Biography
Dr. Melissa Caras is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology. Her research program seeks to reveal the neural basis for auditory perception, with a specific focus on experience-dependent plasticity. Prior to joining the University of Maryland, Dr. Caras completed postdoctoral training at New York University’s Center for Neural Science, where she examined the central consequences of developmental hearing loss, and a Ph.D. at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she explored the impact of sex-steroid hormones on auditory processing in wild-caught songbirds.
Graduate Program Affiliations
- Biological Sciences (BISI): Molecular and Cell Biology (MOCB)
- Biological Sciences (BISI): Physiological Systems (PSYS)
- Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
Research Interests
The ability to improve and refine sensory facilities with practice - a process known as perceptual learning - is critical for the acquisition of a variety of complex behaviors, including speech and language. The fundamental importance of perceptual learning in shaping our day-to-day actions and perceptions makes it of vital interest to determine how training-based improvements are implemented in the brain. Dr. Caras explores this issue by measuring and manipulating the activation of neural circuits in freely-moving, behaving animals, with a primary focus on plasticity in auditory and top-down modulatory networks. Her laboratory employs a number of advanced approaches, including wireless recordings from multichannel electrode arrays, optogenetics, targeted infusions of pharmacological agents, quantitative animal behavior, and neuroanatomical tracing.
