Chris graduated with a M.S. from the IRL. He worked on a variety of projects, including piloting out stroke models, working up stains, and helping with numerous behavioral experiments. He specifically developed out a project comparing measures of depressive-like behavior for chronic TBI in conjunction with Michelle Frankot, and a project establishing the use of environmental cues to model "cognitive rehabilitation" in rats. This work is being developed for publication.
Floyd did a brief stint in the lab after the end of his Master's degree. He worked on a project to develop touchscreens that could be used for operant behavior.
Jenny started helping with projects while she was finishing her Ph.D. in another laboratory. She then continued on briefly as a postdoc before finding a more permanent postion. During her time, she was instrumental in bringing several projects to publication, including our first IRL manuscript on decision-making after TBI. She also conducted a follow-up study to this comparing unilateral TBIs to bilateral frontal injuries, and wrote a review summarizing changes to the monoamine systems after TBI.
Lauren worked on many different projects during her time in the lab as an undergraduate and technician. She piloted out several procedures that are still in use, and also conducted a study looking at conditioned facilitation, or Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT). This work was submitted for publication alongside work with Cassie Modrak. Lauren has since moved on to Monash, where she is studying neuroimmune contributions to dysfunction after TBI.
Trinity spent her full 4 undergrad years as a member of the IRL. She conducted research on a variety of topics and helped publish the first study which came out of our lab on how TBI affects decision-making under risk. Her subsequent work explored how the therapeutic candidate methylphenidate affected decision-making in TBI. This work is still being developed for publication.
Jeff assisted in several behavioral projects, and presented on the effects of repeat concussive-like TBI at SFN and to lawmakers at the WV capitol.
Bryan participated in the APA Summer Undergraduate Psychology Research Experience program. He worked on a project with Michelle Frankot on how high-fat diets affect outcomes after TBI. He presented this work at the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience session at SFN.
Brianna participated in the APA Summer Undergraduate Psychology Research Experience program. She worked on a project exploring how methylphenidate effects decision-making revolving around loss. She presented this work at the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience session at SFN.
Tasso assisted in many different behavioral studies, but his biggest focus was on statistical analyses of TBI data. He presented a poster on this at the International Neurotrauma Symosium, and also developed a capstone project comparing different analysis techniques for mild TBI data.
Cassie's work primarily focused on how reactivity to cues is changed as a result of TBI. She conducted a capstone project where she identified an interesting phenotype of increased goal-tracking behavior after TBI and facilitated extinction. These data suggest that conditioned reinforcers like cues may not be as efficacious in TBI populations. This work is currently under review.
Binxing helped with projects as the lab was starting and contributed to the very first publication from the IRL. She also helped with several other experiments, including our first neuromodulation one and others looking at methylphenidate. After completing her BA, she served as a lab technician for a summer before moving on to her next step. She is currently working as a behavior therapist and looking to go back to school for applied behavior analysis
Taylor conducted a capstone project exploring how the ability to time events is disrupted after TBI. This may be a key component of impulsivity and understanding it better could lead to therapies for TBI. She ultimately published this work in Behavioural Brain Research. Since leaving, she has gone in a more clinical direction, working with populations with behavioral problems. She is now getting a Master's degree in counseling.
Henna led our initial studies examining repeat concussive TBI. Her main project was characterizing how repeat injuries affect impulsivity and attention. These findings are currently under review to be published. Since then, she has gone on to obtain a Master's in Biomedical Science.
Caitlyn worked on a variety of projects while in lab, ultimately taking a larger role on some of our concussion experiments. She presented on this work at the SFN meeting. Since then, she completed a postbac at the NIH and has recently taken a role in industry doing pharmaceutical work.
Kristen joined the lab as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Internship through WVU's HSC. She began work looking at the effects of a chronic inflammatory challenge on depressive-like behaviors. Since then, she has joined the lab as a graduate student and is continuing work in this area, focusing on neuroinflammation on its own and in the context of TBI.
