Overview

Teaching

My teaching goals are to help students to develop skills, knowledge frameworks, and quantitative and scientific literacy that will be useful in their future careers.

What is the difference between merely knowing (or remembering, or memorizing) and understanding? … A thing or idea seems meaningful only when we have several different ways to represent it–different perspectives and different associations. Then we can turn it around in our minds… (Minsky, 1981, p.26)¹

Research

During my research career a central focus has been to investigate the functional role of the mammalian prefrontal cortex to maintain healthy and flexible emotional learning. I have addressed translational neuroscience research questions and utilized neuroscience techniques that are able to span levels of analysis from mesoscopic to macroscopic neurophysiology. During adulthood, neuroplasticity takes place on timescales that are longer than days to weeks but shorter than years. The neuroscience of the interplay of trauma, stress, and neuroplasticity has potential to help understand the causes of some mental health dysfunctions and explain the effects of some promising new treatments. As part of a translation of my research expertise into teaching, I hope to develop a neuroscience course on the clinical neuroscience aspects of prefrontal cortex physiology in relation to emotional and/or cognitive function.

I approach functional neuroanatomy from multiple frames of reference. For neuroscience students, to learn the geometry, nomenclature, and taxonomy of neuroanatomy is a gateway to understand the topology of connectivity between neural structures and systems. Thus, learning the relationships between neuroanatomical structures can enhance retention and comprehension, but more importantly, the understanding of neuroanatomy can become a way to organize information and to think about the “what”, “why”, and “how” of brain physiology and function.