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Trish fell in love with
the central nervous system at age 11 in her grade 6 health
class. When she learned about all the different things that it
does, she decided then and there that it would be the focus of
her career. Although her particular choice of career may have
changed since then, an image of the exam page on which she had
to label pictures of the brain and spinal cord remains clear as
a bell, even after 20 years. Of all the amazing things that our
brains do, learning and memory processes have always intrigued
her the most.
After completing her
first 2 years of undergraduate work at Grant MacEwan and taking
some time away from her education to live some life, Trish
entered the Psychology Department at the University of Alberta
focussing on Neuroscience. In her last year of undergraduate
studies, she enrolled in a research course with Clayton looking
for some basic research experience before moving on to other
things. Little did she know that in the cycle of science, some
things never end…
As a graduate student
Trish has made some big “waves” in the field of brain
oscillations by discovering a novel form of network activity in
the hippocampus during deep sleep and anaesthesia: the Slow
Oscillation. The coordination of this activity with cortical
networks appears to make it well suited as a platform for
sleep-dependent consolidation of declarative memories which
feeds into her primary interest. She is currently funded by an
NSERC postgraduate scholarship and now truly understands what
science with Clayton is really about: being famous. Not being a
fan of fame or its responsibilities, Trish is happy to take a
back seat and do the work in the name of the Brain Rhythms Lab
and its illustrious (and sometimes industrious) leader.
Aside from research,
Trish enjoys working with students as a teaching assistant or an
instructor. She has given several lectures and hopes to teach an
entire course before the end of her grad life. She also
especially enjoys drinking beer, live music, camping, Bruce
Willis movies, spending time with her friends and her dogs, long
walks in the river valley, sandwiches, and circle pits… Let’s Go
Murphys! |
