Sweyta L
- Research Program Mentor
PhD at University of Pittsburgh
Expertise
systems neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, addiction, neurodegeneration, psychiatric disorders, MATLAB programming, biostatistics
Bio
I am interested in how the brain works! I love figuring out how the brain perceives stimuli in the environment and converts that to useful decisions about whether or not to act. For example, you are in the woods and see a bear coming towards you and you have to decide quickly whether to be still or run away. So much is going in the brain at that moment from perception to prediction to decision making and action! My passion is figuring out all the neural elements of these processes. Aside from neuroscience, I spend my time hiking in nature, walking at the beach, playing guitar, or reading a fiction book. Currently I'm reading the broken earth series!Project ideas
How the state of the brain impacts neural processing and behavior
Let's imagine two scenarios. Scenario 1: you are sitting in the back of a classroom and the room is warm and cozy. As the teacher/professor is explaining a boring topic, your attention drifts in and out and you process little of what is being discussed. Scenario 2: Your crush is standing 10 feet away from you and whispering something to a friend. Their conversation is very faint but you process and remember every little detail that you can overhear. These are two different scenarios where your brain is in completely distinct internal attention/arousal states. These differences in brain states, which can be internally driven (sleepy or alert, sad or happy) or external (engaging in physical activity versus sitting on the couch), impact all aspects of neural processing from responsiveness to sensory stimuli to processing of the meaning of the stimuli to decision making. On a daily basis, our internal and external states fluctuate all the time and are, unknown to us, impacting all aspects of our lives. Interestingly, neural chemicals in the brain such as dopamine, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine play a big role in the state dependent modulation of brain activity. We can explore the role of these arousal states on neural processing and behavior by writing a review paper or hosting a series of podcasts or creating blogs on the topic. We can also do some fun at-home experiments on ourselves or family and friends, such as whether running or other physical exercise improves sensory perception or memory! Or maybe there is an activity that makes you happy and boosts your dopamine levels, like eating chocolate or shopping or playing video games, do those activities improve your sensory perception and performance?
