Rate My Professor Stephen Cowen

Cowen's research employs advanced techniques including Neuropixels extracellular recording, optogenetics, fast-scan voltammetry for dopamine measurement, and custom behavioral assays to study how neuron ensembles coordinate activity in brain regions such as the hippocampus, striatum, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex. His lab explores age-related declines in memory consolidation during sleep, neural disruptions in Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, and chronic pain, and the therapeutic potential of sub-anesthetic ketamine in correcting pathological neural patterns like L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia. Key publications include “Decoupling of motor cortex to movement in Parkinson’s dyskinesia rescued by sub-anaesthetic ketamine” (Brain, 2024), “Dopamine Release Dynamics in the Nucleus Accumbens Are Modulated by the Timing of Electrical Stimulation Pulses” (ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2024), “Automated system for training and assessing reaching and grasping behaviors in rodents” (Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2024), “Aged rats exhibit altered behavior-induced oscillatory activity, place cell firing rates, and spatial information content in the CA1 region of the hippocampus” (Journal of Neuroscience, 2022), and “Age-associated changes in waking hippocampal sharp-wave ripples” (Hippocampus, 2020). Cowen has secured funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Research Foundation, G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation, Blasker-Rose-Miah Award, and LuMind Foundation. He serves as a referee for journals including Neuron, The Journal of Neuroscience, and PNAS.