UConn and UConn Health Center's faculty and students can search the research interests of the entire database of faculty members by using Lincus.
Stefanie Acevedo
Research Interests:
My research focuses on the analysis and cognition of musical expectation, mainly geared toward understanding how we learn and categorize musical style. Other research interests include the analysis and cognition of musical form, musical segmentation, and music pedagogical applications of cognitive/psychological research. While much of my research focuses on popular genres, I am interested in understanding a wide variety of musical genres and cultures.
Psychological Sciences
Gerry Altmann
Research Interests:
Adult language processing; Influence of context on sentence comprehension; Event comprehension; Interface between language and vision.
Neuroscience, UConn Health
Srdjan Antic
Research Interests:
Research in our laboratory is centered on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synaptic integration, neuronal excitability and plasticity, development of human neurons and how dopamine modulates these fundamental processes. Our experimental methods include optogenetics, electrophysiology, fast functional imaging using calcium-sensitive indicators or voltage-sensitive indicators, computer simulations (NEURON), neuron tracing and immunolabeling.
Psychological Sciences
Robert Astur
Research Interests:
My interests reply on using behavioral neuroscience theory and methodology in human populations to help elucidate the neural bases of memory function. Currently, we are conducting studies examining how nicotine affects how people learn things and extinguish memories. We also are looking at how estrogen affects hippocampal sensitive memory in women. And, lastly, we are examining fear conditioning in humans in virtual reality environments in hopes of helping design effective strategies for treating anxiety.
Neuroscience
Byoung Il Bae
Research Interests:
We study molecular and cellular mechanisms of cerebral cortical development using genetically engineered ferret and mouse models of human brain disorders. We are particularly interested in understanding how mutations in evolutionarily conserved, ubiquitously expressed genes cause species-, tissue-, and cell type-specific disease phenotypes. We are also interested in the neurodevelopmental basis of mammalian social behavior and autism spectrum disorder.
Statistics
Haim Bar
Research Interests:
I am an applied statistician, and my research interests include statistical modeling for high throughput data, variable selection, Bayesian and empirical Bayes methods, gene network analysis, and statistical methods in machine learning. I have collaborated with researchers from diverse fields such as genetics, nutrition, economics, and microbiology.
Philosophy
Dorit Bar-On
Research Interests:
Philosophy (Mind, Language, Epistemology, Metaethics); Linguistics (Semantics & Pragmatics, Evolution of Language, Animal Communication; Cognitive Science & Psychology (Theory of Mind, Failures of Self-Knowledge, Perception, Action, Rationality, Inner Speech, Emotions, Self-Deception)
Communication
Saraswathi Bellur
Research Interests:
Dr. Bellur’s research explores the psychological and physiological effects of interactive media on key communication outcomes. Her research has focused on explication and measurement issues related to interactivity, cognitive heuristics and user engagement. Dr. Bellur looks forward to pursuing interdisciplinary projects on communication technologies and their effects.
Psychological Sciences
Yulia Bereshpolova
Research Interests:
My research focuses on understanding how neurons in different parts of the visual pathway in the brain are involved in the construction of precise representation of the physical world. Our lab utilizes chronic recordings in awake behaving animals with the goal to understand how interconnected networks of many different classes of neurons interact and adapt depending on behavioral state, from alert to drowsy, and to different stages of sleep.
Physiology & Neurobiology
Angel de Blas
Research Interests:
The main thrust of my research has been and will be to understand how the molecular components of inhibitory GABAergic synapses in the CNS assemble into a functional signal-transducing structure. I also aim to manipulate these molecules to control this assembly and the strength of selective GABAergic synapses for potential therapies of neurological disorders in which the homeostatic balance excitation/inhibition is altered.
Haskins Laboratories
David Braze
Research Interests:
I study the cognitive structures and processes that underlie the human ability to fluidly assemble meaning from more-or-less novel strings of words. So, a central question is that of how lexical, grammatical, semantic and pragmatic cues, as encoded in the spoken or written word, interact with one another to yield a percept of meaning. I am particularly interested in individual variation around 'typical' behavior and development of language skills.
Human Development & Family Sciences
Alaina Brenick
Research Interests:
Dr. Brenick's research focuses on how children, adolescents, and adults experiences, make sense of, reason about, and respond to bias-based victimization. From a social justice perspective, she examines individual and group social and moral reasoning regarding interpersonal and systemic oppression and inequities. Furthermore, she designs and evaluates programmatic prevention and intervention measures to reduce intergroup conflict, discrimination, and inequity.
Human Development & Family Sciences
Preston Britner
Research Interests:
My research interests include the study of child-parent relationships and the application of family science research to applied settings. As an attempt to bridge family science and neuroscience research, I am interested in exploring neurobiological substrates of interpersonal relationships from an affective neuroscience perspective using neuroimaging modality.
Biomedical Engineering
Kevin Brown
Research Interests:
I am a complex systems scientist. I study complex biological systems, particularly those arising in systems biology and systems neuroscience. I employ methodology from dynamical systems, network theory, Bayesian and nonparametric statistics, computational biology, and statistical signal processing. My work has focused heavily on inverse problems; inferring network and model structures from cellular time series measurements, protein sequences, and high-dimensional brain data. My work is strongly connected to data, and I continue to have many productive collaborations with experimentalists.
Alice Burghard
Research Interests:
My research covers the physiology and pathophysiology of the central auditory system with a special focus on the circuitry of the inferior colliculus, a major hub in auditory subcortical processing. I am especially interested how changes in this circuit contribute to tinnitus and other central auditory processing disorders. Methodologies include electrophysiology and behavioral assessments in animal models with and without tinnitus.
Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences
Lindsay Butler
Research Interests:
My research investigates the features of speech and language in autistic children and adolescents who have minimal to low spoken language. In addition, we aim to understand the sensory-motor and neural correlates of expressive and receptive language in this population. We use a variety of flexible, autism-friendly behavioral and neuroimaging methods including natural language sampling, touchscreen assessments, experimental methods and functional near-infrared spectroscopy.
