Residential Life and Faculty-in-Residence (FIR) John Kymissis are hosting a virtual discussion with Dr. Krista Perks on Wednesday, April 15 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm (EST). Krista Perks is a postdoctoral neuroscientist at Columbia University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, where she studied how individual neurons encode flexible representations of vocal communication signals in the auditory system of a songbird. Her current research reflects her interest in how the neural code for movement scaffolds the neural code for sensation. Dr. Perks’s long history as an aerial circus performer and movement artist has helped spur her fascination with the role of movements in the acquisition, processing, and interpretation of sensory input. Throughout her work, Perks has focused on a mixed evolutionary/comparative approach to understand cellular and circuit mechanisms underlying the general phenomena of how perception only partially depends on the physical features of sensory stimuli. Dr. Perks’s current research employs the electrosensory system of a weakly electric fish to study how sensory input acquired through movement is gated, decoded and interpreted in the brain. The discussion will be limited to 30 undergraduate students in Columbia College and SEAS. To attend, RVSP by 11:59am (EST) on Monday, April 13. To receive the link to RSVP email Associate Director Scott Helfrich at sh2409@columbia.edu.