Someone told me, "Neuroscientists are the modern day explorers, and that's the mindset I like to carry into my work. As a proud first generation college graduate from Belmont University, I am currently a Neuroscience PhD student at Arizona State University studying how our brain processes information. I've always been curious about how we see the world around us, and if I can contribute to that understanding even just a little bit by exploring the brain using electrophysiology, I can be proud of my work.

My research interests lie in how the brain sends information - neural processing, the connections between neurons - synaptic connectivity, and how the brain changes with new information - neural plasticity. I do this by studying basic, yet important, neurobiological questions about how neurons in the auditory and vestibular pathways process their sensory input. Experiments using in vivo and in vitro electrophysiology in the Dorsal Cochlear nucleus will help lay the foundation for how these neurons process multisensory information, how they connect to other neurons in the pathway, and undergo plasticity to adapt to sounds. Potentially, studying this circuit could help us treat auditory dysfunction such as tinnitus, and understand how vestibular information integrates with hearing.