamate receptors, and research has indicated that NMDAR and AMPAR, two glutamate receptors, are essential for memory consolidation and synaptic plasticity. Additionally, OPCs have been shown to perceive changes in neuronal activity and to engulf synapses
(Kukley et al, 2007, Auguste et al, 2022). While neurons similarly use a lot of oxygen, they also produce a lot of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can cause oxidative stress and malfunctioning of cells. Excessive generation of reactive oxygen species and an increase in neuronal excitability are hallmarks of epilepsy. Multiple systems can be affected by epilepsy, including the release of synaptic vesicles and the balance between excitation and inhibition. My current research aims are to identify the mechanisms via which OPCs modulate excitatory and inhibitory synapses and react to oxidative stress if present during neuronal hyperexcitability. The outcome of the study could reveal a promising target for therapeutic intervention leading to the treatment of epilepsy and seizures.

Month: April 2024

Seed Grant Recipients 2023-2024

2023-2024 Recipients