Megan received a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Georgia in spring 2015 where she was a research assistant in the Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. She examined cognitive control in people with schizophrenia using fMRI. She then received a Masters in Experimental Psychology from Augusta University. At Augusta University she examined sex and age differences in pain-stimulated and pain-depressed behaviors. She also examined the effects of analgesic drugs on the expression of pain. Currently, Megan is examining the relationship between dominance status and coping behaviors and cellular mechanisms that underlie this relationship.
Conner received his BA in Psychological Science from California State University San Marcos where he was a research assistant in a neuroendocrinology maternal behavior mouse laboratory. He examined the role of the hypothalamic neuropeptide hypocretin 1 (HCRT-1) on the modulation of maternal motivation. Conner has done two summer research programs: one at the NIH/NINDS using MRI techniques to look at neuroinflammation in patients with rare genetic disorders and the second at the University of Colorado at Boulder where he looked at cellular and molecular mechanisms involved with pair bonding in prairie voles. As an undergraduate he also worked with his local Native American communities on a Pill Take Back program, to reduce the misuse and abuse of opioid drug usage. Conner is currently examining underlying neuronal circuitries, cellular and molecular mechanisms, and hormonal receptors that may be involved during acute social stress and coping behaviors in Syrian Hamsters.