Portrait of Alison Preston

Alison R. Preston, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator

Dr. A. Wilson Nolle and Sir Raghunath P. Mahendroo Professor
Departments of Neuroscience and Psychology
The University of Texas at Austin

Christine Coughlin

Christine Coughlin
Postdoctoral Fellow

My interests lie in how children learn to construct future or alternate realities by flexibly accessing and recombining memories. I aim to understand the processes that support this learning, as well as how resulting insight might be used to promote positive academic outcomes.

Neal Morton

Neal Morton
Postdoctoral Fellow

My research examines how the brain uses individual memories to build general knowledge, and how general knowledge is incorporated into new memories. I use neuroimaging and computational modeling to test how meaningful memories are stored and recalled.

Kate Sherrill

Kate Sherrill
Postdoctoral Fellow

My research combines use of virtual naturalistic environments and advanced MRI methods to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying how human knowledge becomes systematically organized as a framework for cognition.

Nicole Varga

Nicole Varga
Postdoctoral Fellow

My research examines the neurocognitive development of memory representation. I am particularly interested in how representational capacities influence knowledge formation and extension in children, adolescents, and adults.

Tony Dutcher

Tony Dutcher
Graduate Student, Neuroscience

I am interested in studying the neural mechanisms that allow us to organize our ongoing experience to be transformed into discrete events during development.

Ayesha Nadiadwala

Ayesha Nadiadwala
Graduate Student

I am interested in how different episodic memory processes are modulated by emotion. Specifically, how emotion influences relationships between memory representations for events.

Omer Ashmaig

Omer Ashmaig
Graduate Student

I am interested in understanding learning and memory through electrophysiology. Intracranial EEG offers an exciting and unique opportunity to study single neuron activity and the human brain under finer temporal resolutions.

Andrei Amatuni Andrei Amatuni

Andrei Amatuni
Graduate Student

I’m interested in understanding how statistical knowledge is acquired and organized in early development and how memory mechanisms shape early learned representation of concepts.

Linsey Cohen

Linsey Cohen
Lab Coordinator

I am interested in how neurocognitive development drives changes in behavior across the lifespan, with a focus on how foundational work in learning and memory mechanisms can inform educational best practices.

Alex Gordienko Alex Gordienko ft. Mountains

Alex Gordienko
Lab Coordinator

My primary interests lie in how we can leverage neuroimaging to improve our computational neural network models of the brain to attain a better understanding of human learning and memory.

Aeslyn Kail

Aeslyn Kail
Honors Student

I am interested in human cognition and neuroscience. One of my main research interests is the effect of psychopathology and environment on cognition and neural development.

Lauren Quesada

Lauren Quesada
Honors Student

As a double major in Biology and Neuroscience, I focus on biological components such as eye data involved in behavioral studies in neurodevelopment that focus on generalization and specificity in children’s memory.

Ashley Humphries

Ashley Humphries
Honors Student

I am deeply motivated to connect the fields of neuroscience and social psychology. My thesis will investigate the effects of social rejection and how people use creativity and creative means, such as clothing, to express themselves.

Khanh Nguyen Portrait photo of Khanh Nguyen

Khanh Nguyen
Honors Student

I am interested in how episodic memory processes are affected by emotion, sleep, and aging to better understand memory accuracy and distortion in young and healthy aging adults.

Alumni

Alexandra Miller
MD/PhD Student
McGovern/MD Anderson
Anastasia Rigney
Research Specialist
Texas Health & Human Services
Arjun Mukerji
Graduate Student
University of California Berkeley
Ata Karagoz
Graduate Student
Washington University in St. Louis
Athula Pudhiyidath
Data Scientist
PrimeStreet
Cameron Hall
Graduate Student
University of British Columbia
Christine Manthuruthil
M.D.
University of Texas Southwestern
Dasa Zeithamova
Assistant Professor
University of Oregon
Eliya Ben-Asher
Graduate Student
Ellen Zippi
Graduate Student
University of California Berkeley
Ellie Hipskind
Graduate Student
Baylor
Gabi Mata
Clinical/Medical Assistant
Private Practice Cardiology Clinic
Hannah Roome
Lecturer in Psychology
University of Roehampton, London
Jackson Liang
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Toronto
Jaida Long
Graduate Student
Georgia Institute of Technology
Joel Martinez
Graduate Student
Princeton University
Katie Guarino
Graduate Student
Loyola University
Kim Nguyen
Graduate Student
Temple University
Manasa Atyam
Medical Student
Baylor
Meg Schlichting
Assistant Professor
University of Toronto
Michael Mack
Assistant Professor
University of Toronto
Robert Molitor
Postdoctoral Scholar
University of Oregon
Sasha Wolosin
Data Mining Scientist
Apple
Sharon Noh
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of California, Irvine
Tammy Tran
Postdoctoral Fellow
Stanford University
Tyler Davis
Assistant Professor
Texas Tech