Student Profiles

Anna graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a minor in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with honors. Through her work in economics, she became interested with not only how people make decisions (economics) but also in the biological basis of decision making (neuroscience). Through the Interdisciplinary Sustainable LA Grand Challenge (SLAGC) Scholar Program, she worked with Dr. Melissa Sharpe to conduct an independent project on sensory-specific cue associations and the neural learning circuits underlying maladaptive behavior in addiction in rodent models, culminating in her honors thesis. During her final year, she worked as a lab technician for the Sharpe lab to conduct research on nucleus accumbens dopamine release and its role in learning. Her diverse undergraduate experiences inspired her to combine her skillsets and interests to pursue research in decision making, learning, and memory. 

She then joined Dr. Andrew Sharott at the University of Oxford to work on projects utilizing high density in-vivo electrophysiological recordings with deep brain stimulation in freely behaving rodents. By investigating memory and cognitive function, these experiments aim to develop a closed loop stimulation approach with potential clinical applications. 

Leveraging her research experience using cutting edge techniques and her unique interdisciplinary background, she intends to answer questions about the fundamental mechanisms of decision making and provide new insights into the relationship between neuropsychiatric disorders and decision making deficits in her PhD. Through a joint collaboration between Dr. Angela Langdon (NIMH), Dr. Andrew Sharott (Oxford), and Dr. Mark Walton (Oxford),  Anna will be using a combination of electrophysiology, computational modeling, and reward-guided behavior to dissect the neural mechanisms of cost-benefit decision making and dopamine release.