Nursing
Postdoctoral Researcher
Sharon Casavant
Research Interests:
My research interests focus on the effects of repeated painful/stressful procedures in preterm infants within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Research has demonstrated that those experiences alter DNA methylation, gene expression and possibly telomere length. Our research question is whether there are associations between those epigenetic changes and infant neurodevelopment.
Chi-Ming Chen
Research Interests:
My lab is interested in translating neurophysiological knowledge into interventions for neurological and psychiatric disorders. We are interested in conducting research that will aid in developing and translating advanced neurophysiological knowledge into novel treatments for medication-resistant schizophrenia. Specifically, we hope to test interventions and new chemical compounds to ameliorate pathological neural oscillations in schizophrenia.
Examples of our current research projects are: (1) using MRI techniques (fMRI, DTI), EEG, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to investigate neural oscillations and auditory sensory processing in healthy participant and schizophrenia patients at the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center of Hartford Hospital, (2) investigating the effect of acute administration of ketamine on glutamate, GABA, and neuronal oscillations in healthy participants (simultaneous MRS-EEG recordings), (3) using machine-learning models to identify "optimal" neural oscillatory patterns from high definition scalp EEGs for cognitive functions and computer-assisted (i.e., brain-computer interface) cognitive remediation programs in healthy participants and patients with schizophrenia, (4) investigating the normal patterns of EEGs in healthy participants while they are performing the jitter orientation visual integration task, (5) investigating ketamine-induced changes of neural oscillations and parval bumin-positive interneurons in rats after acute and subchronic ketamine injections across different developmental stages by using intracranial recordings and staining methods.
Statistics
Ming-Hui Chen
Research Interests:
My research interests include Big Data, Bayesian Statistical Methodology, Bayesian Computation, Bayesian Phylogenetics, Categorical Data Analysis, Design of Bayesian Clinical Trials, DNA Microarray Data Analysis, Meta-analysis, Missing Data Analysis (EM, MCEM, and Bayesian), Monte Carlo Methodology, Statistical Methodology and Analysis for Prostate Cancer Data, Statistical Modeling, Survival Data Analysis, and Variable Selection.
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
Yongku Cho
Research Interests:
My research group develops engineered proteins to detect and control biological processes. We are currently focusing on engineering antibodies specific to protein post-translational modifciations that can be used as biomarkers of neurodegeneration.
James Chrobak
Research Interests:
My research focuses on the physiology and function of hippocampal circuits with particular emphasis on neural network dynamics (e.g., theta and gamma oscillations) which support the transient formation and synchronization of neuronal ensembles across brain structures. Studies in my laboratory typically involve anatomical analyses, neurophysiological recordings of awake-behaving rodents and assessment of "episodic" (delayed conditional discrimination) memory performance.
Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences
Carl Coelho
Research Interests:
A main focus of my research is to gain a better understanding of how diffuse and focal brain damage disrupts language processes such as discourse. Studying language at the level of discourse permits the examination of both linguistic and cognitive influences and how these components are integrated for successful social interactions.
Joanne Conover
Research Interests:
The overarching goal of my research program is to understand properties of the brain's stem cell niches, their potential for stem cell-mediated reparative functions, and the use and application of these findings to model and understand human disease. Currently, we combine 3D modeling of brain structures with detailed tissue histochemistry to generate longitudinal maps of gross structural changes at the cellular level. Projects include both animal models and human MR data and tissue, and focus on: (1) injury (concussion, traumatic brain injury), disease (fetal hydrocephalus, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and aging.
Psychological Sciences
Marie Coppola
Research Interests:
My research program centers on how language emerges within individuals and communities, as well as how atypical language experiences affect cognitive development. I study a new Deaf community sign language that emerged in Nicaragua in the 1970s and homesigners (deaf individuals who have not had the opportunity to acquire a conventional language). My latest project investigates the impact of language experience on the development of number concepts in deaf and hard of hearing children in the US.
Genetics & Genome Sciences, UConn Health
Justin Cotney
Research Interests:
My lab is interested in understanding the role of non-coding regulatory sequences in controlling embryonic development. We are particularly interested in identifying sequences that when either mutated or inappropriately activated lead to developmental abnormalities such as cleft lip and/or palate as well as neurodevelopmental disorders.
Neuroscience, UConn Health
Stephen Crocker
Research Interests:
The Crocker lab has been studying the roles of non-myelinating glia (astrocytes and microglia) in demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system. Specific projects include study on neural progenitor cells derived from patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells from multiple sclerosis patients, the role of microglia in globoid cell leukodystrophy and the influence of exosome signaling on astrocyte biology and autoimmunity.
Psychological Sciences
Kimberly Cuevas
Research Interests:
My laboratory examines the ontogeny of basic and higher-order cognitive skills during infancy and early childhood. Our work combines neuroscience and biopsychosocial perspectives, emphasizing connections between animal and human literature. Our primary research interests fall into three main themes: experimental investigation of early learning and memory; longitudinal and individual difference analysis of emerging executive functions; and neuroscience foundations of socio-cognitive development.
Dipak Dey
Research Interests:
My research interests are Bayesian Analysis, Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Computational Statistics, Medical Image Processing, Statistical Shape Analysis, and Statistical Genetics. In the past I have collaborated with many UConn scientists, you can click here for more details.
My current research is on "Harnessing Big Data through Statistical Modeling".
Psychological Sciences
James Dixon
Research Interests:
My colleagues and I work on fundamental issues in perception, action, and cognition. The overarching goal of our research program is to understand behavior as a natural extension of self-organizing systems. A foundational premise of our work is that all biological systems run on multi-scale, nested architectures that are intrinsically non-decomposable.
Engineering
Abhishek Dutta
Research Interests:
My research interest lies in solving practical problems in large scale mechatronic and biological systems by developing mathematical analysis based on stochastic and robust optimization, constrained control and machine learning.
