Department of Neuroscience
Mentor: Timothy Ebner, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Neuroscience
Project: Cerebellar Neuromodulation to Enhance Cognitive Flexibility Behavior
Dr. Madelyn Hjort’s research focus is understanding how the brain represents cognitive flexibility, which is how we learn to change behavior. Her doctoral work focused on identifying, recording and activating cognitive flexibility circuitry in the prefrontal cortex. Dr. Hjort's current postdoctoral research has characterized flexibility representations within different regions of the posterior cerebellar cortex. As a MnDRIVE Neuromodulation Postdoctoral Fellow, she will test whether neuromodulation of the cerebellar cortex or cerebellar output nuclei can be used to promote cognitive flexibility, which is impaired in many neuropsychiatric disorders and does not currently have an effective treatment. By evaluating the utility of cerebellar neuromodulation to enhance cognitive flexibility, her work paves an important step towards modulatory interventions against cognitive inflexibility.
