Miami University

Graduate student's research noted as "hot topic"

09/25/2009

Loren Hoffman, a graduate student in psychology at Miami University, has been recognized for her research by the Society for Neuroscience. Her research poster has been selected as a “hot topic” in the organization’s press materials and will be promoted to the media during Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Hoffman’s work focuses on understanding the formation of new memories, including their location and cellular functions in the brain.

With adviser Steve Berry, professor of psychology, Hoffman co-authored “Synchronization of a distributed system during trace eyeblink classical conditioning.” Using a brain computer interface to control oscillatory potentials in the hippocampus, an important structure for memory formation, they were able to “enhance learning and modify cellular responses in a distant region, the cerebellum, that is thought to form the essential memory trace.”

Neuroscience 2009 will be held Oct. 17-21 in Chicago.