Damir Dzhafarov
Research Interests:
My research is in computability theory and reverse mathematics, which are subfields of mathematical logic. Among the general questions I am interested in are how mathematicians prove the theorems they prove, what the limits are to what can be proved, and to what degree proofs can be generated algorithmically. More specifically, I try to variously describe the complexity of theorems and proof techniques (which may be regarded as methods of reasoning) from different parts of mathematics, and areas outside of mathematics like cognitive science, and look for connections between them.
Inge-Marie Eigsti
Research Interests:
My research addresses a fundamental issue in human cognition: how constraints imposed by brain development and core neurocognitive processes impact language acquisition. As a scientist, I am intrigued by the interaction of language acquisition and brain development. As a clinician, I am motivated to understand the puzzles presented by atypical development, particularly autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its consequences, because of what they mean for intervention. Although most research on language acquisition and neurocognitive processes is based on typically developing learners, the study of differences in development can lead to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of growth and change. We use multiple converging approaches in my lab: experimental behavioral tasks, structural and functional imaging, and eyetracking, in our research.
Neuroscience; Molecular Biology & Biophysics, UConn Health
Betty Eipper
Research Interests:
I am interested in the synthesis, storage and secretion of neuropeptides. In addition to studying the enzymes unique to neuropeptide synthesis, I study the formation and exocytosis of the secretory granules that store these neuropeptides. We use primary neuronal cultures, neuroendocrine cell lines and genetically engineered mice to study this process.
Electrical & Computer Engineering; Biomedical Engineering
Monty Escabi
Research Interests:
Humans can easily recognize a familiar voice, identify a musical tune, or segregate a single speaker in a crowded room. Yet these seemingly simple tasks present major challenges to our most sophisticated computers. I study the central auditory system in mammals to understand how the brain encodes and recognizes natural sounds including speech. Our lab employs neural recordings in the auditory midbrain and cortex and neural models to understand the neural basis for sound recognition.
Psychological Sciences
Holly Fitch
Research Interests:
Dr. Fitch’s studies rodent models of developmental disability and neonatal brain injury and developmental disability. Her research interests also include modulating effects of hormones and experience and neuroprotection.
Materials Science and Engineering
Pu-Xian Gao
Research Interests:
Materials Science and Nanotechnology for Energy, Environmental, and Biomedical Applications; Sensors; Catalysis; Brain-machine Interface; In-situ/Operando Characterization
Adrian Garcia-Sierra
Research Interests:
Over the past 10 years my research has focused on the influence of language on the perception of speech sounds from infancy through young adulthood, investigating cross-cultural speech perception in native speakers of Spanish and English and cross-language speech perception in bilingual individuals. My primary research method is electrophysiology. However, I also employ behavioral and naturalistic paradigms and describe the results of my research across the lifespan from perceptual development.
Krystyna Gielo-Perczak
Research Interests:
As a biomedical engineer, I'm involved in design of biomedical devices and interested in multidisciplinary approach to human centered design, rehabilitation, human-robot and exoskeleton interactions for the purpose of augmenting human capabilities, assisting disabled persons, increasing human performance and safety. The methodology brings many disciplines in its study of humans and their environments, including biomechanics, neuroscience, systems view, physiology and psychology.
Website
Music
Daniel Goldberg
Research Interests:
I study culture, cognition, and performance of musical meter and rhythm, using methods including timing measurements, experiments, interviews, and participant observation. My recent work focuses on meters with unequal durations in Bulgarian folk music and dance.
Psychological Sciences
Amy Gorin
Research Interests:
Weight loss and maintenance
Health behavior change
Website
Haskins Laboratories
Vincent Gracco
Research Interests:
My research focuses on the neuroscience of human communication using multiple neuroimaging modalities and physiological techniques. Current research areas focus on the development and mechanisms of sensorimotor control for spoken language, sensorimotor dysfunctions associated with stuttering and other speech motor disorders, neuroplasticity and sensorimotor learning, bilingualism and the relationship between language and music.
Philosophy
Mitchell Green
Research Interests:
My work is primarily in the pragmatics of communication, focusing on the mechanisms by which speakers mean more (or sometimes less) than what they say. As such I have done work on implicature, speech act theory, presupposition, the kinematics of conversation, and expressive behavior. I also have interests in empathy, the evolution of communication, and the epistemic value of literature.
Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences
Bernard Grela
Research Interests:
My research interests include examining processing based deficits in children with language impairments. These consist of assessing production errors associated with increasing linguistic complexity in children with specific language impairment and Down syndrome, and communicative deficits associated with ASD. I also look at language deficits and reading disorders in both children and adults.
Kinesiology
Steven Harrison
Research Interests:
My interests are in developing an understanding of human perception and action from an ecological and dynamical systems perspective. In the pursuit of this I have studied human postural control, locomotion, tool use and navigation.
Psychological Sciences; BIRC
Fumiko Hoeft
Research Interests:
I have theoretical interests in the neurobiological mechanisms underlying individual differences in brain maturational processes, acquisition of skills such as literacy and how they interact.
Patrick Hogan
Research Interests:
I work principally at the intersection of cognitive science and literary study, examining such topics as the nature of aesthetic response, the operation of simulation in authors and readers, the ways in which literary study can advance our understanding of emotion, the political psychology of social identity (e.g., national identity) as it relates to narrative structure, and the existence and variety of narrative universals.
Haskins Laboratories
Julia Irwin
Research Interests:
My research program explores the role of the face in the perception of speech. I examine the development of audiovisual speech perception in typically developing children and adults and in special populations, including children with autism spectrum disorders. This work makes use of eye-tracking and event related potentials (ERP) to assess key factors that underlie perception of seen and heard speech and their spatial and temporal signatures.
Alexander Jackson
Research Interests:
Research in the laboratory is focused on the cellular and synaptic neurophysiology of neural circuits in the mammalian hypothalamus that regulate fundamental behavioral states such as sleep, arousal and feeding. Techniques are centered on using patch-clamp electrophysiology and pharmacology in brain slices in order to elucidate the cellular and synaptic properties of specific hypothalamic cell-types and their local and long-range synaptic connectivity. This approach is carried out in concert with a toolbox of neuroanatomical methods, optogenetic strategies to manipulate the excitability of genetically targeted neurons and through collaborative work, single-cell transcriptional profiling.
Gitte Joergensen
Research Interests:
I am interested in how we represent different dimensions of events during language processing. More specifically, I am interested in how changes in time, and state are processed and integrated into current event representations. For example, in sentences like “The woman will drop the ice cream. But first, she will look at the ice cream”, we must maintain two distinct representations of the ice cream - before and after it was dropped. But how do these representations interact as language unfolds?
Kavitha Kannan
Research Interests:
I am interested in studying the molecular mechanisms behind neurodegenerative disease progression using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. My current research uses genetic tools available in Drosophila combined with cellular and molecular biology approaches to identify novel genetic modifiers that play key roles in in human neurodegenerative diseases.
Devin Kearns
Research Interests:
I am interested in reading acquisition in children with and at risk for dyslexia. My research includes studies of basic processes in reading--particularly for polysyllabic and polymorphemic words--and interventions to improve word reading skills.
Brian Kelley
Research Interests:
I study mechanisms of diffuse axonal injury (DAI) in a pre-clinical model of diffuse brain injury (DBI). Translational research efforts focus on understanding DBI-mediated axonal injury pathobiology and related neuroinflammatory responses as well as therapeutic strategies designed to mitigate secondary mechanisms of brain injury.
Debra Kendall
Research Interests:
My research goal is to understand the structure and function of the cannabinoid receptor family (CB1 and CB2). CB1 is highly expressed in the CNS while CB2 is more common in peripheral tissues. My recent work includes examining the allosteric modulation of CB1 and my laboratory has identified examples of allosteric ligand biased signaling via G protein independent pathways.
Psychological Sciences
Postdoctoral Researcher
Ji Chul Kim
Research Interests:
I study the perceptual organization of musical structures by building computational models of music cognition and auditory neural processing. I am interested in the organizational principles of pitch and rhythmic structures, such as tonality and meter, and seek to explain them as dynamic pattern formation in neural systems embedded in musical environments.

Kinesiology
Jeffrey Kinsella-Shaw
Research Interests:
My research interests include applications of non-linear dynamical methods to motor control; rehabilitation science and regenerative medicine, neurological rehabilitation assessments and interventions (e.g. TMS, exercise prescription, etc.) for patients surviving stroke or TBI, or with diagnoses of progressive neurological disorders e.g. multiple sclerosis or affective disorders, e.g. Major Depressive Disorder

Nursing
Steve Kinsey
Research Interests:
I am a biomedical researcher with specialized training in behavioral neuroscience, immunology, and pharmacology. My students and I research the effects of stress and drugs on pain, inflammation, and emotion. My goal is to apply pain and drug dependence research approaches to find new opioid-sparing pain treatments.

Statistics
Lynn Kuo
Research Interests:
Biostatistics and Bioinformatics: specifically, survival analysis, longitudinal data analysis, multivariate analysis, functional data analysis, multilevel modeling, meta-analysis, experimental design, computational biology, Bayesian phylogenetics, analysis of omic (genomic, proteomic, and next generation sequence) data which includes visualization of data, statistical learning, dimension reduction, marker detection, test validation, multiple hypothesis testing, and prediction.
UConn School of Medicine
Shabnam Lainwala
Research Interests:
I am most interested in early nutrition of a preterm infant and long term health outcomes of prematurely born children. I am the director of the Regional Neonatal Neurodevelopmental Follow-Up Program at CT Children’s Medical Center. Currently, in collaboration with professors at UCONN health center, I am principal investigator (PI) or co- investigator on multiple projects that are directly aligned with my core interests of long term neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Psychological Sciences
Nicole Landi
Research Interests:
My research focuses on a language and reading development in typically developing children and adolescents, and in children with complex neurodevelopmental disorders, including dyslexia, SLI and autism. In my work I use multiple methodologies including fMRI, sMRI, EEG, ERP eyetracking & genetic analyses to explore the underlying etiology of typical and atypical language and reading processes.
Psychological Sciences
Ed Large
Research Interests:
My research areas include nonlinear dynamical systems, auditory neuroscience, and music psychology. I use theoretical modeling in conjunction with behavioral, comparative, neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques to understand how people respond to complex, temporally structured sequences of sound such as music and speech.
Brittany Lee
Research Interests:
I study the psycholinguistics of reading and currently use EEG and ERPs to investigate predictors of response to reading intervention in children with dyslexia. I previously studied language processing in deaf individuals, including phonological processing in American Sign Language (ASL), language co-activation in ASL-English bilinguals, and word processing in deaf readers.
Eric Levine
Research Interests:
My laboratory studies synaptic modulation in the hippocampus and cortex of the mammalian brain, focusing on the roles of endogenous cannabinoids and nerve growth factors in various forms of synaptic plasticity that are important for learning and memory. We are also using patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) lines to study the pathophysiology of autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders.
Yuanhao James Li
Research Interests:
The long-term goal of my research program is to understand the developmental biology of the central nervous system, particularly the cerebellum. I have established and maintained a long-standing research program studying how interplays between intrinsic and extrinsic factors control cell fate specification and cell differentiation. While we use mouse genetics as the primary research approach, our studies are augmented by complementary studies in chick, embryonic stem cells, and transcriptomics.
Diane Lillo-Martin
Research Interests:
My research investigates the nature of language and its acquisition by studying American Sign Language (ASL), the acquisition of ASL by Deaf children, bimodal bilingual acquisition of ASL and spoken English by hearing children in Deaf-parented families, and the acquisition of English by hearing children. I am especially interested in how the study of sign languages can contribute to broadening understanding of what is universal and what is modality-specific.
