Terra is interested in the neural basis of learning and memory.  The basal ganglia are particular interesting to her because of the type and breadth of tasks in which they appear to be involved.  She received her undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and worked with Dr. Michael Gabriel studying the cingulate and thalamus in classically conditioned subjects.

Now, working in Graybiel Lab,  Terra is currently in her fourth year of graduate school.  Her research focuses on what neuronal changes occur in the striatum of subjects as they learn a T-maze. She is also interested in the specific aspects of learning that might be responsible for the learning-related changes found during the training paradigm.

PUBLICATIONS

Barnes TD, Kubota Y, Hu D, Jin DZ, Graybiel AM. Activity of striatal neurons reflects dynamic encoding and recoding of procedural memories. Nature. 2005 Oct 20;437(7062):1158-61.