People

Note: If you’re a Muhlenberg student and interested in possibly joining the lab, don’t hesitate to ask Dr. de Wit about putting in an application! We often have room for new lab members. You don’t have to be a(n intended) neuroscience major to join the lab. In addition to neuroscience, past lab members have had academic interests in psychology, biology, philosophy, computer science, and beyond.

Principal Investigator: Matthieu de Wit, PhD

I talk a bit about non-academic stuff here. You can read about my teaching interests here. This is the research journey that led me to where I am today: from 2013-2017 I was a postdoctoral fellow in translational neuroscience and neurorehabilitation at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute with Laurel Buxbaum and Branch Coslett, whose main affiliation is with the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and lesion-symptom mapping to study neural contributions to motor cognition and perception in left-hemisphere stroke patients as well as neurologically-intact individuals. Before that, I was a PhD student in experimental psychology with Rich Masters and John van der Kamp at the University of Hong Kong’s Institute of Human Performance. I used a combination of visual masking and motion capture to study the functional interpretation of the dorsal and ventral visual pathways. My dissertation was awarded the Li Ka Shing Prize, which goes annually to the top four dissertations produced across all departments, institutes and schools of the University of Hong Kong. I started my academic journey at the University of Amsterdam, where I majored in psychology with a concentration in psychonomics. During that time, I also gained some of my first practical research experience by working as a research assistant in the department of human movement sciences at the VU University Amsterdam.

Current students

Nico Berlingeri ’25, Giovanna Evans ’25, Yael Fink ’27, Lexi Hall ’26, Liv Pennington ’24, Alex Schamberger ’26, Julia Sheridan ’26

Alumni

2023: Jane Banahan, Sam Kelstein, Ashley Kim, Julia Sulzner

2022: Abby Dalton, Suzane Girgis, Jacob Lader, Laurie O’Neill, Cait Strain, Trevor Virno

2021: Olivia Keller, Michelle Rajan

2020: Anne Apmann, Calista Bender, Laine Flores, Pat Kantner, Laura Styer, Mike Tronolone

2019: Aaron Lobell

Pictures

2022 graduating seniors of the de Wit lab! This photo was taken during the final lab meeting of the 2021-2022 academic year. The final lab meeting traditionally takes place in a bar (this year we met in bar Stooges in Allentown). Top, left to right: Trevor, Matthieu, Cait, Jacob. Bottom, left to right: Suzane, Abby, Laurie.

Matthieu and Jacob presenting a poster at the 2022 Cognitive Neuroscience Society annual meeting in San Francisco.

Michelle and Matthieu at the 2021 neuroscience major graduation celebration.

Pat, Laine, and Matthieu looking at data.

Testing out our fNIRS system. Left to right: Laurie, Jacob K., Anne

Logo for our virtual poster booth at the 2020 Cognitive Neuroscience Society annual meeting. (at which we presented a poster with the title “Neural reuse in the anterior insula? Disgusting smells selectively increase precision of visual looming perception” ;-))