Megan Chiovaro, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: As a trained beekeeper, I have accumulated an in-depth knowledge of invertebrate social dynamics. Having recently delved into the field of collective intelligence, I see striking parallels between social insects and humans. In my short time here I have become familiar with current work applying models of their behaviors to other fields, such as neuroscience and engineering. With the help of my graduate advisor, Alex Paxton, I am preparing a submission for the 2019 International Conference of Perception and Action (ICPA). We are working to create a symposium on collective behavior and are planning a talk to bridge psychology and ecology, beginning with collective intelligence in honeybees. After submission, I plan to focus on collective behavior as a dynamical system, paying special attention to the individual processes that lead to emergent group-level behavior. I hope to inform the literature of underlying laws and social dynamics that enable their impeccable ability to create emergent whole-hive actions. I am particularly interested in modeling nest-site selection, in which bees must identify suitable hive locations and attempt to convince the rest of the hive to choose it over other sites. Previous research has already established parallels between this phenomena and human neural decision-making processes (Visscher, 2007; Passino et al., 2008). My strong interdisciplinary background in mathematics, dynamics, and ecology will be a great asset for these fields and for IBaCS.

Lana Delasanta, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: The goal of the IBACS Summer Fellowship proposal is to determine the functional neuroanatomical basis of the Neural Resonance Theory (NRT) dynamical systems model by identifying the brain regions involved in neural entrainment to acoustic rhythms. Wasserman et al. (in prep) were able to uncover clear evidence of entrainment of neural oscillations to musical rhythms. Using a model based on the NRT, which consists of two oscillatory neural networks that are predicted to be located in sensory and motor planning brain regions, they demonstrated that model sensory and motor networks together can explain a significant proportion of the variance observed in the collected EEG responses. This experiment utilized 32-channel EEG, however, so the true origins of the EEG responses cannot be identified. My research is extending this paradigm to use 256-channel EEG together with structural MRI scans to localize the sources of activity, testing the functional neuroanatomy of the NRT. Subjects will come into the lab and listen to complex (and simple and randomized controls) rhythms while EEG is recorded and then tap along once they find a steady pulse. Using inverse current models, I expect to show that both motor and auditory regions of the brain become entrained, and that source activity within these regions is predicted by the NRT model. The results of this project will provide pilot data for the resubmission of an R01 grant by Drs. Hancock, Large, and Chen, as well as my NRSA application.

Eleanor Fisk, Human Development & Family Sciences

Current Research: During my first year as a doctoral student in the HDFS department, I have been working with Dr. Caitlin Lombardi exploring topics related to the development of cognitive and behavioral skills over early childhood and the role of children’s early care and education (ECE) experiences. In one project, we are examining how children’s ECE experiences influence the economic and psychological functioning of parents. A large body of existing literature has documented beneficial associations between ECE and children’s development, but links between ECE and parental well-being have received much less attention. Theoretical perspectives suggest that ECE settings that are developmentally supportive and stimulating for children may have significant implications for parents, in terms of employment quality, mental health, stress, and anxiety. Our goal here is to understand how these contextual aspects of children’s early developmental environments may benefit parents in ways that indirectly influence children’s development. This work has been submitted to be presented at the Society for Research on Child Development’s Biennial Meeting in March.

The findings from this work, along with the supervision and collaboration with Dr. Lombardi, who is trained in understanding influences in children’s school readiness skills, will provide a background for this fellowship in which I hope to explore the interconnections between the development of behavioral and cognitive skills over early childhood.

Phillip Frazier, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: My research extends the concept of self-organization to the dynamics of goal-directed action. My question is this: How do organisms assemble their degrees of freedom (DOF) to jointly satisfy goal and task constraints. In one set of studies, I presented students with repeating sequences of L and R arrows, and they responded by pressing the matching key. There are two ways to realize the goal "press matching key": 1) wait for the arrow and then respond; or 2) learn the sequence and respond in anticipation of the arrow. When both options are available, we have a case of "bi-stability," where students switch between modes. Increasing the sequence length makes the first more attractive; decreasing it makes the second more attractive. From the self-organization perspective, the two modes are attractors, and we should see signatures of metastability and criticality in the resulting RT time series. Using the well-established Hurst exponent (H), we can predict changes in long-range correlations and fractal structure. My research has confirmed the above stated hypotheses: on average, the shorter the sequence of L and R arrows, the higher the H. This suggests that goal directedness involves the setting up of attractors which recruit appropriate DOF. My research crosses traditional boundaries by grounding inquiry in self-organization, using tools from statistical physics and dynamical systems, and integrating questions about goals and intentionality with those from movement science.

Cara Hardy, Neuroscience/Center on Aging

Current Research:My work lies at the intersection of neuroscience, aging, and urinary physiology. In animal models, we study the brain-bladder axis in the context of aging to determine if the urinary dysfunction often seen in aged populations is a result of central nervous system failures, failures in the bladder tissue, or a combination of both. Our results are supportive of a new model of urinary dysfunction in which the brain, not the bladder, may be the primary culprit of age-related dysfunction. We will now leverage this new understanding to investigate urinary dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), long presumed to be the result of cognitive dysfunction. Since our findings point to urinary dysfunction being a systemic problem, we hypothesize an AD bladder structural and functional phenotype. This will be my primary work over the next few years as I complete my PhD training. The overlap of molecular investigations in neurodegeneration, bladder physiology, and cognitive neuroscience will provide with an optimal platform from which to launch an interdisciplinary academic research career.

