Lauren RubensteinHilary Barth, associate professor of psychology, and Andrea Patalano, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, have received a major grant from the National Science Foundation. The $1,101,456 grant will support collaborative research on quantitative reasoning conducted in the Cognitive Development Lab (directed by Barth) and the Reasoning and Decision Making Lab (directed by Patalano). The research project will be conducted in collaboration with Sara Cordes at Boston College, which will receive an additional $177,496. According to the NSF abstract, humans have an innate ability to estimate quantities yet their intuitions often contain biases that interfere with…
Olivia DrakeThe Neuroscience and Behavior (NSB) Program hosted their third annual undergraduate research symposium April 29 in Daniel Family Commons. Senior thesis writers delivered 10-minute scientific presentations during a dinner with fellow NSB students and faculty. Students also showcased their finest scientific projects during a research poster session, pictured below: (Photos by Ryan Heffernan ’16) (more…)
Assistant Professor of Psychology Psyche Loui has long been interested in studying the intersection of music and emotions. In her latest study, published March 10 in Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience, she identified specific connections in the brain between the auditory processing regions and regions for social and emotional processing. The article is titled, "Brain connectivity reflects human aesthetic responses to music." Loui, who also is assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior, assistant professor of integrative sciences, has previously studied how music can cause chills, or similar strong physiological reactions in people when listening to music. Together with former thesis student…
A high school student from New York, who is mentored by a faculty member and a graduate student in Wesleyan's Neuroscience and Behavior Program, is one of the top four finalists for the Neuroscience Research Prize, awarded by the American Academy of Neurology and the Child Neurology Society. As a recipient of the prize, Armonk, N.Y. resident Ryan Infante will receive a $1,000 cash prize and per diem for expenses at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Child Neurology Society in Vancouver, B.C. in October 2016. He will present his stem cell transplantation research during the Child Neurology Society meeting. Infante,…
Psyche Loui, assistant professor of psychology, assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior, assistant professor of integrated sciences, is the co-author of a new study, "Rhythmic Effects of Syntax Processing in Music and Language" published in Frontiers in Psychology in November. The article's lead author is Harim Jung '16, and it is also co-authored by Samuel Sontag '14 and YeBin "Shiny" Park '15. According to Loui, the paper grew out of her Advanced Research Methods in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience course, and is the precursor to Jung's senior and master's theses. The study uses a behavioral test to look into how music…
Associate Professor Barbara Juhaz, Yun-Hsuan Lai '14 and Michelle Woodcock '14 are the co-authors of a paper titled "A database of 629 English compound words: Ratings of familiarity, lexeme meaning dominance, semantic transparency, age-of-acquisition, imageability, and sensory experience," published in Behavior Research Methods, 47(4), pages 1004-1019 in 2015. Juhasz is associate professor of psychology, associate professor of integrative sciences, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior. In this study, the authors collected ratings on 629 English compound words for six variables: familiarity, age of acquisition, semantic transparency, lexeme meaning dominance, imageability, and sensory experience ratings. All of the compound words selected for this study are contained…
Breaking news: You may be a pizza-holic. Mike Robinson, professor of psychology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, was called on by CNN to comment on a new study examining which foods can be the most addictive. Topping the list: pizza, French fries, chocolate, chips, cookies, ice cream, cake, soda, bacon and cheese. Although not all foods have the potential to be addictive, "it is critical to understand which ones do," said Robinson, who was not involved in the study, told CNN. "We are all pressed for time, and food is becoming more and more available," but we need to think about…
During the Society for Neuroscience's (SfN) annual meeting Oct. 17-21, Janice Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, received the Louise Hansen Marshall Special Recognition Award. The Louise Hanson Marshall Special Recognition Award honors individuals who have significantly promoted the professional development of women in neuroscience through teaching, organizational leadership, public advocacy and more. Naegele shares the 2015 Louise Hansen Marshall award with Paul Greengard P'77, P'79, GP '08, the Vincent Astor Professor at The Rockefeller University in New York. Naegele began her career studying the characteristics of cortical neurons and more recently has performed pioneering studies of transplantation of inhibitory…
Charles Sanislow, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, published findings from his laboratory titled “Ratings for Emotion Film Clips,” in Behavior Research Methods (Volume 47, Issue 3, pages 773-787) in September 2015. Co-authors included former post doc Crystal Gabert-Quillen (now on the faculty at Middlesex Community College in New Jersey); Ellen Bartolini '11 (currently a graduate student in clinical psychology at Widener University); and Benjamin Abravanel '13 (currently a graduate student in the clinical science program at the University of California—Berkeley). In mood induction studies Sanislow and his students were piloting in the lab, they noticed that film…
Mike Robinson, assistant professor of psychology, assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior, is the author of an article published Sept. 27 in Current Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience. Titled, "Roles of 'Wanting' and 'Liking' in Motivating Behavior: Gambling, Food, and Drug Addictions," the article is co-authored by Adam Fischer, previously Robinson's lab manager, Aarit Ahuja '16, Hannah Maniates '16, and Ellen Lesser '15. In this paper, the authors argue that two separate but interconnected subcortical and unconscious processes direct motivation: "wanting" and "liking." These two processes work together but can become disassociated, especially in cases of addiction. For example, in drug addiction, repeated consumption…
When Psyche Loui first heard Rachmaninov's Piano Concert No. 2 on the radio as a college student, she still remembers the chill that went down her spine, the fluttering in her stomach and the racing heart. Now an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience and behavior at Wesleyan, Loui studies this phenomenon--which she refers to as "frissons" or "skin orgasms"--in her lab. She recently co-authored a paper with Luke Harrison '14 in Frontiers in Psychology reviewing the evidence and theories in this area, and spoke to the BBC about their findings. Loui, also an accomplished pianist and violinist, points out that the sensations…
Christine "Cj" Mathew '18 is taking two intensive science classes this summer that equate to an entire year's worth of credits. (Photos by Olivia Drake)