2021 Undergraduate Summer Research Program Participant

Home Department: undeclared
Mentor: Kalanit Grill-Spector (Psychology)

“A Data-Driven Approach to Defining the Boundaries of Cortical Layers from Ground-Truth Cell Density Measurements”

The Kalanit Grill-Spector lab studies developmental changes in the visual cortex, studying the neural anatomy and mechanisms which enable perception and affect cognition and behavior. There are a few functional areas that consistently arise within specific macroanatomical as well as microanatomical regions. Because each of these regions inhabits specific cytoarchitectonic areas in adults, each has a unique organization of cells that matches the organization of neuron cell bodies. However, the organization of glia, in particular astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, remains unknown. Alvand is studying glia organization across cortical layers and gain some insight into development in the visual cortex.