Sarah Muldoon joins us in August 2015, coming from the bioengineering department at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research involves novel techniques and measures to investigate and quantify the role of network organization in brain function.
Research Statement: My research goals revolve around the development of novel techniques and measures to investigate and quantify the role of network organization in brain function. This work is grounded in network theory, a field that draws upon tools from mathematics, physics, engineering, and computer science to understand, predict, and describe complex interactions in systems of connected elements.
Working across multiple spatial and temporal scales, I use network analysis to understand the relationship between the underlying structural connections in the brain, observed brain signals, and functional interactions between neurons/brain regions. Additionally, I develop techniques to investigate how the spatial location of network elements relates to their role in overall network function and how this differs between healthy and pathological settings.