Gabbie Acot started off on a pre-med track at Princeton before broadening her studies to include structural engineering and then neuroscience. Her senior thesis project brought together all of these interests, combining video analysis, neuroimaging and numerical modeling to perform a forensic reconstruction of college football head impacts.
In 1890, psychologist William James described attention as the spotlight we shine not only on the world around us, but also on the contents of our minds. Most cognitive scientists since then have drawn a sharp distinction between what James termed “sensorial attention” and “intellectual attention,” now usually called “attention” and “working memory,” but James saw them as two varieties of the same mental process.
The gasp of surprise. Fans leap to their feet. Shouts ring out.
The most exciting moments in sports are often linked to surprise, an unexpected change of circumstances that abruptly shifts the anticipated outcome of the game.
Princeton neuroscientist James Antony decided to capitalize on these moments to study how human brains process surprise.
It’s not a coincidence that dogs are cuter than wolves, or that goats at a petting zoo have shorter horns and friendlier demeanors than their wild ancestors. Scientists call this “domestication syndrome” — the idea that breeding out aggression inadvertently leads to physical changes, including floppier ears, shorter muzzles and snouts, curlier tails, paler fur, smaller brains, and more.
Have you ever played with a baby and felt a sense of connection, even though they couldn’t yet talk to you? New research suggests that you might quite literally be “on the same wavelength,” experiencing similar brain activity in the same brain regions.
Nine data-driven research projects have won funding from Princeton University’s Schmidt DataX Fund, which aims to spread and deepen the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning across campus to accelerate discovery.
In February, the University announced the new fund, which was made possible through a major gift from Schmidt Futures.
Sabine Kastner, a professor of psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, will receive this year’s Award for Education in Neuroscience from the Society for Neuroscience (SfN).
Princeton faculty members Sarah Kocher and Andrew Leifer are among 60 researchers nationwide to receive 2019 New Innovator Awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The awards are part of the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program, which supports investigators pursuing highly innovative, high-impact biomedical and behavioral research.
