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Wayne Sossin is interested in the biochemical changes that occur in the brain during learning and memory. Of particular interest is the identification of molecular memory traces that underlie behavioural memory. Sossin's laboratory examines this problem in the simple nervous system of Aplysia, where behavioural memory is encoded by changes in the synaptic strength of identified neurons. In this system, one can visualize memory using modern imaging techniques and electrophysiology, and thus investigate the underlying molecular basis of memory. His laboratory is investigating several candidates for the molecular trace, including the activation of persistent kinases and the regulated translation of new proteins.

Dr Liz Coulthard is Associate Professor in Dementia Neurology in the Bristol Medical School and a specialist in cognitive neurology applied to dementia. Her research goal is to identify and to treat early cognitive deficits in Alzheimer鈥檚 disease with the aim of improving quality of life and slowing disease progression. Her current research sees her investigating the use of dopamine in enhancing older people鈥檚 sleep and memory. She is also a champion of how proper sleep patterns can bring about significant physical and mental health gains. In 2021, the work of Dr Coulthard and her team was recognised by sleep technology and app design company Dreem, which provided them with specialist sleep measuring devices for their work on the understanding of sleep, circadian rhythms and dopamine in neurodegenerative disease. After her training as a doctor, Dr Coulthard was appointed as a consultant and has founded a dedicated research group: the ReMemBr group (Research into Memory, the Brain and Dementia), a vibrant and expanding multidisciplinary clinical research group within which clinicians and researchers work side by side.

Education
1996 - BA - St John鈥檚 College, Oxford, 
1999 - M.B.B.S, Royal Free and University College Hospitals Medical School, 
2008 - PhD, University of London

Accomplishments
1999 - Merit Award in Clinical Pharmacology, 
2008 - First runner up prize, Queen Square Symposium poster competition, 
2015 - Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians UK

Michael Yassa's laboratory is interested in how the brain learns and remembers information, and how learning and memory mechanisms are altered in aging and neuropsychiatric disease. The central questions in their research are:

What are the neural mechanisms that support learning and memory?
How are memory circuits and pathways altered in the course of aging, dementia, and neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety?
How can we identify early preclinical biomarkers that can distinguish between normal and pathological neurocognitive changes so that we can better design diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

To address these questions, Yassa develops and refines cognitive assessment tools that specifically target memory processes and computations, such as pattern separation. Yassa's lab also develops, optimizes, and uses a host of advanced brain measurement techniques including high-resolution structural, functional, and diffusion MRI, PET, EEG, and intracranial recordings (ECoG) in patients, to explore the brain鈥檚 architecture at very fine levels of detail.

Yassa's lab combines these approaches with more traditional psychophysics including measurements of galvanic skin response (skin conductance), heart rate variability, and eye tracking. They are also working with collaborators to develop novel platforms for cellular resolution functional imaging in awake, behaving animals using novel MRI tracers. Finally, we are actively developing and testing several pharmacological and nonpharmacological cognitive enhancement interventions in older adults at risk for dementia, including studies of physical exercise.

Jim B. Tucker, MD, is Bonner-Lowry Professor of Personality Studies in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences. A board-certified child psychiatrist, he served as medical director of the Child and Family Psychiatry Clinic for nine years.

Dr. Tucker attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA degree in psychology in 1982, followed by a medical degree four years later. He then completed a residency in general psychiatry and a fellowship in child psychiatry at the University of Virginia. After a stint in private practice, he returned to UVA in 2000.

Dr. Tucker also works in the Division of Perceptual Studies, continuing the research of Ian Stevenson with children who report anomalous memories. He is the author of Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives (St. Martin's, 2005), and he has published numerous articles in scientific journals and given talks to both scientific and general audiences.

Karyn Frick studies the cellular-level questions about memory formation in mammals where the effects of aging, hormones and environmental stimulation are similar to those in humans. She has done seminal work in uncovering the molecular pathways that link the hormone estrogen with memory processes. She can discuss how menopause and Alzheimer’s disease are linked. She has created an estrogen compound to treat the effects of menopause and protect brain function and memory without the side effects that can harm women’s health when they take hormone therapy. She is an elected as a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Latasha "Tasha" Holden is an assistant professor in the  at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
Holden's research seeks to better understand how (process), when (context), and why (internal vs. external factors) different individuals achieve academic and career success in spite of threats to their identity, well-being, and belonging.
Her research interests include learning and memory with a focus on applying cognitive science to support students with diverse learning needs. She is particularly interested in supporting student resilience in the face of cognitive demands, biases, and identity threats experienced in various testing and learning situations. 
Research areas

Working memory, long-term memory, and learning
Control of cognition
Inter- and intra-individual differences
Culturally informed and responsive science and pedagogy
Diversity, equity, and inclusion
Test performance and achievement
Intervention
Open science and secondary data approaches

Education

B.A., psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010
B.A., art history/museum studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010
M.A., experimental psychology, Towson University, 2012
M.A., psychology, Princeton University, 2014
Ph.D., psychology, Princeton University, 2018

Lab page: 
CV: 

Nien-Pei Tsai is an  at the  and a researcher at the . 
An imbalance in neuronal and synaptic excitability is a common abnormality observed in patients with various psychiatric and neurological disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. The dysregulation of excitability is thought to exacerbate disease symptoms. Identifying and understanding the mechanisms underlying the dysregulation of excitability could reveal novel therapeutic targets for these diseases. To achieve this goal, we utilize various approaches including molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, electrophysiology, and mouse genetics to understand the regulation of excitability homeostasis at synaptic, neuronal, network and system levels, and how the deficits of those affect behavior in diseases. 
Research Interests:


