ABOUT THIS KIND OF RESEARCH

How does a fleeting moment of experience become etched into our brains? Where and how is the information stored and what mechanisms do we use to retrieve it? How do we learn new concepts and skills? How does the interplay of genes, experience and environment shape the development of our brains? Researchers at Brown are attacking these problems at levels spanning molecular biology, neural systems, mathematical modeling, and theoretical neuroscience. Tools used to probe these questions range from molecular genetics, cell biology, electrophysiology and advanced mathematics to fMRI, behavioral, and linguistic studies.

FACULTY INVOLVED

• Carlos Aizenman
  Research: Studying the role of experience in the development of neural circuits, by focusing on the development of the tadpole visual system.
  
  Graduate program: Neuroscience
  
  
• James Anderson
  Research: Applications of neural networks for learning and memory and mathematical models for cognition.
  
  Graduate programs: Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences; Neuroscience
   
• Elie Bienenstock
  Research: Compositional mechanisms in natural and artificial vision.
  
  Graduate program: Applied Math; Neuroscience
  
   
• Elaine Bearer
  Research: Molecular mechanisms of acting dynamics in growth cones and in axoplasmic transport.
  
  Graduate programs: Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry; Pathobiology; Neuroscience; Physiology
  
   
• Rebecca Burwell
  Research: Neuroanatomical and electrophysiological approaches to examining the contribution of parahippocampal regions to memory and cognitive functions.
  
  Graduate programs: Neuroscience; Psychology
   
• Russell Church
  Research: Quantitative models of time perception and timed performance.
  
  Graduate program: Psychology
   
• Ruth Colwill
  Research: Animal learning and behavior, animal cognition and communication.
  
  Graduate program: Neuroscience
   
• Barry Connors
  Research: Understand the neocortex by studying its individual neurons, synapses, and transmitters and their collective behavior.
  
  Graduate programs: Neuroscience; Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology
   
• David Cooper
  Research: Machine recognition and learning from images and video.
  
  Graduate programs: Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition and Stochastic Processes within the Division of Engineering
   
• Leon Cooper
  Research: Learning and memory, computational neuroscience.
  
  Graduate programs: Neuroscience; Physics
   
• Katherine Demuth
  Research: Normal and impaired language learning / development.
  
  Graduate programs: Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences; IGERT
   
• John Donoghue
  Research: Motor skill learning.
  
  Graduate program: Neuroscience
  
  
• Anna Dunaevsky
  Research: Molecular and cellular mechanisms of synapse formation.
  
  Graduate program: Neuroscience
  
  
• Charles Elbaum
  Research: Artificial neural networks and their applications.
  
  Graduate program: Physics
   
• Justin Fallon
  Research: Synapse formation and plasticity. Mechanisms of muscular dystrophy and Fragile X mental retardation.
  
  Graduate programs: Neuroscience; Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry
   
• William Heindel
  Research: Neuropsychology of human learning and memory.
  
  Graduate programs: Psychology; Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences
   
• Rachel Herz
  Research: Olfactory cognition and perception and the role of emotion, context and genetics.
  
  Graduate program: Psychology
  
  
• Mayank Mehta
  Reasearch: Mechanisms of learning in neuronal networks. We use simultaneous recording of a large number of neurons, and computational modeling.
   
• Michael Paradiso
  Research: The neural basis of visual perception.
  
  Graduate program: Neuroscience
   
• Jerome Sanes
  Research: Neural information processing in voluntary behavior.
  
  Graduate program: Neuroscience
   
• David Sheinberg
  Research: Neural mechanisms of natural vision.
  
  Graduate program: Neuroscience
   
• Harel Shouval
  Research: Theoretical and experimental aspects of synaptic plasticity.
  
  Graduate program: none
   
• Andrea Simmons
  Research: Development of auditory and vestibular systems in auditory system; animal communication.
  
  Graduate programs: Psychology; Neuroscience
  
  
• David Sobel
  Research: Casual learning and inference throughout development. Theory of mind. Conceptual development.
  
  Graduate program: Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences
   
• Michael Tarr
  Research: Behavioral, computational and neuroscientific study of object recognition.
  
  Graduate programs: Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences; Neuroscience; Psychology
   
• Leslie Welch
  Research: Human visual psychophysics of motion perception, binocular vision, spatial vision.
  
  Graduate programs: Psychology; Neuroscience; Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences