Neuroscience and biology students Tara Barnes '23 and Anna Estremsky '25 were interviewed while giving their poster at the Society for Neuroscience Conference and spotlighted by the podcast "In Plain English" (https://inplainenglishpod.org/). The students' interview is in season 3, episode 3 (Society for Neuroscience shorts: Part 1) of the podcast. This international conference is the world's largest gathering of neuroscientists and was held in Washington, D.C.
In their interview, Barnes and Estremsky discuss research done in Dr. Tobiansky's lab. They discuss how they are using woodpeckers as models for traumatic brain injury (TBI) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (i.e., "punch-drunk syndrome"). In particular, their research shows that woodpeckers have lower incidents of toxic tau aggregates in their brain and regulate the tau protein differently compared to other non-drumming birds. These results are the first data from Dr. Tobiansky's lab to be presented to an international audience lab and have broad implications for understanding resilience to TBI.