Julianna Herman, Physiology & Neurobiology

Current Research: During my first semester, I began to investigate the effects of in utero neuraminidase injection (intraventricular) on the ependymal lining of the lateral ventricle. Neuraminidase is a major component of the influenza virus that causes loss of ependymal cells. It cleaves the glycosidic linkages binding ependymal cells at the ventricle surface, potentially leading to developmental complications such as hydrocephalus in neonatal mice. To study this further, I will perform intraventricular injection of mouse-adapted influenza virus via in utero injection. With collaboration from Dr. Paulo Verardi’s virology lab in the Department of Pathobiology, neuraminidase and influenza injections will be compared to parse component effects of infection. The brains of affected mice will be assessed following coronal sectioning and analysis of brain tissue using immunohistochemistry in combination with detailed confocal microscopy to identify cellular damage. Simultaneously, I will perform influenza injections into the placenta of mice to more accurately simulate fetal exposure to influenza. This will help to determine how embryonic exposure to mouse-adapted influenza virus impacts brain development of embryonic mice during a mother’s illness, specifically through the interference with the ependyma and stem cell niche at the ventricular surface. Receiving the 2018 IBACS Graduate Fellowship would support my research efforts and help to make my NIH F31 application competitive.

Derek Lee, Physiology & Neurobiology

Current Research: In a Drosophila model of traumatic brain injury (TBI), we mimic administration of the putatively neuroprotective high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (KD) via direct addition of ketone bodies (KBs) to standard high-carbohydrate fly diets. Our initial experiments have shown that KB supplementation exerts significant amelioration of negative behavioral outcomes subsequent to TBI. Specifically, flies subjected to TBI show reduced aggression and improved performance on learning tasks when fed KB-supplemented diets, as compared with Drosophila fed a standard diet. These results suggest that previously-reported neuroprotective properties of an actual KD may be due to the presence of KBs, regardless of carbohydrate concentration. Additionally, we found no difference in basal fly motility under any dietary or head-trauma condition, suggesting that observed behavioral effects may operate through neuroprotection of behaviorally-specific neurocircuitry, as opposed to general lethargy.

Amanda Mankovich, Psychological Sciences

Current Research:During the Spring 2019 semester I will take a novel approach to Dr. Naigles’ Longitudinal Study of Early Language by evaluating the relationship between exploratory play and language. Previously, these videos were coded for language profiles and joint attention episodes. In collaboration with Drs. Naigles and Sheya, I will study what the child and parent are actually doing with their verbal and manual attention during joint attention episodes. The purpose of this project is to explore whether children who engage in more sophisticated types of object play acquire words more quickly. This is potentially evident in comprehension measures (i.e., degree of shape bias) as well as production measures (spontaneous speech, checklist data). And crucially, to what degree is emerging object play a function of the parental input elicited during the play? The data consists of 40 video recorded sessions of mom-child dyads engaged in 30 minutes of free and structured play. Participants include children with autism spectrum disorder and initially language-matched neurotypical children. To evaluate relationships between parent-child lexical organization and sensory-motor behaviors, I will code moment-to-moment parent-child actions on objects, attention and language. Our analysis merges language and social coordination research by comparing temporal sequences of the exploration data to concurrent and subsequent language profiles and joint attention episodes.

Hannah Morrow, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: Much of my work at UConn has focused on how we acquire and use conceptual knowledge. Concepts are integral to almost every aspect of our lives; for almost any task, one needs an understanding of an object, an emotion, a person, or various other "things" that make up our conceptual knowledge. This topic stands at the intersection of developmental, psycholinguistic, clinical, cognitive, and neuroscience research. For example, I am running an EEG experiment looking into the neural dynamics of integrating visual, auditory, and lexical information into a single concept. This cognitive neuroscience project has implications in developmental and clinical domains, as individuals with autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia both struggle with sensory integration, which can impede processes like speech perception, learning, etc. I am also leading a project on the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on cognitive control, with the aim of understanding how different regions of the brain participate in selectively attending to relevant information about a concept in order to achieve a goal. Additionally, I have been involved in an external collaboration with Gary Lupyan at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on how linguistic elements of labels influence how we name objects. This is a project rooted in psycholinguistics, with developmental implications for how we learn and name objects.

Briana Oshiro, Mathematics

Current Research: My research uses interdisciplinary methods and theory from mathematics, education, and cognitive neuroscience to develop applied approaches to teaching problem-solving skills. Recently, applying problem-solving research to the education of children and adults has become increasingly relevant. Improving children’s problem-solving skills is one goal in the Common Core Mathematics Standards, and both the international assessments PIAAC and PISA contain a dedicated problem-solving section on their tests (1, 2, 3). However, only recently have neuroimaging methods been applied to problem-solving research, and my study seeks to integrate these methods with the theories in existing problem-solving literature.

Robert Pijewski, Neuroscience

Current Research: My current research at UConn Health is elucidating the bioenergetic function of neural progenitor cells derived from patients with multiple sclerosis. More specifically, I am identifying salient characteristics of mitochondrial morphology and function as a way to identify causes of downstream glial pathology. The objective of my work is to understand how disease-related changes in cellular metabolism lead to glial pathology in the CNS. I will use MS patient-derived iPS cells, differentiate these into neural progenitor cells and study the how perturbed metabolism in these NPCs affects glia differentiation. My current work is to explore findings our lab has recently reported that patient iPS-derived cells fundamentally differ from age-matched controls..

Over the next six months, I am refining the experimental methods to isolate and study mitochondria from these patient-derived cells. Mitochondria have become a focus in our lab because previous research has shown that NPCs from MS patients exhibit a unique cellular aging phenotype called cellular senescence. My research proposal is aimed to characterize the morphological, functional, and genetic differences in mitochondria from patient-derived NPCs.

