Leslie Kwakye ’06

Biography

I teach several classes in the area of Sensory Neuroscience. My 100-level Neuroscience course is entitled “Food and the Brain” and covers topics centering on flavor signaling and integration across various sensory modalities, nutrition for healthy brain functioning, and hunger/satiety signaling in the peripheral and central nervous system. My advanced Neuroscience course entitled “Music Perception, Cognition, and Neuroscience” provides students with an in-depth study of the Auditory System, methodology for studying Human Neuroscience, and research findings in Music Cognition. The associated lab course is a CURE (Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience) that provides students with authentic Psychophysics and Electroencephalography (EEG) research experience. 
My research investigates how the brain combines information from the different senses in application to music perception. My lab also studies how cognitive factors such as attention influence multisensory integration. Methodology used in my lab include Human Psychophysics, Electroencephalography (EEG), Eye-Tracking, and Computational Modeling. My current project seeks to identify the neural mechanisms that underlie visual influences on auditory beat perception. Undergraduate researchers are strongly engaged in my research and contribute from the conception stage of new project all the way to writing manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals.