IBACS EXECUTIVE STEERING COMMITEE
Neag School of Education
Ido Davidesco
Institute Interim Director
Psychological Sciences
R. Holly Fitch
Research Interests:
Animal models of neurodevelopment and cognition; Models of neurodevelopmental disruption (genetics, early injury) and developmental disability.
Website
Head of Department
Philosophy
Lewis Gordon
Research Interests:
Africana Philosophy, Existentialism, Phenomenology, Philosophy of Science, Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Education, Aesthetics and Philosophy in Film, Literature, and Music, Philosophy of Culture, Race, and Racism, Philosophy of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Psychoanalysis, and Global Southern Thought
Physiology & Neurobiology
Alex 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 and optogenetic strategies to manipulate the excitability of genetically targeted neurons.
Psychological Sciences
James Magnuson
Research Interests:
Neurobiology of language; speech perception; spoken word recognition; sentence processing; reading; language development; developmental and acquired disorders of language; computational models as theory-building tools; developing comprehensive understanding of language plasticity over the lifespan from cognitive, neural and genetic perspectives through interdisciplinary collaborations.
Psychological Sciences
Alex Paxton
Research Interests:
Communication and social interaction as a complex dynamical system (including movement, language, attention, and emotion); Data-rich and dynamics-focused research methods and analyses; Naturally occurring datasets and “big data” for psychological theory-building; Ethics of human-derived data
Institute Associate Director
Biomedical Engineering
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.
Ex Officio Members
Associate Director of Brain Imaging Research Center
Psychological Sciences
Roeland Hancock
Research Interests:
Current research interests include the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study neural excitability in auditory and language processing; distinguishing genetic and environmental contributions to language pathways; and developing tablet-based games for cognitive and literacy assessment.
Head of Department
Psychological Sciences
Diane Quinn
Research Interests:
Obesity and Weight Cycling; Concealable Stigma; Psychological Well-Being and Health
Director of Cognitive Science Program
Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Erika Skoe
Research Interests:
Plasticity of the auditory system, auditory evoked potentials, auditory neurophysiology.
Executive Committee Meetings
Executive Committee members, click here to get details about meeting dates, agendas and minutes.
IBACS INTERNAL ADVISORY BOARD
- Jeff Shoulson - Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Initiatives
- Ofer Harel - Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Affairs
- Michelle Williams - Associate Vice President, Research
- Michael Lynch - Director, Humanities Institute
- George Kuchel - Director, Center on Aging, UConn Health Center
- Amy Gorin - Director, Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP)
The remit of the internal advisory board is to advise both on shorter- and longer-term issues of strategic importance (i.e. advising both on Institute-internal matters but also on issues that may impact externally on the Institute – e.g. strategic developments at UConn, building and space developments, etc.). The board will also monitor and evaluate the extent to which the Institute is meeting both its own and UConn’s broader institutional aims.
Internal Advisory Board Meetings
Internal Advisory Board Members, click here to get details about meeting dates, agendas and minutes.