Kasey Smith, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: In the next 6 months, I will collaborate on an interdisciplinary project with advisors James Chrobak, Heather Read, and Monty Escabi to examine and unify theories of vocalization sequence perception and short-term memory. My first goal is to complete and submit our current study to J Neuroscience. In Jan. 2019, we will begin a study examining discrimination of species-specific vocalization sequences. Markus Wohr (Seffer et al., 2014) found rats classify prosocial and pup calls, but these studies have not determined brain mechanisms, perceptual resolution, or short-term memory dependence for this ability. We will train rats and quantify how perceptual discrimination varies with timing and number of vocalizations in a sequence. The Brain Computer Interface (BCI) core will calibrate, deliver and monitor the vocalizations which are inaudible to humans. Starting in May, we will implant intracranial μECoG arrays in trained rats on an IACUC protocol (Escabi, Read et al., 2014). The BCI core can record 300 channels from the arrays in awake-behaving rats (Insanally et al., J Neural Eng 2016). We will record sound-evoked potentials to examine the hypothesis that categorical perception of vocalization sequences varies with alignment with intrinsic brain oscillations and onset of sounds. I will submit the study to the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 2019 conference (aro.org) and will use the pilot data to apply for a federal pre-doctoral National Research Service Award.

Preeti Srinivasan, Communication

Current Research: I am investigating attentional patterns via eye-tracking to test how news stimuli presented using three different formats (text, video, video with text) on social media differ and whether this can affect learning outcomes. I am also examining the effects of cognitive processes such as elaboration (using a thought-listing task), engagement (willingness and actual engagement), and need for cognition, on learning (recognition and recall). The study uses a mixed methods approach wherein participants first answer questions about their general social media news consumption, and then engage with one of six news stories [2(story type: Science, Health) X 2(presentation: text, video, video with text)]. Participants will then be shown a video clip of their attentional patterns and asked to reflect on their experience (qualitative interviews). In line with past literature, we anticipate that mode of presentation will affect attention such that text (text only and text in the video with text condition) elicits greater attention than videos and graphics. Using principles from traditional Cognitive Science and Human-Computer interaction, the study seeks to answer the research question on how modality affects learning outcomes. Further, we intend to tease apart differences between intentions and actual engagement, using the qualitative interviews. This experiment should help us shed light on attentional processes and their impacts on various stages of information processing.

Vivi Tecoulesco, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: Next semester I will collecting ABR pilot data for an NSF grant submission by Emily Myers and Erika Skoe. I am again doing cross-disciplinary work with SLHS now investigating categorical perception. I will also be collecting data for a project examining the relationship between ABR specificity and semantics in adults. This is an investigation of the degree to which early neural encoding of speech by the brainstem has a cascading effect on phonology and lexical semantics. I will be recording ABRs to three speech sounds (/da/, /ba/, and /ga/) and analyzing how specific the responses are for the three sounds, that is how distinctly the brainstem encodes these three sounds, and how much the neural encoding of these sounds overlaps. Individual differences in ABR specificity will then be related to phonological discrimination ability and vocabulary size. I will also be designing and producing the stimuli and test measures for my F31submission (see below) which will also be my dissertation project. I would like to start collecting pilot data in the summer. Smaller projects I am working on include studying morphological skills in children with ASD via a Wug test, and analyzing the spectral content of ABRs to speech sounds in children with ASD. My work attempts to cross boundaries by bringing the gap between the earliest neural encoding of speech and higher order language outcomes.

Jen-Hau Yang, Psychological Sciences

Current Research:Using the established mouse touchscreen paradigm, I will be investigating the role of the vesicular monoamine transport 2 (VMAT-2) gene in motivated behavior. VMAT-2 is a crucial protein that transports monoamines, especially DA, into synaptic vesicles. Previous studies from our lab have shown that rats treated with VMAT-2 inhibitor tetrabenazine (TBZ) showed a low-effort bias. Specifically, they shift their preference from lever-pressing for preferred food pellets to eating less preferred but concurrently available lab chow. The current project aims to examine the effects of TBZ on well-trained C57/BL6 mice performing touchscreen effort-related choice paradigm. Additionally, genetically altered mice with higher or lower VMAT-2 gene expression will be tested on various ratio requirements (the number of PPs needed for preferred milkshake reward). It is hypothesized that a motivational impairment will be induced by TBZ, and also will be seen in mice with lower VMAT-2 expression, particularly when the work requirement of the schedule is high. In other words, mice with limited VMAT-2 activity will show a shift in preference from PP to PI compared with vehicle treated or wild-type mice, respectively. This project may have significance for cross-species validation and translational research. More importantly, by combining pharmacological and genetic studies, our work sheds light on the relation between cognitive sciences and the neural basis of motivational pathologies.

Sumbleen Ali, Human Development and Family Studies

Current Research: I plan to investigate the neurobiology of interpersonal relationships looking at the brain’s functioning using fMRI. The research stems from Panksepp’s (1998) argument that brain mechanisms of distress in interpersonal relationships evolved from pain mechanisms of the brain. His argument was supported by Eisenberger (2003) who showed social rejection is painful and not a mere metaphor. She demonstrated an overlap in the neural circuitry involved in processing pain following both social rejection and physical pain. Currently, it is unknown if adults’ remembrances of parental acceptance-rejection in childhood may have piggybacked onto the threshold of the physical-pain system as well as onto sensitivity to social rejection in adulthood.

