Research Areas in Behavioral Neuroscience

The Behavioral Neuroscience group at Florida Atlantic University is broadly interested in understanding brain - behavior relationships by investigating neural circuits, and the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie complex behavior. Our behavioral neuroscience labs utilize a variety of techniques including neuropharmacological (drug and chemogenetic), neurophysiological (in vivo recording of neuronal ensembles, local field potentials, and EEG), computational modeling, optogenetics, and immunohistochemical analyses, as well as numerous behavioral tasks. Much of the research in this area is conducted using a number of model systems, from humans to laboratory rodents. Department of Psychology faculty conducting behavioral neuroscience research at FAU are all members of The FAU Brain Institute.

• Nancy Aaron Jones, Neurophysiology and neurobiology of infants and children at risk.
• Simon Pieraut, Ph.D., Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying experience-dependent plasticity.
  Key areas: Brain development, learning and memory, mental illness, and synaptic remodeling.
• Monica Rosselli, Neuropsychological assessment of cognition in aged and Alzheimer's patients; bilingualism.
• Robert Stackman Jr., Hippocampal neuronal activity and its contribution to spatial and non-spatial memory processes.
• Robert Vertes, Neuroanatomical and functional analysis of the contribution of midline thalamic regions to sleep, attention, and memory.