My main research interest focuses on the role of sensory systems in shaping behavioral decisions. Within this context, my long-term goal is to pursue comparative studies of sensory and motor systems at both the peripheral and central stages of neuronal integration by using a range of methodological approaches, e.g., electrophysiology, anatomical tract tracing, high speed imaging and particle image velocimetry.
Currently, as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Andrew H. Bass at Cornell, my goal is to study vocal-auditory integration in the midshipman fish, Porichthys notatus. I use a neurophysiological preparation that uses electrical microstimulation in the midbrain’s periaqueductal gray to evoke a rhythmic motor volley (fictive call) that directly establishes the temporal properties of natural calls. I therefore durrently develop a whole cell patch preparation to investigate the role of a hindbrain prepacemaker nucleus in determining the firing pattern of a hindbrain-spinal, pacemaker-motorneuron circuit.

I will test the hypotheses that the prepacemaker nucleus establishes the temporal properties of the pacemaker circuit that is translated into different call types, and is the source of a corollary discharge / efference copy to the auditory system.