Affiliation(s):

• Department of Psychology, Wayne State University
• Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University

I have a BA in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Honors from Haifa University and my MSc and PhD are in Cognitive Neuroscience from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

I am a developmental cognitive neuroscientist interested in the development of memory systems in the human brain. Together with my team of brilliant undergrads, graduate students and postdocs, and using multiple neuroimaging methods, we are investigating how brain development is related to cognitive development. You can find more about my current research interests here: ofenlab.wayne.edu

Fairly early on during my undergraduate studies I found that my interest is in understanding how the brain is linked to behavior (or more specifically how the brain gives rise to cognition– the somewhat official definition of my field of research ‘Cognitive Neuroscience’). I simply loved all courses related to these topics, and was inspired by the professors who taught the classes.  I therefore sought an opportunity to volunteer in research, found one and loved everything about it. Those early experiences set me on a route to continue into graduate school pursuing research into brain and cognition.

I am highly excited about several developments in my area research. First, there are constant developments in MRI methods. We can now ‘see’ brain structures better because of high resolution optimized MRI sequences, and we can run analyses of growing complexity to infer what the brain is doing to support high-level cognition. Second, there is a growing level of collaboration with clinicians. Over the past few years we were analyzing data recorded from electrodes placed on the brain for clinical management which gives us unprecedented ability to investigate how the brain works because we have a precisely localized direct index of neuronal brain activity. Last, we now have large efforts to collect a lot of data, both from many individuals and from the same individual over time. These developments paired with string statistical approaches will make it possible to investigate sources of individual differences that were obscured in smaller studies from a single site.

I was probably most influenced by a book by Oliver Sacks: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. The stories of cases of diverse neuropsychological conditions were absolutely fascinating to me and the implications to our understanding of how the brain works anchored my interest research.

On my short list of favorite scientists, I have my past advisors. During my graduate studies Yadin Dudai, Menahem Segal, Avi Karni and Dov Sagi truly infected me with the excitement of diverse aspects of cognitive neuroscience, and during my postdoctoral training it was John Gabrieli and Steven Hyman who complemented my thinking of basic science with considering the broad implications of my research and its and societal impact. I was fortunate to have these outstanding scholars who were not only supportive but inspiring in their approach to science.

I am not certain what are the boundary of ‘my role as woman in STEM’ but I greatly enjoy practicing yoga, taking time for long nature walks, and cheering on my kids’ sports activities, and spending time with good friends. I always notice that any of my ‘off role’ activities provide good insights to when I am ‘on role’. I fondly recall how practicing Aikido, a Japanese martial art, and being a member of the Weizmann Theater group two of my favorite ‘extracurricular’ activities as a graduate student, helped my gain direct insights for my dissertation work.