Human Development & Family Sciences
Caitlin Lombardi
Research Interests:
My research examines the roles of family, early child care, school and community for promoting children’s cognitive and social-emotional development, particularly in the context of economic and social disadvantages. One focus of this work is on the development of mathematics and spatial skills over childhood, seeking to understand the role of individual characteristics and environmental influences in order to identify opportunities for intervention.
UCH Neuroscience
Agnieszka Lukomska
Research Interests:
My research interests include the study of novel approaches to central nervous system regeneration, especially axon regeneration after injury. My other research interests focus around understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in neuroplasticity, neurotoxicity, and oxidative stress-induced changes in neural tissues.
Philosophy
Michael P Lynch
Research Interests:
Representation, truth, consciousness, understanding and science communication
Neuroscience, UConn Health
Xin-Ming Ma
Research Interests:
My research interest is to understand the molecular mechanisms of dendritic spine formation and the dendritic spine pathology underlying psychiatric disorders including depression and schizophrenia. We use primary neuronal cultures, human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons from schizophrenic patients and animal models of depression to study the mechanisms.
Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
Akshay Maggu
Research Interests:
My research is aimed at understanding the intersectional effects of auditory, cognitive, and linguistic processing on speech and language perception and learning in the brain. Using behavioral, electrophysiological, and training-based techniques, my research employs paradigms that are geared toward the understanding of both typical and impaired perceptual systems.
Psychological Sciences
Jim Magnuson
Research Interests:
Neurobiology and psychology of language, including processing, development, and disorders of spoken and written language. Computational models as theory-building tools. Developing comprehensive understanding of language and learning over the lifespan from cognitive, neural and genetic perspectives through interdisciplinary collaborations. Science communication
Psychiatry, UConn Health
Kevin Manning
Research Interests:
My work focuses on the neurobiology and clinical expression of late-life depression syndromes. To date, my research has focused on the identification of executive dysfunction and neuroticism as behavioral predictors of poor antidepressant treatment response and cognitive decline in late-life depression. My colleagues and I are currently working on understanding whether novel treatments (e.g., computerized cognitive training) improve depression in older adults.
Psychological Sciences
Etan Markus
Research Interests:
Memory formation, hippocampal processing, rats, electrophysiology and neurobiology of aging
Neuroscience, UConn Health
David Martinelli
Research Interests:
My research focus is on synaptic adhesion proteins, which bind two neurons together at a synapse and are at the junction of our genes and experiences. My goal is to understand the molecular logic of how these proteins orchestrate synaptic formation, modification, and function, and to ultimately provide an explanation for how these events influence behaviors.
Karen Menuz
Research Interests:
My lab studies the mechanisms supporting robust responses to odors in the insect olfactory system. Currently, we are interested in how the molecular and cellular environment surrounding olfactory neurons influences their activity, and ultimately odor-driven behaviors. We take advantage of the tremendous number of genetic tools available in the fruit fly Drosophila in order to identify conserved molecules and mechanisms that likely have a similar role in insect vectors of human disease.
UCHC
Marmar Moussa
Research Interests:
My current research focus is the development of computational methods for the analysis of single cell omics data with special focus on scRNA-seq data in Immunology research.
Jennifer Mozeiko
Research Interests:
Research in the Aphasia Rehab Lab is focused on the optimization of aphasia rehabilitation. Specifically, we are looking at how clinicians can manipulate the neuroplastic response to treatment for the best possible language outcomes. Dosage, durability of treatment over time and generalization of gains to discourse production are predominant themes in much of our work.
Physiology and Neurobiology
Dan Mulkey
Research Interests:
My research focuses on understanding how the brain controls breathing.
Emily Myers
Research Interests:
My research program focuses on the neural and behavioral mechanisms that enable listeners to map the speech signal onto meaning. In this program of study, I use neuroimaging techniques, principally fMRI, to investigate how the brain responds to acoustic variation within and between categories, and behavioral methods to probe the mechanisms that allow for parsing the speech stream into meaningful categories. These questions are applied to typical populations as well as to individuals with acquired language disorders (aphasia) or developmental language disorders (reading disorder, language impairment).
Letitia Naigles
Research Interests:
My research interests target the roles of environment and biology in the question of how children acquire their first language. I investigate environmental effects via studies of typical children learning a wide range of languages (e.g., Chinese, Turkish, Spanish). I investigate biological effects via studies of children with a neurodevelopmental disorder called Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). I frequently rely on a method called Intermodal Preferential Looking (IPL), which reveals fine details of young children's language comprehension. I am beginning research to link up children's language processing and neural structure and function.
Thanh Duc Nguyen
Research Interests:
Nerve regeneration, nerve stimulation/engineering and neuronal mechanics.
Website
Akiko Nishiyama
Research Interests:
The role of glial cells (non-neuronal) in the neural network.
Website
Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch
Research Interests:
My research focuses on the use of digital technologies for communication, information sharing, and learning. Specific areas of research include how people engage with news content on social media, the role of online social networks in health, and the use of social media for science communication.
Neuroscience, UConn Health
Douglas Oliver
Research Interests:
We study the neural circuits in the auditory system and the changes in the brain imposed by tinnitus and hearing loss. The CNS reacts to changes in the ear, and this leads to plastic changes in the central auditory system. Understanding these plastic changes is a key to providing new therapy. Recently, we have discovered neurons that fire for minutes after the offset of a long duration sound. This unusual form of plasticity may be related to tinnitus and the perception of a phantom sound.
Michael O’Neill
Research Interests:
My lab is investigating the hypothesis that the well-recognized 4:1 male bias in Autism Spectrum Disorder may be due to parent-specific epigenetic signatures on the X chromosome. We were the first to identify parent-specific gene expression, a.k.a genomic imprinting on the X chromosome in mice, and have focused recent efforts on understanding the mechanism of imprinting of these genes, their function during neurodevelopment, and the potential for misregulation of the human orthologs of these genes.
