Dr Ellen O'Donoghue

(she/her)

Overview

As a postdoc in the Motivation & Memory Lab (supervised by Dr. Matthias Gruber), I'm broadly interested in how curiosity influences learning and memory. My current projects focus on (1) how curiosity shapes exploration and memory within naturalistic environments, (2) how curiosity-based learning is shaped by the protracted development of critical brain regions, and (3) whether curiosity itself is directly implicated in learning (or instead epiphenominal). 

To address these and other research questions, I use a variety of experimental techniques and neuroimaging methods (including fMRI and iEEG).