Jessica Rickert
Graduate Student

Current Research

I am interested in examining the role that the cholinergic basal forebrain system plays in mediating cortical plasticity. The cholinergic system has been shown to contribute to plasticity in many cortical areas and previous work in our lab has demonstrated its necessity for the learning and cortical map plasticity that occurs during the acquisition of a skilled motor task as well as for recovery from cortical injury. Current work employs the aged animal as a model system to further investigate these observations.


Recent Publications

Polley DB, Rickert JL and Frostig RD. Whisker-based discrimination of object orientation determined with a rapid training paradigm. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (2005): 33: 134-142.