Research

Neuroscience of Learning

I am interested in cognitive development, how children learn, and factors that facilitate learning (e.g., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and engagement, consolidation and reconsolidation of information, timing of information delivery and review, and supportive mental processes such as attention and executive function).

• • Optimizing Learning: Which factors enhance encoding, retention, and retrieval of information? The role that dopamine and the reward/reinforcements circuits in the brain play in enhancing learning (e.g., motivation, anticipation, uncertainty, novelty, salience, emotions, and arousal).

  • Neuroscience of Math: Developing fun ways to improve conceptual understanding of mathematical information and improving cognitive processes that support mathematical function (e.g., working memory, visuospatial processing, abstract reasoning, organizing relevant information and planning, sequencing, imagining multiple possibilities, etc.)

  • Cognitive Training and Video Games: Increasing children's desire to engage and learn by personalizing motivation and integrating cognitive training into video games.

Neuroscience of Pleasure, Motivation, Engagement, and Reinforcement

Understanding how the brain processes reward. Why do we find some things in life so pleasurable? What exactly happens in the brain when we process simple and complex rewards, and how does this impact decision-making and motivate our behaviour.

Music and the Brain

• • Neural Basis of Pleasure in Response to Music: Music has existed in every culture as far back as history has been recorded, and many individuals experience potent and euphoric experiences to music. How do isolated sounds with no inherent reward value become so rewarding when arranged in patterns? How does our brain interpret and extract pleasure from these sound sequences? I study the interactions between complex systems of our highly unique cerebral cortex, the dopaminergic subcortical regions involved in basic pleasures, and the emotion circuits of the brain that give rise to abstract and aesthetic rewards.

  • Individual Differences: Why do different people like different music? How can we predict this?

  • Music and Emotion: Is some music better able to induce intense emotions (for example, give us "chills") than other music?

  • Neuroeconomics: How does knowing something about a piece of music change the way our brain processes it? Which factors contribute to decision making about music? Why do we buy music?