neuroscientist, educator, author
Meet Ashley
Ashley Juavinett earned her PhD in Neuroscience at UC San Diego in 2016, completed her postdoctoral work at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and became a faculty member in Neurobiology at UC San Diego in 2018.
She studies how we teach and learn about the brain, and she brings that expertise to broader audiences through her writing, her podcast, and her public talks.
Neuroscience is for everyone.
So You Want to Be a Neuroscientist? is a contemporary and engaging guide for aspiring neuroscientists of diverse backgrounds and interests.
Featured research papers
Neuroscience
Three Types of Cortical Layer 5 Neurons That Differ in Brain-wide Connectivity and Function (Neuron, 2015)
Cortical layer 5 (L5) pyramidal neurons integrate inputs from many sources and distribute outputs to cortical and subcortical structures. Previous studies demonstrate two L5 pyramid types: cortico-cortical (CC) and cortico-subcortical (CS). We characterize connectivity and function of these cell types in mouse primary visual cortex and reveal a new subtype. [Read the paper]
Chronically implanted Neuropixels probes enable high-yield recordings in freely moving mice (eLife, 2019)
The advent of high-yield electrophysiology using Neuropixels probes is now enabling researchers to simultaneously record hundreds of neurons with remarkably high signal to noise. However, these probes have not been well-suited to use in freely moving mice. It is critical to study neural activity in unrestricted animals for many reasons, such as leveraging ethological approaches to study neural circuits. We designed and implemented a novel device that allows Neuropixels probes to be customized for chronically implanted experiments in freely moving mice. [Read the paper]
Education
The next generation of neuroscientists needs to learn how to code, and we need new ways to teach them (Neuron, 2022)
Neuroscience education is at an impasse—we need to teach students coding, but many institutions do not have the resources to do so. Here, I outline three major barriers, as well as solutions, to bringing programming education into our undergraduate and graduate programs. [Read the paper]
When Coding Meets Biology: The Tension Between Access and Authenticity in a Contextualized Coding Class (SIGCSE, 2024)
As programming skills become more demanded in fields outside of computer science, we need to consider how we should be teaching these skills to our students. One option is to encourage students to pursue introductory computer science courses; however, these courses are often geared towards computer science (CS) majors and without important discipline-specific context. Other avenues include short coding modules within disciplinary courses or full courses that blend CS with another discipline. Guided by insights from an introductory CS course in the context of biology, we describe a key tension when coding meets biology: while contextualized programming classes are often perceived as more accessible, students may also view them as less authentic. [Read the paper]
Ongoing projects
SASSY San Diego
I organize a storytelling event called SASSY, which trains scientists to tell stories about their science, and brings science into the public.
Change, Technically
I co-host a podcast called Change, Technically with my wife and partner in all things silly and intellectual, Cat Hicks. In it, we consider the psychological and social forces shaping science, technology, and our world. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.
How to Teach This Paper
I am a columnist at The Transmitter, where I write about teaching seminal papers in neuroscience.
ashley juavinett, phd 