Research is a central part of neuroscience at Wake Forest. Through faculty-mentored research experiences, undergraduate students have the opportunity to engage directly with scientific discovery—working alongside faculty on questions that span molecules to behavior, and laboratory science to human experience.
Students in the neuroscience program are encouraged to pursue research with faculty across the Reynolda Campus and the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. These experiences allow students to apply classroom learning in real research settings, develop technical and analytical skills, and explore potential pathways in research, medicine, and related fields.
The faculty listed below welcome undergraduate researchers and represent a wide range of interests and approaches within neuroscience.
Psychology Faculty:
Wayne Pratt
Research Interests: understanding the neurobiological substrates that underlie the brain’s encoding of natural rewards
Christian Waugh
Research Interests: resilience and the temporal dynamics of emotion
Stefon van Noordt
Research Interests: understanding the brain-based markers of cognitive control as they relate broadly to goal-directed behavior and self-regulation
Brad Stilwell
Research Interests: studying human cognitive behavior using a combination of response time, eye tracking, and electroencephalography (EEG) with a focus on visual attention and perception, specifically, how we learn to ignore sources of visual distraction
Janine Jennings
Research Interests: age-related changes in memory and attention, including cognitive decline and interventions to enhance cognitive functioning in older adults
Biology Faculty
Lara do Amaral Silva
Research Interests: investigating physiological mechanisms that allow animals to withstand stressors that would otherwise lead to major health issues in humans, particularly metabolic challenges to the brain
Chris Jernigan
Research Interests: exploring how animals perceive and process complex social stimuli, with a particular focus on the neural mechanisms underlying social recognition
Ken Kishida
Research Interests: neurobiology of human decision-making, learning, and consciousness; neuromodulatory signalling in humans (e.g., dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine); neurocomputational representations of human experience
Cliff Zeyl
Research Interests: learning, memory, and cognition in snakes, with a focus on how sensory biology and ecology shape behavior
Erik Johnson
Research Interests: the mechanisms of neuronal cell signaling and how these processes manifest in specific behaviors and regulate discrete aspects of physiology