Given this void in information, my research proposes to investigate if differences exist in the neural correlates of social pain among young adults who remember having been rejected vs accepted (loved) by their parents in childhood. Results of this research will provide important information about the extent to which remembered childhood rejection influences brain functioning. Also adults who remember having been rejected as children tend to be more sensitive to possible interpersonal rejection than those who remember having been accepted. This research will also examine the extent to which rejection sensitivity is associated with brain functioning. The interdisciplinary nature of this research involves bridging family science and neurobiology.

Lauren Bryant, Psychology

Current Research: My dissertation focuses on the development of executive function (EF; higher-order processes that govern cognition and behavior) during early childhood. EFs are linked to numerous optimal outcomes, including school readiness and academic achievement. Existing research suggests that EFs with/without motivational components (whether children receive a reward based on performance) have different childhood outcomes and rely on different neural pathways. However, due to confounds in the existing methodology, it is not possible distinguish the effects of motivation and different task demands (e.g., language) on children's EF and/or associated outcomes. Furthermore, this work has largely ignored temperament (biologically-based individual differences in self-regulation), which varies with children's approach behaviors and sensitivity to reward. To better understand environmental and biological factors that underlie variations in child EF, I will investigate associations between EF, temperament, and reward by administering two comparable versions of the same Stroop-like task (i.e., with and without performance-contingent reward) and parent-report temperament measures. These methods will be drawn from the existing adult and animal literature on associations between reward, cognition, and behavior. Thus, my study will integrate developmental, cognitive, and emotional/motivational approaches to characterize associations between EF, motivation, and temperament with improved methodology.

Sarah Camera, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

Current Research:Currently, we are in the manuscript preparation stage of this project. While maintaining a full AuD course load and teaching, I've been writing a paper regarding the impact of noise exposure on noise tolerance, which will be submitted for review over winter break. I also have a co-authored paper in review currently. Next Spring, I will be finishing my AuD requirements and therefore not have much time to devote to research, but will be presenting at the American Academy of Audiology conference and meeting regularly with my advisor to review more literature and further develop ideas for the proposed research below. I hope to formalize it with support from the IBACS summer fellowship, begin pilot data collection in Fall 2018, and submit my grant application for the Dec. 8 winter deadline. Because I am concurrently pursuing an AuD and PhD, Fall 2018 is the first semester that I can fully focus my efforts on research, though I will be a 4th year grad student. While working on clinical doctorate requirements has slowed my research progress, I strongly believe that my audiology background allows me a valuable perspective on the intersection of clinical practice and basic hearing research that will strengthen my research with relevant and informative questions that will bridge these two professional worlds. Because my proposed project focuses on subclinical changes, I also may consider my research questions in terms of public health and obtain training in that discipline.

Kirsty Coulter, Psychology

Current Research: My interests lie in considering interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and improving outcomes in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While intervention work primarily focuses on the behavioral presentation of ASD, considering the mechanisms underlying that behavior may help us to identify subgroups within ASD and provide more individualized treatment.

Ben De Bari, Psychology

Current Research:I am continuing my work with the Physical Intelligence Lab, primarily furthering the investigation of a chemical dissipative system. I am working to understand the constraints and conditions leading to self-organization phenomena, and consequent behavioral modes, of a camphor-water system. In addition to this research project, I intend to build on the successes in utilizing the electrodynamic non-equilibrium system, as pioneered by James Dixon and Bruce Kay. In particular, I would like to continue the line of research investigating learning phenomena in non-equilibrium systems. These projects require utilization of ideas from thermodynamics, chemistry, biology, and psychology, integrating them into a non-traditional interdisciplinary methodology.

Zak Ekves, Psychology

Current Research: My current research plan is focused on further exploring the role of neural regions associated with episodic memory in the processing of events. My previous analyses have shown that when processing sentences that introduce a new object into the discourse ("He will chop the onion and then weigh another onion"), there is increased connectivity between regions in the left inferior frontal gyrus and hippocampus, compared to sentences that refer back to previously instantiated objects ("He will chop the onion and then weigh the onion"). I intend to conduct an equivalent experiment in the visual domain. This project will be relevant to two related bodies of literature. First, it’s suggested that the hippocampus is functionally divided along the anterior-posterior axis, such that anterior portions are biased towards more global, abstract representation while posterior regions are biased towards local representation (e.g. Poppenk et al., 2013). I predict that processing in language will recruit more anterior portions of the hippocampus (related to more abstract representation), while visual processing will recruit more posterior portions (related to more specified, fine-grained, local representation). Second, by comparing neural activation and connectivity across analogous visual and language event processing tasks, I will be able to tease apart which neural responses are correlates of event cognition proper, as opposed those in one particular domain.

Martin Flament-Fultot, Psychology

Current Research: One of the main areas of research in the philosophy of mind is intentionality. Current work in tensegrity robotics is partially addressing this topic by studying goal-directed locomotion. But intentionality is best manifested when systems entertain more than one goal and must flexibly accommodate their priorities. This happens in supra postural tasks, where an individual must do something, e.g. with their hands, while keeping their upright posture in balance. Limb movements alter the overall balance, but the balance must support the limb movements. My research focuses on embedding participants in force fields under supra postural tasks in order to analyze the kinematics of how participants control their entire posture while keeping their center of mass over their base of support. Degrees of freedom are expected to be organized by soft assembled patterns of mutual constraint. To assess the nature of these neuro-muscular soft assemblies, I am also further developing the virtual tensegrity model by designing neural networks with the help of genetic algorithms. The purpose of genetic algorithms is to efficiently explore the parameter space (e.g. the coupling matrix) of the network so as to reproduce dynamics equivalent to those observed in humans during postural tasks (e.g. ankle to hip strategy transitions for balance). Genetic algorithms can also help extract non-obvious, higher-order information from the state of the mechanical system that could be exploited efficiently.

