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I have been a professor at Laurier since 2023 where I run the Neural Interactions of Social Expectations and Learning (NInSEL) research lab, teach courses in neuroscience (most commonly PS263 and PS363), help with some small ins-and-outs of universitiy business, learn, and try to stay relevant and useful--particularly to bright young students.
Before Laurier I was a professor at University of Montana, where I did a lot of the same, but with mountains.
My postdoctoral work was in Toronto, where I tried many projects in many labs, and even published on a few of them. This work included reverse translational research on mood disorders, research on systems of memory consolidation, and a computational model of how circuits stop paying attention to things that don't matter.
My graduate work also involved many projects, over many years, in the lab of Dr. Carol Barnes. There I learned about memory, conflict-related decision-making, and how brains change with old-age. While I spent a lot of time in small windowless rooms, I also attended lectures from the many colorful cognitive scientists, psychologists, biologists, and neuroscientists who came to Tucson for the sun, vibes, and mountains. To current and future graduate students: I recommend attending as many visiting lectures as possible
My academic journey in neuroscience first began as a student at Oberlin College, where there were no mountains.
We study how brains form, use, and establish social expectations. We often work with a small, highly social South American rodent, the degu. Our lab currently is persuing two main lines of research: (1) How does the brain keep track of where others are in their space? This includes how the brain updates information moment-to-moment, how it manages multiple attention demands, and how it uses relative movement and proximity to set others' expectations. (2) How does social environment impact health? Our focus has been on how social environment affects sleep, but includes how sleep and hormones change with circadian disruption across social contexts.
Those interested in participating in the lab should contact: ninsel@wlu.ca.
A mug that says "#1 Dad"
For a list of publications, please see:
https://scholar.google.ca/citations?hl=en&user=HTvWqfEAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
Contact Info:
Office location: N2075B
Office hours: Variable term-to-term, see course syllabi for current term.