Nicole Rust
Cognitive Neuroscience; Computational Modeling; Memory and Learning; Mood and Affect
Specific Research Areas
Memory and mood in the brain
Research Synopsis
What in the brain drives answers to the question, “Have you seen this before?” or “How happy are you right now?”. While different in many ways, memory and mood are both forms of learning that happen continuously throughout our lives. To understand how the brain supports these mysterious functions, my lab combines investigations of human behavior, measurements and manipulations of neural activity, and computational modeling. One emphasis in our work is arriving at algorithmic (or mathematical) descriptions of how populations of neurons signal memory and mood percepts that are intermingled with representations of other types. A complementary emphasis focuses on understanding how memory and mood are shaped from a dynamical systems perspective.
Professor Nicole Rust will be considering new graduate students for admission for Fall 2025.
PSYC 4281 Models of Mood
PSYC 1210 Introduction to Brain and Behavior
BS in Molecular Biology and Chemistry, University of Idaho;
Ph.D. in Neural Science, New York University
Rust NC (2025) Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn't Solved Brain Disorders—and How We Can Change That. Princeton University Press
Rust NC, LeDoux JE (2023) The tricky business of defining brain functions. Trends In Neurosciences. 46, 3-4.
Mehrpour V, Meyer T, Simoncelli EP, Rust NC (2021) Pinpointing the neural signatures of single-exposure visual recognition memory. PNAS 118 (18), e2021660118.
Jaegle A, Mehrpour V, Mohsenzadeh Y, Meyer T, Oliva A, Rust NC (2019) Populations response magnitude variation in inferotemporal cortex predicts image memorability. eLife 8, e47596.