Professor and Program Director of Neuroscience, Cognition and Behavior
Neuroscience, Cognition and Behavior Honors Faculty Liaison
- PHD, University of California, San Diego, Neuroscience (2011)
- BA, Bowdoin College, Neuroscience (2006)
Dr. Jena Hales joined the faculty in Fall 2015 after completing four years of postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Hales teaches various courses in behavioral and systems neuroscience, and her research focuses on the biological mechanisms of memory behavior and cognition using rodents as a model system.
Scholarly Work
Dr. Hales’ research explores the biological bases of memory behavior and cognition. Her research lab uses rodents as a model system for investigating memory function and dysfunction and how the brain processes the critical features of time and space in memory formation and retrieval. Well suited for undergraduate involvement and exploration, her research combines the use of tightly controlled as well as more naturalistic and ecologically valid behavioral tasks with precise stereotaxic, neurosurgical manipulations and detailed histological processing.
Dr. Hales has published research articles in various journals including Nature Neuroscience, Cell Reports, Hippocampus, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Journal of Neurophysiology, Neuropsychologia, Neural Plasticity, and Behavioural Brain Research. She has also co-authored chapters in the Handbook of Psychology, Volume 1 History of Psychology, 2nd edition and The Maze Book: Theories, Practices, and Protocols for Testing Rodent Cognition. She is an active member of the Society for Neuroscience and Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience and regularly presents her research along with her undergraduate student researchers at conferences.
Hales Lab website: http://www.TheHalesLab.org/
Areas of Interest
Dr. Hales teaches a variety of Neuroscience courses, including Systems Neuroscience, Introduction to Neuroscience, and the Advanced Research Methods Behavioral Neuroscience Capstone. She hopes to develop new lab-based exploration courses in neuroscience as well as courses exploring neuroscience and society.