Molecular & Cell Biology
Rachel O’Neill
Research Interests:
The development of genome-scale sequence data and novel next generation sequencing (NGS) applications has provided a foundation for studying biological processes in targeted species; in my lab, we capitalize on using NGS approaches and chromosomics to compare the genomes of different species and different genomes across human disease states, affording a greater understanding of genome evolution and the functional elements dispersed among coding and non-coding regions.

Physiology & Neurobiology
Linnaea Ostroff
Research Interests:
My research focuses on how changes in synapse structure and synaptic connectivity underlie emotional learning, particularly learning to differentiate safety from danger. Brain circuits converging on the amygdala mediate responses to threatening stimuli, and my work combines serial electron microscopy reconstruction with behavioral experiments, genetic markers, and immunohistochemistry to investigate the circuit and synaptic basis of learning in the amygdala.
Psychological Sciences
Flora Oswald
Research Interests:
My research focuses on understanding how people with marginalized identities perceive and experience their social worlds. I use a wide variety of qualitative, quantitative, research synthesis, and vision-based approaches to address my research questions.
Joel Pachter
Research Interests:
The major focus of my lab is the role(s) of the CNS barriers, e.g., blood-brain barrier and blood-CSF barrier, in physiology and pathophysiology.
As these barriers are fundamental to maintaining CNS homeostasis, even subtle disruptions in their function can lead to marked neurobiolological and cognitive changes. CNS barriers are also a main regulator of drug delivery, and so are major determinants in the efficacy and toxicity of drug action in the brain.
Website
Psychological Sciences
Alexandra Paxton
Research Interests:
I take a data-rich approach to capture the many ways in which our language, movement, decisions, and emotions change during social contact in laboratory and real-world settings. Understanding how conversational goals, social connections, and physical spaces shape our emerging behaviors is a primary goal of my research, embedded within rich traditions of dynamical and ecological perspectives. Recently, I have also become interested in exploring social behaviors in non-human systems.
Mallory Perry-Eaddy
Research Interests:
Dr. Perry-Eaddy is a nurse scientist and pediatric critical care nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). She is an NIH/NIGMS MOSAIC Scholar exploring the potential role of inflammation and post-PICU outcomes in critically ill children, including physical and cognitive outcomes.
Psychological Sciences
Diane Quinn
Research Interests:
Obesity and Weight Cycling. Concealable Stigma. Psychological Well-Being and Health.
Psychological Sciences
Nairán Ramírez-Esparza
Research Interests:
I am a social psychologist and my research aims to answers questions about how culture and language influence personality, behavior, and health. In order to answer these questions, I use multiple methodological approaches, including digital recording devices, text analytic tools, and brain measures.
Heather Read
Research Interests:
My research examines the neurobiology underlying the ability to discriminate and categorize vocalizations at the single neuron, neural circuit and behavioral levels. In addition to developing comprehensive theories for how biological systems discriminate social communications, we aim to develop new strategies for speech recognition, prosthetic hearing devices and diagnosis of central auditory processing disorders.
Human Development & Family Sciences
Ronald Rohner
Research Interests:
As author of interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory, my research for past six decades focused on the effects, causes, and correlates of interpersonal acceptance-rejection. Included in this this work is an interest in the neurobiological and genetic substrates underlying universal response-tendencies to the experience of interpersonal rejection by significant others. In particular, I am interested in the neural correlates of adults’ remembrances of parental acceptance-rejection in childhood.
Psychological Sciences
Jay Rueckl
Research Interests:
I use behavioral methods, neuroimaging, and computational modeling to study reading and reading acquisition. I study individual differences within and across language populations and typical and atypical development to understand how the organization of the reading system is shaped by the properties of the writing system. I am also interested in the role of domain-general learning and memory mechanisms (e.g. declarative and procedural memory, statistical learning) in reading acquisition.
Beth Russell
Research Interests:
I study the development of self-control from birth through early adulthood. Many of my research experiences with infancy and early childhood samples demonstrates that the executive function skills used to regulate parent-infant interactions are teachable, and that improving parent self-regulation is a skill set that serves to support positive parent-child interactions throughout childhood. Given the importance of self control for group learning contexts and its significant enduring associations with adaptive outcomes into adulthood, elaborating on the contributing factors to children’s self control is warranted. Later in the lifespan, research on youth engaged in risk behaviors suggests that emotion regulation is a key outcome which fosters youths’ capacities to face contextual/social and biological challenges and respond to obstacles in adaptive rather than maladaptive ways. Such contextual/social and biological challenges include peer influence and parents’ history of substance use, as well as adolescent impulsivity and poor distress tolerance -- these are each significantly associated with adolescent substance use. Much of my research focuses with these older samples on risk trajectories for adolescent substance use, in particular examining impulsivity and inhibitory control as outcomes from a range of recovery programs.
Psychological Sciences
John Salamone
Research Interests:
Psychopharmacology and drug development; Neurochemistry, signal transduction, and behavior; Behavioral functions of dopamine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and adeenosine; Animal models of Parkinson’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, fatigue
Sabato Santaniello
Research Interests:
My laboratory develops modeling and analysis tools to understand the effects of neural disorders on the brain’s electrophysiology, from single units to neural populations. We also focus on designing control algorithms for adaptive, robust, optimal neural prostheses, with application to Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, deep brain stimulation, and brain-computer interface. One ongoing project aims to develop algorithms for automatic localization of the epileptogenic onset zone and seizure onset detection in drug-resistant epileptic patients. Another ongoing project aims to understand the role of stimulation-elicited resonant effects in the motor striatum in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Pharmaceutical Sciences
Gregory Sartor
Research Interests:
My research interests include: animal models of drug addiction, behavioral pharmacology, epigenetics, cell type-specific mechanisms, and drug discovery.
