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Ella Svahn's picture

Wellcome Optical Biology PhD student, MacAskill Lab

ella.svahn.20@ucl.ac.uk

ORCID | Europe PMC

Research synopsis

I am an optical biology student interested in using optical tools to investigate how the brain facilitates flexible learning. My project focuses on the role of neuromodulators in encoding uncertainties of our environment; something that is crucial to track for us to flexibly change our behaviour when the environment is volatile. With fiber photometry, I image the release of the neuromodulators Acetylcholine and Noradrenaline in key mouse brain areas for learning and decision making (Prefrontal cortex and ventral Hippocampus), to better understand the underlying computations.

Biography

2015-2019 | University of Edinburgh, BSc Hons in Neuroscience

Awards

2019 | Best Neuroscience Dissertation Award
2018 | EuroLife scholarship
2016 | The Haggarty-Weir scholarship awarded for ‘Great contribution to biomedical research’

Funders

EPSRC

Research themes

Systems neuroscience
Neuromodulation
Flexible learning 

Technology

FIber photometry