The HPSC Department is proud to congratulate Assistant Professor Ann-Sophie Barwich on her recent award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement as part of its Scialog initiative, “Molecular Basis of Cognition”. This Scialog grant is for a collaborative one-year project between Dr. Ann-Sophie Barwich (Indiana University Bloomington, Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine; Cognitive Science Program) and Dr. Wilma Bainbridge (University of Chicago, Department of Psychology) on the topic of memory processing in olfaction. The project is titled “A Presence of Departed Acts: Understanding Multisensory Interference and Working Memory Capacity with Focus on Olfactory Interactions”. See the description of the project below :
Working memory is the brain’s mental scratchpad, juggling limited information from our senses. While sight and sound have been studied extensively, smell remains a mystery. Barwich and Bainbridge collaborate to explore how the brain processes odors alongside other senses, using a novel time-locked and precise sniff-EEG protocol developed in Barwich’s lab to track how smells compete or cooperate with visual and auditory inputs. Do they share neural resources, or does smell operate independently? This project aims to uncover how this often-overlooked sense integrates into our mental world, offering new insights into the architecture of memory itself.
Congratulations Assistant Professor Barwich on this profound achievement and cheers to your continued career success!
The College of Arts