Pam Fuhrmeister, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

Current Research: My current and upcoming work builds on themes from my previous work and additionally seeks to determine some of the sources of individual variability that is so frequently observed in phonetic learning studies. One study in progress looks at a wider age range of individuals in phonetic learning, including children (10-17 years). In this study, we want to explore critical period effects in perceptual learning of speech sounds and whether the same skills that facilitate speech sound learning in adulthood also predict successful learning in children. This project draws from developmental psychology and clinical speech literature, as some of the measures we are using have been implicated in language and reading disorders. In an upcoming project, we will establish whether structural brain differences (using voxel-based morphometry) and individual differences in structural connectivity (using DTI) predict overnight improvement in phonetic learning or differences in how native-language speech sounds are perceived (e.g., how “categorical” an individual’s perception is). Because previous work found differences in brain morphology in expert phoneticians, we expect that similar differences may also explain the vast individual variability typically observed in phonetic learning studies. As described in the proposed research section, my dissertation will determine the neural bases of generalization in phonetic learning using fMRI and will then validate this by testing people with aphasia.

Kyra Krass, Psychology

Current Research: I am currently investigating which object states are activated in the brain when hearing various events containing object state change. I have run the behavioral portion of an fMRI study. We administer an associative learning task to our participants over two days, and on day three, they perform a priming task. Our goal is to have participants learn pairs of objects states with faces and houses. For example, they would learn that a chopped onion is associated with faces and an intact onion is associated with houses. When placed in the scanner, we hope to distinguish between the object states activated given that they are now paired with distinct brain areas. Participants will hear sentences in three different conditions: 1) The woman will weigh the onion. 2) The woman will chop the onion. 3) The woman will weigh the chopped onion. We predict that individuals will activate an intact onion when hearing weigh, an intact and chopped onion when hearing chop, and a chopped onion when hearing weigh the chopped onion. My second line of research I will submit for a grant. I am interested in determining what individual difference measures can predict performance in a visual world task. We will use tasks that measure executive functioning (EF), and we will test monolingual and bilingual individuals to see if EF or second language knowledge are measures that can account for differences in performance on a visual world task. This research merges linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience.

Timothy McKay, Human Development and Family Studies

Current Research: I am currently working under the supervision of Dr. Ryan Watson in exploring topics relevant to minority stress in LGBTQ populations. Specifically, I am studying the impact of gender minority stress in transgender and gender nonconforming individuals (TGNC) as it relates to their cognitive processes and mental health. Specifically, I will be examining rates of depression and substance use in reference to cognition (i.e., decision-making) and degree of gender identity disclosure to family and friends in TGNC populations. Recently, I was accepted to present a poster with Dr. Watson at the American Educational Research Association Conference in April, 2018. I will be presenting trends and disparities in school-based mental health behavior between LGBT and heterosexual student populations in British Columbia, CA. The data examined within our poster presentation is also referenced in a paper that I recently co-authored with Dr. Watson titled: Mental health issues among lesbian, gay and bisexual adolescents: Changing inequalities in Canada, which is currently under review for publication in a leading LGBTQ-focused journal. I am also a funded research assistant on a national LGBTQ Teen Youth Study where I am responsible for managing, analyzing, and tracking data use and ongoing manuscripts. The findings from my work on the LGBTQ teen youth study, along with supervision and collaboration with Dr. Watson, have been instrumental in preparing me for this fellowship.

Natali Naveh, Molecular and Cellular Biology

Current Research: The formation of spines on neuronal dendrites in early development has been linked to learning and memory retention. In the Cux2-null neurons, Xlr3b and Xlr4b were found to be upregulated and, upon introduction of an Xlr shRNA, the phenotype was rescued. In other cell types, Satb1 and Xlr3 were observed to co-localize. This may suggest a role for Xlr3b to act with Satb1 in a Cux2-regulated pathway to mediate the regulation of dendrite spine growth. This phenotype, or Xlr3’s function may contribute to behavioral phenotypes related to those observed in TS. Firstly, Golgi Cox staining will be performed to examine dendrite branching in the context of the Xlr3 knock down. Secondly, as TS is accompanied by poor reversal learning and social cognition, the contribution of Xlr3b to mouse behavior, including these phenotypes, will be determined. This will be carried out with the assistance of the University of Connecticut Murine Behavioral Neurogenetics Facility (MBNF) to test for social and repetitive behaviors. Transgenic males and XMO TS females will be tested, as these groups show elevated Xlr3b expression, worse social cognition, and worse reversal learning compared to wild type females. Lastly, as Xlr3b expression is higher in neonates compared to adults, performing RNA-seq on brains from P0 and adult mice will help identify genes with which Xlr3 interacts or for which Xlr3 may affect regulation respectively.

Emma Nguyen, Linguistics

Current Research: The goal of my current research is to leverage P600 satiation to test syntactic theories. My previous research has shown that satiation does not occur when there are multiple violations that are categorically distinct from each other at both a grammatical and sentence processing level. The next step is to test violations that are distinct at a grammatical level, but are similar at the level of sentence processing (both first-pass dynamics and reanalysis). By holding sentence processing properties constant, we can ask how similar violations must be at a grammatical level to induce satiation.

In the next set of experiments, I will systematically manipulate the syntactic similarity of the violations, while holding sentence processing properties as constant as possible. For example, the first experiment will compare two violations that differ at a very fine-grained syntactic level, but share many sentence processing properties (both are island violations, both are embedded questions, both occur at clause boundaries, both involve wh-items, etc.)

(1) Wh-island: *What do you wonder [who read]?
(2) Weather-island: *What do you wonder [whether Mary read]?