Natale Sciolino
Research Interests:
Our research focuses on defining the connectivity and function of brain circuits that regulate motivational processes related to feeding and reward. We utilize intersectional genetic and optical imaging approaches with the goal to provide future treatments for obesity and psychiatric disorders, such as addiction and anxiety.
Erika Skoe
Research Interests:
My research examines how the human central auditory system encodes complex, naturalistic sounds (speech, music) across the lifespan. I am particularly interested in how environmental enrichment and impoverishment affect this encoding process, and then ultimately how the fidelity of sound encoding affects language development and cognitive flexibility.
Linguistics
William Snyder
Research Interests:
William Snyder is a specialist in linguistic theory. His research focuses on the mechanisms of language acquisition in children. A key feature of his work is the Principles-and-Parameters approach, which connects the language acquisition process in children to the patterns of grammatical variation that we see across different languages of the world.
Tammie Spaulding
Research Interests:
My research is focused on maximizing our ability to accurately diagnose specific language impairment in early childhood in order to provide early and optimal interventions to remediate the deficits that children with language impairment encounter. My secondary line of
investigation is focused on understanding the cognitive difficulties associated with specific language impairment in order to improve our theoretical understanding of the nature of this disorder and to determine how such deficits impede the language learning process.
Kinesiology
Sudha Srinivasan
Research Interests:
My interests lie in understanding links between sub-systems over the course of development including motor-cognitive, motor-social, and motor-communication links. I am also interested in developing multi-system, engaging rehabilitation interventions/assistive technologies that can improve the lives of people with neuro-developmental disabilities and assess the impact of these therapies on neuroplasticity and functional outcomes.
Psychological Sciences
Ian Stevenson
Research Interests:
My long term research goals focus on understanding how information is represented and processed in the brain - both at the level of individual neurons as well as the nervous system as a whole. In collaboration with electrophysiologists, my lab uses and develops machine learning methods to understand how populations of neurons interact and adapt, and, using behavioral experiments, we develop probabilistic models of human perception and behavior. Our current research and immediate plans revolve around two broad themes: 1) modeling neural dynamics, interactions, and adaptation and, 2) linking neural data with perception, behavior, and learning. These modeling efforts should ultimately allow us to move beyond traditional stimulus-response models of single neurons and, instead, characterize how neural interactions and dynamics give rise to network activity and behavior.
Psychological Sciences
Umay Suanda
Research Interests:
My research interests lie at the intersection of early cognitive, language and social development. My lab studies the real-time dynamics of toddlers’ language learning environment, how toddlers and their parents shape that environment, and the cognitive and socio-cognitive mechanisms underlying toddlers’ learning.
Psychological Sciences
Whit Tabor
Research Interests:
Humans seem to work best when they balance their need for order with their need for wildness. I've come to this via the study of language structure (theory of syntax), on the one hand, and language change (grammaticalization) and processing (psycholinguistics), on the other. These days, I'm also studying group coordination. I try to clarify ideas via mathematics and modeling at the intersection of the theory of computation and dynamical systems (e.g., neural networks).
Physiology & Neurobiology
Geoffrey Tanner
Research Interests:
My research focuses on dietary therapies for neurological disease. Using Drosophila fruit flies as a model system, we study specifically how diet interacts with neuronal excitability and cell survival to prevent onset or to ameliorate symptoms of prevalent conditions such as epilepsy, CTE, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Neuroscience, UConn Health
Ephraim Trakhtenberg
Research Interests:
Several species of lower vertebrates have the capacity to regenerate and repair the injured central nervous system (CNS). However, in mammals the ability for CNS self-repair is lost during maturation. My goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms of neuronal development and regeneration, and to utilize gained knowledge in developing translational approaches for repairing injured CNS circuits.
Rachel Theodore
Research Interests:
Our research examines the perceptual mechanisms that support language comprehension. We focus on the degree to which language comprehension is shaped by input in the environment, both with respect to perceptual learning in end-state representations as well as plasticity underlying acquisition of speech sound categories in development. We consider these questions using a variety of experimental paradigms including behavioral psychophysics, fMRI, EEG, and computational methods.
Physiology & Neurobiology
Anastasios Tzingounis
Research Interests:
My interest is to reveal the mechanisms by which ion channels and associated molecules and signaling networks control excitability in the neonatal and infantile brain. My lab addresses this question using a multidisciplinary approach that combines electrophysiology, pharmacology and microscopy in genetically modified mice lines that we have developed. Much of my work has dissected the cell-type and brain-region specific effects that potassium channel genes have on neuronal physiology. Going forward, I will continue to study the role of ion channels, expanding my research into their role in controlling neuronal firing rates at the single and population level.
Harry van der Hulst
Research Interests:
My primary research interest is 'phonology', the study of the form of language, both in terms of its physical manifestations and in terms of its underlying mental representations. As such, I formulate and test theories about phonological representations and derivations. This also involves the interfaces between phonology and other components of the grammar (morphology, syntax, semantics and phonetics). I work on the phonology of spoken languages and on the 'phonology' of sign languages, taking a special interest in parallels and differences between these two modalities. Secondary interests are the history of linguistics (specifically phonology), language acquisition (the interplay between environmental input and innate abilities), the evolution of the human mind and language (specifically of phonology) and the expression of meaning through other visual channels such as gesture and (sequential) drawing.
Haskins Laboratories
Julie Van Dyke
Research Interests:
My research investigates the memory system that supports language comprehension, with special focus on individual differences. My approach represents a paradigm shift: rather than focusing on memory capacity as a source of difficulty, I focus on the efficiency of the retrieval mechanism. A related goal is to fully specify the cognitive architecture for language processing, including the mechanisms and time course through which needed information is brought in and out of the focus of attention.
