Student Seminars

Amelia Hines & Sid Chittaranjan - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Gail Johnson & Sarah McConnell

Student Moderator: Mark Osabutey

 Jan 27, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Dennis Jung, MS - PhD Candidate, Neuroscience Graduate Program

Working memory (WM) enables temporary maintenance and manipulation of task-relevant information. One important role of WM is preventing information loss during distraction. While neural oscillations are known to support WM maintenance and distractor resistance, less is understood about how anticipation influences these processes. This thesis investigated neural oscillations in WM during distractor anticipation. To test this, we recorded local field potentials (LFP) in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), a key brain area for WM, and scalp electroencephalograms (EEG) from monkeys performing modified memory-guided saccade (MGS) tasks, with varying in distractor timing and item load. The first experiment tested how distractor anticipation influences brain oscillatory dynamics with fixed distractor timing during memory maintenance. We found widespread thetaband (4-8 Hz) EEG activity better encoded the memory item after, rather than before, the anticipated distractor time, regardless of whether the distractor appeared. However, theta-band LFP activity in the LPFC only encoded the item when the distractor was presented. These results suggest large-scale theta oscillations reflect WM dynamics associated with both maintenance and distractor anticipation, while small-scale theta oscillations in the LPFC specifically encode the stored item, ensuring stability. The second experiment varied distractor timing. We found greater behavioral impairment when the distractor appeared towards the end of the task. EEG theta activity continued encoding item—greater towards the end of maintenance, regardless of the presence of the distractor. Similar encoding was observed for the LFP theta activity only when the distractor was shown. These results suggest WM becomes more vulnerable to distraction over prolonged maintenance, but greater encoding of items may reduce deteriorating distractor effects. The third experiment explored effects of increased item load and internal selective attention on distractor anticipation. Selection increased encoding of an attended item in EEG and LFP theta-band activities. Post-cue distractors tended to increase behavioral errors compared to a single-item conditions in the previous experiments, suggesting increased task complexity and variability impairs distractor anticipation. Together, the results of these experiments demonstrate that the distractor anticipation influences the WM dynamics as reflected in both small- and large-scale oscillatory signals.

Event Flyer

 Jan 29, 2025 @ 1:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | Lower Adolph Aud. (1-7619)

Aiesha Anchan & Erica Squire - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Hohui Xia & Gil Rivlis

Student Moderator: Leslie Gonzalez

 Feb 03, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Aishwarya Jayan & Aaron Huynh - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Madalina Tivarus & Lauren Hablitz

Student Moderator: Lia Calcinez Rodruiguez

 Feb 10, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Niki Lam & Leah Sheppard - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Margot Mayer-Proschel & Anne Luebke

Student Moderator: Thomas Delgado

 Feb 17, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Nicole Popp & Staci Rocco - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Nathan Smith & Jennetta Hammond

Student Moderator: Julia Granato

 Feb 24, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Stacey Pedraza & Gavin Magill - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Ed Freedman & Krystel Huxlin

Student Moderator: Catalina Guzman

 Mar 03, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Tom Scudder & Lelo Shamambo - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Doug Portman & Marissa Sobolewski

Student Moderator: Abigail Alpers

 Mar 17, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Sean Lydon & Estephanie Balb - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez & Samuel MacKenzie

Student Moderator: Dominic Bunn

 Mar 24, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Gueladouan Jean Setenet & Pavel Rjabtsenkov - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Thomas O'Connor & Amy Kiernan

Student Moderator: Andrea Campbell

 Mar 31, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Adam Roszczyk & Caleb Mahlen - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Manoela Fogaca & Andrew Wojtovich

Student Moderator: Tanique McDonald

 Apr 07, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Tracey Preko & Skylar DeWitt - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Samuel Norman-Haignere & Ania Busza

Student Moderator: Amelia Hines

 Apr 14, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Wen Li & Yunshan Cai - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Rick Libby & Ed Brown

Student Moderator: Mariah Marrero

 Apr 21, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Joanne Chiu & Emma Bryson - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Jean Bidlack & David Dodell-Feder

Student Moderator: Daulton Myers

 Apr 28, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K307

Alesandra Martin & Emma Strawderman - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Michael Telias & Frank Garcea

Student Moderator: Jeeyun Kim

 May 05, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K207

Alex Solorzano & Alexis Feidl - PhD Candidates

Titles: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: John Olschowka & Debroah Cory-Slechta

Student Moderator: Margaux Masten

 May 12, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K207

Catalina Guzman - PhD Candidate

Title: TBD

Faculty Evaluators: Ania Majewska & Loisa Bennetto

Student Moderator: Gavin Magill

 May 19, 2025 @ 4:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | K207