Maria Montchal


5th year Graduate Student
Office: 1400 Biological Sciences III
Email: mmontcha@uci.edu

Biosketch:

Maria graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Drew University in 2010. She then spent 3 years working as a research assistant/lab manager in Charan Ranganath’s Dynamic Memory Lab at UC Davis. Broadly, Maria is interested in understanding how brain regions work together to support memory for complex, dynamic events. As a graduate student at UC Irvine, her research has been focused on how people remember when events occurred.

Awards and Honors

2017          John W. Haycock Memorial Graduate Student Travel Award
2015-17    T32 Center for Hearing Research Training Grant
2014-15    UC Irvine- Francisco J. Ayala Graduate Fellowship Award
2014-15    UC Irvine Graduate Dean Recruitment Fellowship Award
2014          NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention
2014          UCLA Neuroimaging Training Program for Advanced MRI Summer Program Student

Publications

  • Ritchey, M., Montchal, M.E., Yonelinas, A.P., & Ranganath, C. (2015). Delay-dependent contributions of medial temporal lobe regions to episodic memory retrieval. Elife, 13(4).
  • Wang W.C., Montchal M.E., Yonelinas A.P., Ragland J.D. (2014) Hippocampal and parahippocampal cortex volume predicts recollection in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res, 157, 319-20.

Presentations

  • Reagh, Z., Mattfeld, M., Allen, T., Montchal, M.E., & Yassa, M.A. (2017, March). Structural and functional evidence for thalamic nucleus reuniens in the human brain. Presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting.
  • Montchal, M.E. and Yassa, M.A. (2016, November). Hippocampal-cortical networks for temporal memory precision. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
  • Montchal, M.E. and Yassa, M.A. (2016, March). Precise and less precise temporal memory judgments recruit different hippocampal-cortical functional networks. Presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting.
  • Montchal, M.E. & Yassa, M.A. (2016, November). Hippocampal-cortical networks for temporal memory precision. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
  • Roberts, B., Wang, S-F., Montchal, M.E., Wade, A., Bouffard, N., Ragland, D., Carter, C., & Ranganath, C. (2016, November). Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on neural oscillations during episodic memory encoding and retrieval. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
  • Montchal, M.E. & Yassa, M.A. (2016, April). Precise and less precise temporal memory judgments recruit different hippocampal-cortical functional networks. Presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting.
  • Montchal, M.E. & Yassa, M.A. (2015, October) Changes in temporal context memory precision along the hippocampal longitudinal axis. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
  • Roberts, B., Wang, S., Montchal, M.E., Wancewicz, B., Carter, C., & Ranganath, C. (2014, November) Combined working memory exercise and prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation influences cognitive control. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
  • Ritchey, M., Montchal, M.E., Yonelinas, A.P., & Ranganath, C. (2013, November). Delay-dependent changes in reactivation of context information during item recognition. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
  • Wang, W., Montchal, M.E., Yonelinas, A.P., & Ragland J.D. (2013, April). Medial temporal lobe structure and its relationship to recollection and familiarity in schizophrenia. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society.
  • Libby, L.A., Ragland, J.D., Montchal, M.E., Varadarajan, A., & Ranganath, C. (2012, May). Functional connectivity of the perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices in schizophrenia. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry.
  • Ragland, J.D., Libby, L. A., Montchal, M.E., Phillips, J., Varadarajan, A., Lesh, T., Minzenberg, M., Niendam, T.A., Solomon, M., Yoon, J., Carter. C.S., & Ranganath, C. (2011, August). Functional connectivity of perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices in patients with schizophrenia. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
  • Horning, K., Nekkanti, L., & Montchal, M.E. (2010, April). DHA and its effects on calcium levels and mitochondrial health in neurons: A potential treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease. Presented at Alzheimer’s Disease Research Symposium at Drew University.