Position Title
Graduate Student
- Psychology Graduate Group
- Major Professor: Brian Wiltgen
Research Description
Ana Finnerty-Haggerty joined Dr. Brian Wiltgen’s lab in the Fall of 2022 as a Psychology Ph.D. graduate student. She has since focused on researching dopamine release in the hippocampus during trace fear conditioning in mice. She is inspired by the recent increase in interest within the neuroscience field in understanding the role of dopamine in averise learning. Ana plans to utilize the development of increasingly sensitive dopamine sensors to simultaneously observe behavior and temporally-precise neurological activity. Her future research intends to investigate the source of hippocampal dopamine to better understand the mechanisms and systems at play during trace fear conditioning and aversive learning. Ana will continue to research the mechanisms underlying the role of the hippocampus and related systems in learning and memory using rodent models.
- M.A. Neuroscience and Behavior, Wesleyan University, 2022
- B.A. Neuroscience and Behavior, Wesleyan University, 2021