Behavioral and Pharmacological Neuroscience at Indiana University

Preclinical Neuropsychopharmacology Laboratory

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Alexander Murphy-Nakhnikian

Contact Information

Telephone: (812-855-5351)
Email: amurphyn@umail.iu.edu

Education

2007-B.S. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

2007-B.A. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Honors and Awards

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

HHMI Capstone Summer Research Grant

Beckman Undergraduate Research Grant

Hutton Honors College Research Grant

Paul Klinge Award for Achievement in the Sciences

Dona Roberts Biddle Award for Philosophy

Current Research Interests

My principal advisor is Dr. John Beggs of the IU physics department; we are collaborating with Dr. Rebec's lab. Dr. Beggs' group has used measure of information exchange to explore the behavior of neurons in-vitro. Our collaboration with Dr. Rebec's lab allows us to extend the scope of our research to include data gathered from behaving animals. The focus of my research is information exchange among multiple regions of the brain. I am particularly interested in how functional connectivity among different nuclei facilitates information processing in the basal ganglia. These forebrain nuclei are integral in the control of voluntary movement, decision making and the integration of sensory and motor data. How exactly basal ganglia neurons influence one another remains unclear. Emerging methods from information theory allow us to quantify mathematically directed information exchange among neurons. We hope that applying such measures to data gathered from freely behaving animals will clarify the function of the basal ganglia in both healthy and diseased states.

Curriculum Vitae