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I earned my PhD in 2010 from University of Arizona studying neural systems of memory, decision-making, and aging in rodents. Between 2011 and 2016 I held several postdoctoral fellowships in Toronto (CAMH, UT, UTSC, Hospital for Sick Children) where I studied deep-brain stimulation treatments for depression, the neural basis of consolidated memory, and network-level mechanisms of irrelevance learning. Prior to joining Laurier I was an associate professor at University of Montana, where I developed laboratory methods to study social behavior in degus and helped build the neuroscience programs and community.
At Laurier I run a research program studying how Neural Interactions support Social Expectations and Learning (NInSEL laboratory). We employ a range of behavioural and neural techniques to examine how the mammalian forebrain responds to and learns about other individuals. Many of our studies focus on the degu, a small Chilean rodent with a rich repertoire of social behaviors.
Classes I teach are primarily within the Behavioural Neuroscience stream in the Department of Psychology. This includes an introductory and advanced seminar courses.
Those interested in participating in the lab should contact: ninsel@wlu.ca.
Thatcher & Insel 2021, bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.19.456980
Lidhar et al. 2021, PLoS One https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250219
Insel et al., 2020, Behavioural Processes, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2020.104102
Insel et al., 2018, PLoS Computational Biol., https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006315
Contact Info:
Office location: N2075B
Office hours: Wednesday, 9 to 11 a.m.