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AMANDA CHICOLI is interested in collective behavior of fish schools, including information transmission and collective decision-making. While each individual fish possesses a wide variety of sensors, they can also gain information from nearby individuals. What information they acquire and how they use this information to make decisions are major questions her research program asks. Another major aspect of her research is to apply the principles of collective behavior in biological groups to autonomous vehicles and mixed robot-animal swarms. In order study these questions,she uses a combination of behavioral and computational techniques.Understanding how functional complexity at the macroscopic scale results from interactions at the microscopic scale is pervasive problem throughout biology and understanding group complexity has wide-ranging applications, from bio-inspired algorithms in autonomous multi-vehicle control to aspects of group decision-making.

ERIKA HUSSEY investigates the malleability of executive functions (i.e., how individuals’ ability to regulate thought and behavior can change) using novel intervention paradigms such as longitudinal cognitive training, cognitive fatigue paradigms, and the induction of performance pressure. A major question that her research program asks is whether cognitive control abilities can be improved through practice, and the extent to which training-induced gains generalize to untrained language measures that rely on shared cognitive control functions. Recording eye movements during real-time reading tasks help address these issues. Additional interests include the use of candidate genes to understand the relationship between cognitive flexibility and cognitive stability, the effects of individual differences in stress resiliency and emotional regulation on cognitive control, the neurological elucidation of what constitutes greater plasticity of cognitive abilities, and the development of well-specified interventions that may be used to accelerate second-language learning or attenuate the problems encountered by individuals with language impairments.

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ALEXIA NUNEZ studies regulation of post-natal neurogenesis in the mouse olfactory bulb. She explores the relationship between behaviors mediated by the olfactory system (i.e mating and aggression) and the generation of new neurons in the adult brain. In addition, she is currently studying the electrophysiological properties of postnatal born neurons using an in vitro slice preparation of the olfactory bulb. To label these cells she uses postnatal electroporation to incorporate the green fluorescent protein gene in newly born neurons. Recordings from GFP-labeled granule cells allow her to study the role of neuromodulation on their integration within already existing neural circuits.

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ANNA SCHLAPPAL is studying the effect of a novel estrogen pro-drug within a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. This research utilizes a mouse model carrying two of the human genes for Alzheimer’s disease. Estrogens are known to be neuroprotective, however negative peripheral effects such as stimulation of estrogen sensitive tumors, often negate the positive effects. She is testing an estrogen pro-drug, which undergoing metabolism, accumulates in the brain 200x faster than in the body. Due to this rate of metabolism, the compound may be able to deliver the positive neuronal effects, while avoiding negative peripheral effects. Her research involves the use of osmotic pump implants for drug delivery, a radial arm water maze to measure cognitive deficits, as well as tissue histology and biochemical assay measurements.   Additionally, she is exploring the in vitro effects of estrogens on cellular respiration using a neuronal cell line transfected with the AD human genes used in the mouse model.