From the End Spring New Beginnings
Good Riddance to Dr. Michael Cardenas.
Michael began in the Gothard Lab shortly into his undergraduate career, and for some reason decided to stay on with the monkeys to pursue his PhD in 2020. With innumerable hours poured into coding, research, and making monkey’s touch buttons, he defended his dissertation entitled “Neural and Autonomic Correlates of Approach Avoidance Conflict Following Interoceptive Manipulation” on April 14th, 2026. His next steps are to relax by joining the Stauffer Lab at University of Pittsburgh to complete postdoctoral work.
Too Soon Farewell to Alyssa Camp.
After too short a time in the crazy monkey circus, technician Alyssa has moved on from the Gothard lab. In her time, she succeeded at training multiple monkeys to make facial expressions on command, calibrate for viewing, and to hold her hands. We wish her great luck in her next ventures on the East Coast.
Celebrating the First of Many.
As the two undergraduates who worked tirelessly with Monkey Coco to complete the next stage in the Hierarchy project, Venkat Machavarapu and Mihir Shah presented their data in a poster titled “Estimating the status of others depends on the perception of self-status” at the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Spring 2026 poster presentation. They will be continuing their work over the summer, replicating their results with new stimuli.
Congratulations to Spring 2026 graduates.
Mackenzie Lynch graduated with a B.S. in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science with a minor in Sociology. She received the Outstanding Senior award for her major. She will be taking a gap year in the Gothard Lab, learning more advanced skills including electrophysiology before applying to graduate school.
Amanda Feng graduated with honors with a B.S. in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science and minors in Criminology and Chinese. She will be taking a gap year, gaining more experience working full time with children on the autism spectrum.
Welcome to Summer 2026 Rotating students.
Cameron Bolles is returning for his second rotation as a MD/PhD student, continuing work on a project involving a NonMatch to Sample task with interoceptive manipulation.
Elena Ferretti is an international PhD student from the University of Parma, Italy rotating in the lab to learn more hands-on skills with macaques including electrophysiology.
Nicholi Brown will be joining the lab through the Veterinary Summer Scholars Research Program (VSSRP), to gain hands-on monkey research experience prior to beginning as a DVM student.