We are excited to share that Dr. Liz Chrastil has been awarded the 2023 Early Career Award (ECA) presented by the Psychonomic Society!

This ECA award recognizes her rigorous and impactful scholarship, service to the cognitive psychology field, involvement in the Psychonomic Society, and contributions to outreach, diversity, equity, inclusion, and mentorship. Liz will be formally recognized at the Annual Meeting this November, and her name will be displayed permanently on the Society’s website. Congratulations, Liz, on this well-deserved recognition!

Liz publishes in Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology (2023) an encyclopedia chapter entry called “Human path integration and the neural underpinnings”

Author: Chrastil, E.R.

*See link to paper under publications tab!

On Thursday evening, the lab got together for dinner and reminisced on individual and lab-wide accomplishments from the past year. We look forward to keeping this momentum going over the summer and into the upcoming 2023-2024 academic year. Thank you, Liz, for your invaluable mentorship, support, and guidance!

Left table (left to right around the table): Paul, Vaisakh, Nikki, Erica, Daniela, Matt, Bryant, and Alina. Right table (left to right): Marjan, Rob, Mike, Kimmy, Brie, Annika, and Theo. Not pictured: Liz

The lab extends our warmest congratulations to Daniela Cossio on advancing from PhD student to PhD candidate. We celebrate this hard-earned accomplishment and look forward to the contributions Daniela will make as she continues her research endeavors. Go, Daniela!

Lead RAs Nick, Taylor, Olivia, and Luke organized a lab social at Corona Del Mar State Beach Park last Sunday, marking a celebratory end to the 2022-2023 academic year. RAs, post-docs, and Liz played a few rounds of frisbee, and we all enjoyed some snacks and refreshments by the fire pit. We shared our summer plans, reflected on a year of productivity and accomplishments, and looked forward to continued growth in the lab.

Congratulations to Daniela Cossio for receiving the 2023 Jared M. Roberts Memorial Graduate Student Award from the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (CNLM)! This award recognizes outstanding contributions in neuroscience and provides support for attending the annual Winter Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Meeting in Park City, UT. Read more about this award here: https://cnlm.uci.edu/awards/robertsaward/. We look forward to hearing about her experiences at the meeting.

Undergraduate RA Nick Krohn presented his year-long analysis on “Microstructural properties of the hippocampus and individual differences in path integration ability in humans” as a poster for the Excellence in Research Program organized by the School of Biological Sciences. After a successful poster presentation and paper submission, students awarded “Excellence” in this program will have their paper published in the online Journal of Undergraduate Research in the Biological Sciences, 2022-2023. Great work, Nick!

The 30th anniversary of UCI’s annual Undergraduate Research Symposium was hosted at the end of May 2023 by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). This symposium celebrated the outstanding achievements of hundreds of undergraduate students in research and creative activities.

Undergraduate RAs from the Chrastil lab Taylor Le (left photo), Olivia Cooper (right photo), and Farnaz Rezwana (bottom photo, not pictured) presented research from our lab.

Luke Chi and Chris (Qianzheng) Zhou also participated in UROP this year, presenting research from outside of our lab. Well done to all of you!

One high school research assistant and four undergraduate students presented their work at LEARNMEM2023. Congrats to you all for your successful presentations!

 
Olivia Cooper (Undergraduate RA) – Walking out of time: Comparing time estimation and spatial navigation abilities
 
 
 
 

Luke Chi (Undergraduate RA) – The influence of labeled graphs, turns, and environmental properties on navigational behavior
 
 
 
 

Nick Krohn (Undergraduate RA) – Microstructural properties of the hippocampus and individual differences in path integration ability in humans
 
 
 
 

Taylor Le (Undergraduate RA) – The impact of making predictions when learning during active and passive navigation
 
 
 
 

Nikhita Kaushik (High School RA) – Individual differences in navigation: Survey and graph knowledge
 
 
 
 
 

See part 1 of this post for LEARNMEM2023 information and additional lab presentations.

The 2023 International Conference on Learning and Memory (LEARNMEM2023) took place on April 26-30, 2023 in Huntington Beach, CA. Hosted by UC Irvine’s very own Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, the conference hosted about 800-1,000 scientists from 32 countries, including high school and undergraduate presenters.

Many of our lab members presented posters on their research progress and/or results from the past year. Additionally, Daniela gave a lightning talk, “White matter structural integrity is associated with specific white matter navigation abilities in midlife adults,” where she presented one main result from her recent white matter analyses. Liz gave an open paper talk, “Individual differences in human navigation ability: Interactions between brain structure and function,” sharing the lab’s current research.

Here are the posters from lab managers, graduate students, and post-docs. Click on the names to see an action shot during their presentations:

• Alina Tu – The relationship between hippocampal subfield volumes and individual differences in navigation
• Daniela Cossio – White matter structural integrity is associated with specific white matter navigation abilities in midlife adults
• Erica Ward – Brain network dynamics for navigational learning and memory
• Marjan Rashidi – The role of chronic stress in spatial learning in humans
• Theo Kapogianis – Impact of graph metrics on non-spatial navigational learning
• Mike Starrett-Ambrose – Domain generality and specificity across egocentric and allocentric distance ratings
• Vaisakh Puthusseryppady – Alterations to spatial exploration behavior and its effect on spatial memory in early aging

See part 2 of this post for a highlight of our lab’s high school and undergraduate presenters.