Research in my lab aims to characterize factors that limit the ability to retrieve linguistic information from memory, especially interference, decay, quality of lexical representations, and cognitive control. We investigate these issues in diverse populations, including skilled and unskilled readers, dyslexics, Specific Language Impairment, and aging adults, utilizing a clinical approach which includes extensive assessments of cognitive and linguistic ability. Primary experimental methods include the speed-accuracy tradeoff procedure, which provides detailed data about the dynamics of information retrieval, and eye-movement measures during reading, which identify both the time-course and location of processing difficulties. More recent work incorporates fMRI and ERP methods to reveal the neurological bases of these processes.
Neuroscience, UConn Health
Rajkumar Verma
Research Interests:
My research interests are to study of stroke pathophysiology primarily from a pharmacological treatment and post-stroke recovery perspective in a rodent model of ischemic focal cerebral ischemia. Besides that, I am interested in understanding the impact of neuro-immune and growth factors component in post-stroke behavioral recovery. Recently, we began to explore the role of purinergic receptor P2X4, a ligand-gated ion channel, in ischemic stroke owing to their critical role in immunomodulation.
Linguistics & Psychological Sciences
Postdoctoral Researcher
Sandra Villata
Research Interests:
My research is concerned with the grammar-parser relation: it tries to elucidate the mechanisms at play during real-time computations, and to determine whether the grammar and the parser should be conceived of as two separate systems or as two facets of the same cognitive system. I tackle this issue mostly through the lens of ungrammatical sentences using several experimental methods (e.g. acceptability judgments, self-paced reading, and (in collaboration) EEG and computational modelling).
Neuroscience, UConn Health
Kuruthihalli Vishwanatha
Research Interests:
My research interests include Molecular neuroscience, Developmental neurobiology, neuropeptide amidation, Rho-GEF signaling, Secretory & endocytic pathways and synaptogenesis.
Maxim Volgushev
Research Interests:
My research is aimed at understanding the neuronal basis of brain functioning, with a focus on sensory systems. In recent projects we study: Synaptic transmission and synaptic plasticity; Encoding of input activity in the output signals (sequences of spikes) by cortical neurons; Origin and cellular mechanisms of slow sleep oscillation; Dependence of sensory processing on the state of the brain.
Website
Psychological Sciences
Kristin Walker
Research Interests:
My research interests span developmental, educational, and clinical fields. My work explores how language and cognitive abilities influence children’s development. I currently investigate the effect language has on numerical cognition under the Study of Language and Math. As a prospective clinician and interdisciplinary researcher, I am motivated to improve educational and clinical interventions, specifically for children who are deaf and/or have autism spectrum disorder.
Natural Resources & The Environment (School of Agriculture)
Chandi Witharana
Research Interests:
My research interests broadly center on methodological developments and adaptations, unsealing faster, deeper, and more accurate analysis of high resolution remote sensing data that would otherwise be possible. I delve into the roots of the problem and aim to close the fundamental gaps; sensory gap and the semantic gap, which affect the real-world modality and the level of abstraction we expect from the data modality.
Nursing
Wanli Xu
Research Interests:
My research focus on cognitive function and symptoms cluster in cancer patients. Using multi-omics approach, I am specifically interested in understanding the impact of chemotherapy for colorectal cancer on cognitive impairment and persistent fatigue in patients with colorectal cancer.
Dimitris Xygalatas
Research Interests:
My interests include ritual, cooperation, and the interaction between cognition and culture. My research focuses on the application of scientific methods and technologies in ethnographic field research. I have conducted several years of fieldwork in Southern Europe and Mauritius. Before coming to UConn, I held positions at the universities of Princeton, Aarhus, and Masaryk, where I served as Director of the Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion (LEVYNA). I currently hold a joint position between Aarhus University and the University of Connecticut, where I am directing the Experimental Anthropology Lab.
Statistics
Jun Yan
Research Interests:
Network analysis, extreme value analysis, event time analysis, clustered data analysis, stochastic processes, statistical computing, and applications in neuroscience, environmental sciences, and public health.
Eiling Yee
Research Interests:
I study conceptual processing (a.k.a semantic memory), primarily in the context of language comprehension. I take a multi-pronged approach to investigate these questions, using eye-tracking and imaging methodologies, in normal and impaired populations.
Topics: Semantic memory, the neural representation of concepts, spoken word recognition and language processing, multimodal integration, aphasia and other cognitive deficits, and the neural basis of language.
Cell Biology, UCH
Lixia Yue
Research Interests:
The research goal of our lab is to understand fundamental mechanisms of various diseases in order to identify better targets and to develop ideal therapies for life threatening diseases in cardiovascular system and neurological system. We use state-of-the art technologies to investigate the therapeutic potential of targeting TRP channels in neurodegenerative disorders and cardiovascular problems.
Physiology and Neurobiology
Georgia Zarkada
Research Interests:
My lab investigates the mechanisms regulating the formation and function of vessel networks. We study the blood and lymphatic vascular systems using a combination of genetic mouse models, single-cell transcriptomics, biochemical and molecular approaches, and state of the art imaging techniques. Our goal is to develop new therapeutic opportunities to treat angiogenesis-related diseases.
Molecular & Cellular Biology
Ping Zhang
Research Interests:
We model neurodegenerative diseases in Drosophila. We use genetic and genomic tools to discover critical genes and pathways that mediate neurodegeneration.
Statistics
Yao Zheng
Research Interests:
My research focuses on the statistical learning of time-dependent data. I am currently working on (i) nonasymptotic statistical learning and (ii) high dimensional time series analysis. The objective of (i) is to develop methods that work well even when the sample size is very small, which usually cannot be achieved by conventional asymptotic tools. The objective of (ii) is to develop efficient and robust inference tools for data exhibiting both cross-sectional and time dependencies.
Pengyu Zong
Research Interests:
My research focus on exploring the role of the ion channel TRPM2 in cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, aneurysm and stroke. My goal is to develop and commercialize more effective therapies for cardiovascular diseases based on my identified molecular mechanisms.