In future experiments, we will test violations that differ more substantially at a syntactic level (such as whether islands versus complex noun-phrase islands), until we fully characterize the level of similarity that satiation requires. We can then compare the resulting patterns to specific claims in syntactic theories.

Emily Peters, Psychology

Current Research: My research is interdisciplinary in nature, in that it combines methods in order to answer questions in the fields of neurobiology of language, cognitive science, behavioral neuroscience, and translational clinical research. In addition, findings can translate across research and clinical domains.

My current research at UConn explores the relationship between language processing, social cognition, and social functioning outcomes in schizophrenia. I am investigating the hypothesis that social cognitive deficits develop through a neurologically-based language processing impairment, and that deficits in social cognition lead to social withdrawal and impairment in schizophrenia. My master's thesis project combines a TMS-EEG paradigm with neuropsychological testing to explore both the neurological bases of language processing and functional outcomes associated with impairments. Participants are recruited from a local Intensive Outpatient Program.

This project aims to demonstrate that social functioning and social cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are related to impairments in language processing. If language processing impairments in the brain are related to functional outcomes, then it will be important to examine the relatedness of these symptoms through the development of schizophrenia. In addition, a better understanding of impairments in sz may offer new ideas for future interventions, such as targeting language processing as a method of improving social functioning.

Adam Rainear, Communication

Current Research: Most of my current research has examined how humans interact with new communication technologies when risks are communicated through these tools. Our early research indicates that when being provided a risk message, robotic platforms may cause individuals to retain less information and may be no more or less effective than traditional media platforms. Our most recent robot data collection led to a brief presentation at the American Meteorological Society Conference, and a top paper award at the National Communication Association. In the coming months, we plan to further explore the measured variables to understand how involvement, credibility judgements, or feelings of mediated presence may influence outcomes and behavior (among others). Moving forward, I hope to continue to connect both physical and social science by exploring the relationships between using new technology to communicate and understanding how these platforms may influence individual information processing and decision-making. My experience in last summer’s IBACS workshop was the most useful experience of my graduate career, having taken an idea in my head and turning it into an external grant proposal in only 4 months. While the first proposal was not funded, the agency offered me an opportunity to revise the submission, and there are hopes of utilizing this smaller developmental money to springboard the idea into a larger future grant.

Elizabeth Simmons, Psychology

Current Research: I am currently engaged in several studies; below are the ones most germane to the IBACS mission.

Project 1: Hyperlexia. With Drs. Magnuson (Cognitive Psychology), Eigsti (Clinical Psychology), and Grigorenko (Baylor College of Medicine, Genetics) we are evaluating the neural correlates of reading ability in typically developing children and those with ASD with and without hyperlexia (precocious decoding ability). We hypothesize that unusual patterns of cognitive and social development in ASD result, in part, from atypical connectivity between brain areas supporting various functions and reward circuitry. This study uses a combination of neurophysiological methods (fMRI), behavioral methods (eye tracking, clinical assessment) along with collection of genetic information to better understand this complex disorder.

Project 2: The development of fine-grained spoken word recognition. I plan to downward extend my master’s thesis work evaluating spoken word recognition in preschool children to a younger group (infants and toddlers). This will likely require a faculty member from developmental psychology (potentially Drs. Sheya or Suanda) and child language expert (Dr. Rhea Paul, Sacred Heart University, Speech-Language Pathology) in order to ensure our tasks are appropriate for infants and toddlers. We will also begin to investigate how very young children learn words that compete, phonologically and semantically, using an artificial lexicon task and eye tracking.

Charles Wasserman, Psychology

Current Research: Currently, I have just completed an EEG study looking a beat-perception in complex rhythms (this will be my Masters thesis work). This work uses 32 channel EEG (and additional EMG) along with behavioral tasks in order to look at behavioral and electrophysiological responses to complex musical rhythms. It is possible to create a rhythm with no spectral energy at the pulse frequency by manipulating the number of events that occur anti-phase (180°) versus in-phase (0°) with the basic rhythmic cycle. Dynamical analysis predicts neural oscillation will emerge at such a “missing” pulse frequency. The current experiment utilized four different rhythms of varying complexity (1 simple, 2 complex, and 1 random). Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of the Hilbert envelope showed energy at the repetition frequency (2Hz) for the simple rhythm, but no spectral energy at the missing pulse frequency (2Hz) for the complex rhythms. EEG responses to these stimuli were recorded to look for the neural oscillations and power modulations at the missing pulse frequency predicted by dynamical analysis. We have found evidence of a 2Hz response in the EEG to missing pulse rhythms. These data support the theory that rhythmic synchrony occurs as the result of an emergent population oscillation that entrains at this particular frequency.

Emily Wyckoff, Psychology

Current Research: I am developing manuscripts for my thesis and research previously presented at conferences and am on target to submit several manuscripts within the next six months on topics related to accuracy of self-reported weight, the home environment (i.e. chaos and foods in the home), weight suppression as a predictor of weight loss treatment outcomes, and qualitative research on diabetes management. Additionally, as a graduate research assistant at Yale University, in addition to clinical treatment and assessment of patients with Binge Eating Disorder (BED), I am collaborating with Dr. Carlos Grillo (Psychiatry) and colleagues on a manuscript examining clinical characteristics of patients with BED. I am also currently a graduate assistant for a NIH funded weight loss maintenance trial (PI Tricia Leahey, Allied Health Sciences) and am spearheading development of intervention content for an online weight loss program. With my advisor (Amy Gorin), I am working to obtain seed funding to add measures to the weight loss maintenance trial which would further examine the influence of executive functioning and the home environment on weight loss maintenance and allow us to test Temporal Self-Regulation Theory in the context of weight loss maintenance. The proposed research below builds on research proposals for which I received the APAGS/ Psi Chi Junior Scientist Fellowship, the Christine N. Witzel Award, and honorable mention for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Xiao Yang, Psychology

Current Research: Currently, I am working on applying graph theory on resting state MRI data analysis. Specifically, I am utilizing hierarchical clustering algorithm (average linkage method) for resting MRI data analysis to study the functional connectivity changes in reading network and language network in aphasia patients after treatment. Extending upon my machine learning project, I am also using a machine learning algorithm called multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to identify brain regions that can be used as a biomarker to differentiate optimal and less effective speech treatment.

