Dr. Melissa Caras, University of Maryland, "Learning to Listen: Cortical mechanisms of auditory perceptual learning"
- Event Type
- Seminar/Symposium
- Sponsor
- MIP Seminar Committee
- Virtual
- Join online
- Date
- Jan 20, 2022 11:00 am
- Speaker
- Melissa L. Caras, PhD.
- Contact
- Julie Moore
- jmoor@illinois.edu
- Views
- 106
- Originating Calendar
- Molecular and Integrative Physiology (MIP) Department Seminar Series
"Learning to Listen: Cortical mechanisms of auditory perceptual learning"
Research
The ability to improve and refine sensory facilities with practice - a process known as perceptual learning - is critical for the acquisition of a variety of complex behaviors, including speech and language. The fundamental importance of perceptual learning in shaping our day-to-day actions and perceptions makes it of vital interest to determine how training-based improvements are implemented in the brain. Dr. Caras explores this issue by measuring and manipulating the activation of neural circuits in freely-moving, behaving animals, with a primary focus on plasticity in auditory and top-down modulatory networks. Her laboratory employs a number of advanced approaches, including wireless recordings from multichannel electrode arrays, optogenetics, targeted infusions of pharmacological agents, quantitative animal behavior, and neuroanatomical tracing.
https://biology.umd.edu/melissa-caras.html