Neurobiology


Synaptic transmission


Learning and memory


Neurological and behavioral disorders


 
Current focuses of Tsai's lab include:
1. Studying activity-dependent translational control in fragile X syndrome
2. Exploring novel transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulators in neurodevelopment 
3. Determining the role of cellular stress response in neuronal plasticity
4. Characterizing the molecular mechanisms contributing to comorbid seizures in Alzheimer's disease
 
Education


B.S., National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2002


M.Sc., National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2004


Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2009

Florin Dolcos is a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a full-time faculty member at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
He performed his Ph.D. research in cognitive and affective neurosciences at the University of Alberta’s Centre for Neuroscience and Duke University’s Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, and his postdoctoral training in cognitive, affective, and clinical neurosciences at Duke University’s Brain Imaging and Analysis Center. Dolcos joined the University of Illinois following an assistant professor appointment in the University of Alberta’s Department of Psychiatry.
Research 
Dolcos researches the neural correlates of affective-cognitive interactions in healthy and clinical populations, as studied with brain imaging techniques such as functional MRI and ERP. His program can be divided into the following main directions:

Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Impact of Emotion on Cognition. 
This direction investigates the mechanisms underlying the enhancing and impairing effects of emotion on various cognitive/executive processes (perception, attention, working memory, episodic memory, decision making). A novel direction emerging from this research investigates the neural mechanisms linking and dissociating the opposing effects of emotion. This is important because they tend to co-occur in both healthy functioning and clinical conditions. For instance, enhanced distraction produced by task-irrelevant emotional information can also lead to better memory for the distracters themselves. Also, enhanced memory for traumatic events in PTSD can also lead to impaired cognition due to increased emotional distractibility.

2. Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Impact of Cognition on Emotion. 
The impact of cognition on emotion is typically exerted as cognitive control of emotion, or emotion regulation. This direction is corollary to my first direction, and is important to pursue, because optimal cognitive control of emotional responses is a key component of healthy emotional behavior, whereas maladaptive regulation strategies constitute a core feature of affective disorders. Thus, in our studies we also manipulate emotion regulation strategies (e.g., suppression, reappraisal, attentional deployment), to investigate the regulatory mechanisms mediating the beneficial or detrimental impact of emotion on cognition.

3. Neural Mechanisms of Emotion-Cognition Interactions in Social Contexts. 
My research also targets mechanisms of emotion-cognition interactions in social contexts. This newly emerging direction in my research program is also important, because proper processing and interpretation of emotional social cues are key components of successful social behavior. Therefore, we are also investigating the neural mechanisms of processing emotional information as social cues, and of their impact on behavior.

4. The Role of Individual Differences in Emotion-Cognition Interactions. 
Although the first three lines of research have clear clinical relevance, it is important to also directly investigate the very same issues in clinical cohorts. Therefore, my research program also includes collaborations with clinical researchers that investigate neural mechanisms of emotion-cognition interactions in patients with mood and anxiety disorders (depression, PTSD), as well as investigation of changes associated with therapeutic interventions. Investigation of individual differences, however, is important not only for understanding clinical conditions, but also for integrative understanding of the factors that influence individual variation in the vulnerability to, or resilience against, emotional and cognitive challenges leading to disturbances. Thus, in my research, I have also investigated the role of gender, age, personality, and genetic differences in emotion-cognition interactions. Especially relevant are emerging large-scale studies using comprehensive behavior-personality-brain approaches emphasizing integrative understanding that is critical for the development of training and preventive programs aimed to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability to emotional disturbances.

 is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a faculty member in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Her fields of professional interest are language, memory, hemispheric differences and cognitive neuroscience.
Certain sensory stimuli — words, pictures, faces, sounds — seem to immediately and effortlessly bring to mind a rich array of knowledge that we experience as the "meaning" of those cues. Federmeier's research examines the neurobiological basis of such meaning, asking how world knowledge derived from multiple modalities comes to be organized in the brain and how such information is integrated and made available for use in varied contexts and often in only hundreds of milliseconds. To study these time-sensitive processes, Federmeier uses event-related brain potentials, or ERPs, supplemented by behavioral, eye tracking, and hemodynamic measures.
Research areas:


Language processing


Semantic memory


Aging


Research interests:


Neurobiological basis


Hemispheric differences


Electrophysiology (EEG, ERPs)


Education

Ph.D., cognitive science, University of California at San Diego, 2000

Climer studies memory's neural underpinnings. Neuroscientists agree that synapse changes help us acquire new memories, but researchers are just starting to understand what governs these changes and how they impact neural firing patterns. Little is known about the neurobiology of forgetting, a complex process critical for daily function. Climer believes there is a critical relationship between forgetting and continual learning, and that we can observe signatures of this using novel behavioral tasks and by recording neurons as memories develop and are forgotten.
To study neurons across a memory's lifetime, Climer studies mice as they perform tasks in virtual reality. VR allows mice to have experiences that are impossible or impractical in a laboratory setting, such as learning a new environment every day. Using two-photon imaging of calcium and neurotransmitter sensors, it is possible to record the same neurons and their inputs in live mice across days and weeks, allowing researchers to link changes in the neural code to changes in an animal’s ability to remember. We are particularly interested in the changes that occur at the end of the life of a memory: as animals forget.
Areas of expertise

Memory
Spatial navigation
Neuron computation
Statistics of neural data
2-photon imaging
Virtual reality in animals

Research Areas:


Electrophysiology


Neurophysiology 


Neurobiology


Behavioral Neuroscience


Research Interests:


Two-Photon Imaging


Virtual Reality


Computational Neuroscience


Learning and Memory


Imaging


Computational Neuroscience


Spatial cognition


Spatial navigation


Education


B.S., biology & biotechnology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2010


Ph.D., neuroscience, Boston University, 2016