Alexandria Battison, Physiology & Neurobiology

Current Research:  My research fits into IBaCS mission as it is inherently interdisciplinary; combining neuroscience experimental methods with mathematical and computer programming analysis methods. I was fortunate during my undergraduate career to have an interdisciplinary background, and my goal for my graduate work is to continue to bring engineering and physics into my neuroscience dissertation research. Most of my analysis work is taken from biomedical engineering and math and is applied to analyzing cortical firing patterns. I hope to push my research forward and continue to optimize my experimental methods in a way that will pull from physics and engineering.

Mary Baumgartner, Physiology & Neurobiology

Current Research: At its core, my research is focused on understanding the molecular regulatory programs underlying normal cortical development and cortical function. As a result, my research project is intrinsically interdisciplinary, spanning the fields of molecular biology, developmental biology, neuroscience, and behavioral sciences, and initiating extensive collaborations both within and between departments is necessary to answer the questions at the heart of my project. In addition to the broad range of approaches I am employing, a key resource at my disposal is a conditional knockout mouse line, in which I can target a minor spliceosome component for removal in specific tissues. Using this mouse line, I can separately parse out how minor splicing informs cortical development, and how this altered development impacts cortical function, and how minor splicing regulates the function of mature neurons. Subsequent use of comprehensive behavioral testing paradigms can then be used to elucidate whether the functions of specific cortical regions/circuits, such as those underlying attention and motor activity, are differentially sensitive to shifts in minor splicing-controlled gene expression.

Pietro Cerrone, Linguistics

Current Research: I conceive my interests in theoretical and experimental Morphology and its interfaces as a part of Cognitive Science. My ultimate goal is to contribute to the understanding of the language faculty and its processing, which requires interdisciplinary work, in particular, with cognitive psychologists and speech perception scientists, and, in general, with scholars whose research deals with how the human brain represents and processes language. I am currently involved in an speech perception and production project with Andrea Calabrese whose goal is to understand how English monolinguals categorize speech sounds of Polish and how they produce them.

Jessicas Contreras, Psychology

Current Research: Jessica is a deaf 1st year doctoral student in developmental psychology. She is interested in neurodiversity and how american sign language contribute to cognitive devopment. She is interesting in how language experience shape cognitive systems such as executive function and number development.

Ashley Dhaim, Psychology

Current Research: My research is focused on how action in a social context promotes the creation of a social coordination between individuals. I'm interested in how these dynamics change with experience and development between the ages of 3 and 10 years old and what implications they have on the development of higher level social cognition.

Akie Fujita, Biomedical Engineering & Physiology and Neurobiology

Current Research: My project is directed at characterizing the functional properties of a population of inhibitory neurons in the lateral hypothalamic area. These neurons have been implicated in the control of arousal, reward and feeding but their cellular and circuit-level properties are poorly understood.  Using a combination of electrophysiology, neuroanatomy, optogenetics and behavioral techniques, I will take a multidisciplinary approach to uncovering their electrical and neuromodulatory signatures, anatomical projections and role in homeostatic behavior.

Ryosuke Hattori, Linguistics

Current Research: This project uses the Intermodal Preferential Looking task on English-learning children, to seek a support for the “parametric” hypothesis, where positive setting of certain abstract parameters is considered to be prerequisite for two or more related constructions. It is my interest to find out if children’s comprehension level on these related constructions correlates with each other.

Lu Li, Mechanical Engineering

Current Research: We propose a 3D spatially heterogeneous neural tissue model of cortical motor neuron disease by co-culturing cortical and spinal motor neurons. We develop a bioprinting approach to precisely assemble neuron encapsulating gel blocks into 3D complex co-culture environment, which will offer an innovative system to study the role of target-derived signal on the development of cortical motor neurons in 3D and develop a better understanding of pathogenic mechanisms and identifying therapeutic targets for cortical motor neuron diseases.

Andre Lindsey, Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences

Current Research: My research is aimed at determining how language interacts with other domains of cognition and to determine how neurological injury affects that interaction. Consistent with the mission IBACS, the goal is a more comprehensive understanding of neurological functioning.

Maurici Lopez-Felip, Psychology

Current Research: My research project focuses on how the context in team sports influences the behavior of actors at both individual and collective-levels. The goals of this project are 1) to develop a model of multi-agent coordination and 2) to use this model to make testable predictions about player performance as it relates to perception-action and cognitive processes.  In a more advanced stage of the project, we will assess the the model's ability to predict catastrophic events (e.g., injuries, collisions, etc.).

Jin Lu, Computer Science and Engineering

Current Research: Schizophrenia and many other mental disorders are associated with impairment of working memory. Recent studies have identified a limited number of regions among which the brain network connectivity modulates working memory. However, other possible regions remain lack of thorough investigation. To build a valid memory model rather than merely correlation analysis, we plan to develop a machine learning approach to analyze brain network connectivity in individuals under different states (rest, n-back) by integrative modeling of fMRI images, EEG signals and cognitive survey variables.

