Dr. James McGregor earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Emory University, where he studied the neural circuit mechanisms underlying songbird vocal learning. As a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Keith Hengen’s lab at Washington University in St. Louis, he leads a collaborative project between the Hengen and Holtzman labs. He investigates the relationship between sleep and neuronal network dynamics in the context of neurodegenerative disease. His research explores how disruptions to set-points of neural activity contribute to cognitive decline, and how reinforcing sleep’s restorative functions might mitigate these effects.

Dr. McGregor’s work integrates large-scale in vivo electrophysiology, behavioral neuroscience, machine learning and computational modeling to reveal how complex neural systems maintain reliable computation in the face of pathology. His broader goal is to leverage fundamental principles of brain dynamics to develop interventions that slow or prevent neurodegeneration.

To learn more, visit the Hengen Lab website.