MY CURRENT PROJECT
Current project · Reinhold Lab, Mass Eye and Ear
Searching for structure in the striatum’s neural code.
Eye and Ear
AFFILIATEUndergraduate Researcher, Reinhold Lab, Massachusetts Eye and Ear (Harvard Medical School). Principal Investigator: Dr. Kimberly Reinhold.
The striatum helps shape action and learning. Its projection neurons carry its output. My question starts there: what structure can careful statistics reveal in the timing of their firing?
WHAT I’M WORKING ON
First statistical characterization of striatal projection neuron firing in a previously uncharacterized dataset.
I’m characterizing 555 neurons across 37 recording sessions whose firing statistics had not previously been computed in this dataset. Not a claim that the striatum has never been studied. A specific gap — and the work of measuring it.
Split-half design
A pattern is not enough. Every finding must replicate in a held-out half before it counts. One early effect failed that test. I do not claim it.
The question and method are public; the findings are not. I’m preparing the work with the lab toward a possible scientific publication. Any results belong to that collaborative work, not just to me.
Background illustration — synthetic spikes, not recorded brain data.
THE LAB'S PUBLISHED RECORD
Dr. Kimberly Reinhold
Nature · 2025
Kimberly Reinhold and colleagues’ Nature paper, ‘Striatum supports fast learning but not memory recall,’ examines the striatum’s role in learning and behavior. My current project moves to a finer scale: the timing and statistical structure of striatal projection neuron firing.
A shared focus, a different question: from the striatum’s role in behavior to the structure of individual neurons’ activity. This is work in progress—not a result of, or proof for, the published paper.