Monica Ly, Psychology

Current Research: My current and proposed research would bridge clinical psychology and neuroscience, two fields that would gain tremendously from interaction rather than separation. By conducting this translational research, I hope to help set the groundwork for future research using simultaneous EEG-fMRI in topics that were previously limited by the incomplete neural picture provided by a single technique alone. The direct results of this work will help researchers select the system appropriate to their design and goals. The proposed research could incorporate aspects of bioengineering, cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology, and clinical psychology. I hope to collaborate with faculty in both the clinical and behavioral neuroscience divisions as well as BIRC faculty to integrate their perspectives to evaluate the scope and use of innovative neuroimaging technologies.

Shireena McGee, Psychology

Current Research: I aim to expand my research across traditional interdisciplinary sciences, incorporating research in learning, dynamical systems, education and the brain. I believe these fields are pertinently in-orthogonal in my line of work and must be mutually informative in order to find success in any one endeavor. Innovations in education are hidden in developmental psychology and neuroscience and it is my goal to work towards nurturing these interdisciplinary connections in order to make an impact on the way that the world receives and communicates information in diverse learning contexts.

Ashley Parker, Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences

Current Research: This project will examine concept formation in children with specific language impairment. The purpose of the study is to examine the dependency of language on the development of concept formation in children. Concept organization is critical in order to understand and identify the things we encounter in the world, and two examples of such organizational structure are taxonomic and thematic categories. The hypothesis is that if concept formation is dependent on language abilities, then we would expect children with SLI to be at a less mature stage of concept formation due to their deficit in language. Our research seeks to find if a shift to a taxonomic preference occurs in children with language impairment, as it does in typically developing school-aged children. If significant differences are found, this study will help us to explain children with language impairment’s delay in language acquisition.

Peter Perrino, Psychological Sciences

Current Research: An individual inherits many fundamental processes that form complex cognitive systems that are required for the development of language. It is believed that genetics play a pivotal role in the acquisition and retention of language and disruptions in genetic mechanisms have shown to cause language impairments, as seen in dyslexia and autism. We aim to target specific genes that have been implicated in language disorders and assess the behavioral and neuroanatomical consequences of manipulating the protein products associated with the genes via the use of transgenic mouse models. We can assess these models on various intermediate language phenotypes such as auditory processing and working memory. Following behavioral testing, we can investigate various neural substrates that may be underlying any anomalies observed, to further understand the gene-brain-behavior relationship. With the help of IBACS, the completion of our work will provide valuable insight to our understanding of the biological substrates of atypical language development. Future applications of data could allow for the development of early screening tools to identify at risk individuals as well as more targeted interventions using these genetic and anatomical markers.

Roberto Petrosino, Linguistics

Current Research: My current work is looking at ERP response to marked/non-marked and linguistic/non-linguistic sounds. Markedness is a broad concept that encodes how much frequent and complex a cognitive object is. As dealing with such a broad dimension, this project will provide new evidence on the role of markedness in encoding and analyzing sounds, and may ultimately be of broad interest to cognitive scientists working on speech perception across domains.

Adam Rainear, Communication

Current Research: My proposed research will focus on the factors which would promote safe and proper evacuation behavior in times of weather risks and crises. Using virtual reality, I hope to gain an understanding of what might enhance or impede safe evacuation, examine how new communication tools might influence risk messsage perception, and understand how individuals are processing and considering weather warnings under times of duress.

Jenelle Salisbury, Philosophy

Current Research: My research is centered around the issue of “the unity of consciousness” in philosophy of mind. The current project aims to explore what the neuroscience of information integration in the semantic representation network can bring to bear on this topic. In particular, I am interested in the neural mechanisms underlying information integration (questions such as whether integration requires a hub). This is relevant to explaining the kind of unity required for joint accessibility, and I also aim to explore its relevance to the kind of unity required for joint phenomenology.

Vivi Tecoulesco, Psychology

Current Research: In my research I am using ABRs to measure subcortical responses to and I am also using behavioral measures to map the language learning process. Letty Naigles in Developmental Psychology is my advisor; the goal of our research is to address how children with ASD learn language. She encouraged me to incorporate neural structure and function into my work. To that end I have been working with Erika Skoe to add ABR to my toolbox.
I am really interested in trying to bridge so called lower level subcortical processing with higher level, representational levels of language. In my opinion this is in line with the mission of IBACS. Additionally, as a trainee in the NBL program I am demonstrating my commitment to interdisciplinary work. Affiliating with IBACS with increase my opportunities to find projects to both join and/or initiate that strive to incorporate multiple perspectives as I believe our understanding of the brain and cognitive functioning is extremely more likely in this collaborative environment.

I plan to help the community by being open for collaboration, willingness to discuss my work and that of others, and hopefully doing good science that reflects well on the community.

Ryan Troha, Psychology

Current Research: The Connecticut Institute for Brain and Cognitive Sciences places a lot of focus on research integrating different scientific disciplines. I will accomplish this by combining social behavior research with electrophysiology and neurophysiology. Observational learning has been seen in humans, but lacks a behavioral paradigm that can measure this phenomenon in other animals. I am working towards developing such a paradigm which will then allow further investigation into the electrophysiological and neurobiological components underlying this important form of learning.

Given this great opportunity, I will work my hardest to fulfill the Institute’s goals. This means not only working to expand my personal research expertise but to also teach those around me, cross disciplinary boundaries, and promote the Institute’s research activities. I am excited to make the most of this opportunity granted to me by the Institute and take advantage of any chance to learn from others, teach others, and to build the research environment here at the University of Connecticut!