Student Seminars and Defenses

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

Amy Bucklaew, MS - PhD Candidate, Neuroscience Graduate Program

Human vision relies on constant eye movements (saccades) to bring visual targets to the fovea for highresolution inspection. To stabilize perception during these visual shifts, the brain deploys mechanisms such as pre-saccadic attention (selects upcoming saccade targets) and saccadic suppression (reduces visual perception during saccades), both of which aid in decreasing our awareness of spatial instabilities. Area MT has been the focus of many previous studies involving visual motion processing and attention, but much less is known about the adjacent area MTC, which has been shown to receive extra-retinal signals that may play a role in saccadic modulation. In this dissertation, we sought to investigate differences between area MT and MTC by first 1) characterizing electrophysiological properties of either area, then 2) investigating pre-saccadic attention differences, and then 3) investigating potential feedforward and feedback origins of saccadic suppression across either area. The findings from each of these aims shed light on electrophysiological and functional differences between two difficult-to-distinguish areas to aid in future methods of post-recording identification. Furthermore, these findings support an alternative to the classical hypotheses in which retinal and extra-retinal signals control trans-saccadic modulation.

 May 15, 2025 @ 12:00 p.m.
 Medical Center | Lower Adolph Aud. (1-7619)

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