Meet Sara, our new SPUR student

Sara is our new SPUR student. She will spend the summer with us! She is currently completing her B.A. in psychology at California State University, Fullerton. She is a scholar in the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program, and works in the vision lab of Dr. Eriko Self in the Department of Psychology. She is investigating the effects of normal aging on attention, specifically top-down and bottom-up controls of attention. She hopes to obtain her PhD. in cognitive psychology and study memory formation, particularly the construction of false memories.

Alisha and Takako were awarded scholarships

Congratulations to Takako and Alisha who were both awarded scholarships from the UO Department of Psychology.
Alisha received the Leona Tyler Scholarship, an award for undergraduate psychology students interested in individuality and diversity, counseling and clinical work, human development, children’s and adult’s interests and choice patterns; or the promotion of peace.
Takako received the Alice Thompson Scholarship, an award for undergraduate psychology majors whose primary interests include cognition, brain physiology, or other physical science applications in the field of psychology.

Wen and Takako joined our lab

Two new research assistants just joined our lab. They will be helping with preparing and running experiments as well as with data analysis. We are glad to have them!

Takako Iwashita

Takako Iwashita

Takako Iwashita an undergraduate student majoring in psychology. Before transferring to the University of Oregon, she was majoring in psychology and communication studies at a community college. Her primary interest is cognitive neuroscience. She is especially interested in the relationship between culture and the brain.

 

Wenjia Cao

Wenjia Cao

Wen is a biology major with neuroscience emphasis. Her goal is to accomplish her genuine wish that no one should be psychologically trapped or hidden behind this beautiful world. She currently is still trying to explore more about neuroscience field.

 

Brain and Memory lab at SFN 2017



Caitlin, Stefania, and Lea presented posters at the 2017 conference of the Society of Neuroscience. See below to view their posters:

  • Ashby, S., Bowman, C., & Zeithamova, D. (2017). Changes in item representations following category learning. Poster presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference 2017, Washington DC. PDF
  • Bowman, C. & Zeithamova, D. (2017). Prototype model correlates in the VMPFC during concept generalization. Poster presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference 2017, Washington DC. PDF
  • Frank, L., Preston, P. & Zeithamova, D. (2017). Intrinsic connectivity between memory and reward centers predict individual differences in reward-motivated learning. Poster presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference 2017, Washington DC. PDF

Dataset available: trial timing for multivariate pattern analysis

We have published the dataset described in trial timing for multivariate pattern analysis in OpenfMRI. It is available here. This data was collected to investigate experimental design optimization for pattern-information approaches to fMRI data analysis. Participants were scanned while encoding images of animals and tools. There were 5 different stimulus presentation designs, and each participant completed to runs under each design. The designs varied in the number of trials and trial timing within fixed duration scans. Trial timing conditions with fixed onset-to-onset timing ranged from slow 12-s trials with two repetitions of each item to quick 6-s trials with four repetitions per item. We also tested a jittered version of the quick design with 4–8 s trials. After the scans, participants completed a memory test.

Welcome Max and Chris!

Max and Chris are now part of our team. They will help us with experiment preparation and data collection. Here is some info about them:

Max Hills
Max is a senior at the University of Oregon. He’s majoring in biology with an emphasis on neuroscience and behavior. Next year he plans on attending graduate school to study computational approaches to cognitive neuroscience. He is interested in the neurobiological underpinnings of the human capacity to revise one’s beliefs and opinions when confronted with new evidence or new arguments, and how this capacity changes over the course of human life.
Christopher Majcher
Native Chicagoian with an affinity for the outdoors, rock climbing, and reading, Christopher enjoys traveling, performing and attending music shows in his free time as well as learning more about the sciences.