CNS*2025 Florence

What should people talk to me about? I have done modeling projects on gap junctions, very fast oscillations, and epilepsy. I have also done data analysis on sleep data using independent component analysis (ICA). (My blurb for LinkedIn is below.) Other than that, I teach at a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin. There, I have recently delved into Inquiry Based Learning, teaching students statistics using simulations, R, and Python.---------------------------------I am interested in very fast oscillations (VFOs, >80 Hz), neocortical processing and state. VFOs are found in the neocortex and hippocampus, and are seen during sleep, neocortical processing, and in epileptic tissue. My work on modeling VFOs focuses on networks of axons connected by gap junctions or an axonal plexus. This work not only shows a mechanisms for neural communication through a gap junction network, but has implications for how VFOs may lead to temporal lobe epilepsy.My work in analyzing state and neocortical processing takes advantage of a relatively new technique called independent component analysis (ICA). ICA takes signals from multiple recordings and linearly decouples the signals into different sources based on timing and location of the different sources. This analysis can reveal sources that are low amplitude, and therefore may go unnoticed in the original signal. This work has so far revealed underlying theta oscillations in rats during synchronized states (non-REM sleep, quiet waking), where theta oscillations were previously noted only during desynchronized states (REM sleep, active waking).