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The human brain reacts differently to emotional cues depending on which hemisphere is processing them. By exploring  hemisphere  reactions to varying  stimuli, these two student researchers hope to unmask some of the brain's mysteries.

Recent Hamilton graduate Caitlyn Williams ’11 is thrilled to be entering into a position with the  Community HealthCorps Program, a division of AmeriCorps later this summer as a school-based health center coordinator. Williams will be working with Open Door Family Medical Center in the medically underserved community of Port Chester, New York.

As much as science has uncovered about the human brain, the relationship between brain and movement remains relatively unclear. For example, when attempting to point to or touch a specific, moving target, response times vary based on a wide variety of factors. This  summer, Elin Lantz ’13 and Robert Hawkins ’13 along with Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Jonathan Vaughan will study how speed and accuracy of movement are different in the right and left hands.

Previous research has shown music to be a powerful tool in shaping mood, memory, and perspective. Yet many neuroscientists consider music to be too abstract and therefore incapable of providing the concrete details that assist in real-world processing. Sam Briggs ’12 hopes to challenge this perspective with his summer research. Briggs will work with Assistant Professor of Psychology Jeremy Skipper to examine some effects of music for his project, “Re-singing.”

Rising juniors Alexandra Arenson ’13 and Charlotte Cosgrove ’13 will spend the summer with Professor Jeremy Skipper  studying speech and the parts of the brain that affect it.  Their project, “The Phantom Text Effect,” concerns the processes of speech comprehension in the brain among adult English speakers.

Taylor Adams '11 and Deborah Barany '11 have been awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships. Adams, a chemistry major, and Barany who is majoring in neuroscience, will both receive a three-year annual stipend of $30,000 and a $10,500 cost-of -education allowance for tuition and fees, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. or foreign institution of graduate education they choose.

In 2009, Deborah A. Barany '11 and Anthony W. Sali '10 participated in Hamilton's Summer Science Research Program. Under the supervision of Psychology and Neuroscience professor Jonathan Vaughan, they investigated how people control movements in complex environments. A poster about the work was presented at the annual Psychonomic Society meeting in 2009.

Hamilton College's highest awards for teaching were presented on May 7 to three faculty members. Douglas Weldon, the Stone Professor of Psychology and director of the Neuroscience Program, was awarded the Samuel & Helen Lang Prize for Excellence in Teaching; Assistant Professor of Chemistry Nicole Snyder received the Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award; and Associate Professor of Africana Studies Angel David Nieves was honored with the John R. Hatch Excellence in Teaching Award.

Taylor Adams ’11 and Deborah Barany ’11 have been named Barry M. Goldwater Scholars for the 2010-11 academic year. They are among 278 scholars from across the U.S. to receive the Goldwater, the premier national undergraduate award in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. Kevin Graepel ’11 received honorable mention.

In the words of Jane Hannon ’11, Dr. Dale Purves is “kind of a big deal.” As the director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and George Barth Geller Professor for Research in Neurobiology at Duke University, he is an ideal role model for Hannon, who is a neuroscience major and aspiring expert on the human brain’s machinery. She has an internship in Purves’ lab this summer, and from her desk she can watch him edit the next edition of his textbook. “I get a kick out of it,” she said. “I know that I’ll be seeing those edits very soon because his book will accompany the neuroscience class that I’ll be taking in the fall at Hamilton.”