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My research in developmental behavioral neurobiology focuses on understanding the movements we make as young beings and how these movements help our brains learn to move our bodies. Infants continuously explore and interact with the world, and these experiences are critical to normal sensorimotor development. It has been generally assumed that important movements occur while we are awake; however, my lab's research calls this assumption into question. Specifically, I have found that myoclonic twitches—brief movements produced during REM sleep—drive neural activity in the brain, promoting sensorimotor integration during development. My lab aims to understand the necessity of twitch-related neural activity for the development of cortically-mediated motor control. To achieve this aim, we investigate the brain-behavior relationships in infant rats across sleep and wake cycles, employing a variety of methods including multichannel neurophysiology, pharmacological optogenetic manipulations, and state-of-the-art behavioral analysis.
Purdue University • West Lafayette, IN
Teaching and conducting research in the Department of Biological Sciences.
GRE is not required.