My PhD Thesis, "Functional representation of behavioral memory specificity in auditory cortex", collectively reports in vivo cortical electrophysiological and behavioral experiments that link behavioral evidence of memory specificity with unique forms of experience-dependent plasticity in auditory cortex that emerge quickly and persist over long periods of time. That multiple forms of learning-related plasticity support precise and accurate auditory memory in the auditory cortex suggest that some characteristics of memory – here, specificity – can be represented in sensory systems. Sensory systems may adopt different neural coding strategies that depend on the stimulus and task type to encode the particular stimulus features that demand attention and action as a function of their associative links to behaviorally significant outcomes. I am continuing as a postdoc in the CLEF Lab until 2022 developing new high-density multi-unit electrode recording strategies for tracking learning-induced functional changes to the cortex longitudinally.
Alumnus: Andrea Shang, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher, CLEF Lab PhD Graduate, Behavioral & Systems Neuroscience