I am a Postdoctoral Research Scholar working with Drs. Erin Hannon, Joel Snyder, and Stephen Benning to study Misophonia. My research interests include the neuroscience behind why we enjoy music and how the brain interprets and responds to music.
Growing up in Las Vegas, I’ve trained as a semi-professional pianist and graduated from the Las Vegas Academy of the Performing Arts. After high school, I discovered my passion for science at University of Nevada, Reno where I earned a B.S. in Neuroscience and minor in piano performance. I then went on to earn my Ph.D. in Cognitive Sciences, with an emphasis in Cognitive Neuroscience, at UC Irvine where my dissertation examined the cognitive and neural mechanisms of how people process major/minor musical modes.
PhD in Cognitive Sciences, 2021
University of California, Irvine
MS in Cognitive Neuroscience, 2017
University of California, Irvine
BS in Neuroscience, 2015
University of Nevada, Reno
Minor in Piano Performance, 2015
University of Nevada, Reno
Taught a Psychology Fundamentals/Psychology & Social Behaviors summer session course. Created my own lectures, learning activities, and examination materials for 50+ students.
Topics taught include:
Comparing the behavior of major & minor music listening to speech.
Exploring the neurobiology of major & minor music listening.
We show that despite extensive training, performance is not improved for most listeners on the tone-scramble task.
Many listeners cannot discriminate major vs. minor tone-scrambles regardless of presentation rate.