BIO

Joey graduated with his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California Davis and the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) in June 2024. His research interests center around understanding the neural basis of self-awareness at the intersection of physiology and psychology. He is deeply interested in understanding how the neural structures that support awareness are conserved (or not) across species, with a particular focus on comparisons between non-human primates (primarily macaque monkeys) and humans. In September 2024 he began a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Erin Rich, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. As of January 2025, the laboratory has begun transitioning to New York University’s (NYU) Center for Neural Science.

Throughout his PhD, Joey utilized a variety of techniques to address his research questions. He has expertise in training and testing monkeys on cognitive and affective tasks using a variety of methods including touch screens, eye tracking (with and without autonomic nervous system data collection), and manual testing. He also has extensive experience carrying out neuroanatomical experiments in monkeys, using neuroimaging (structural and functional MRI) and histological techniques. In his postdoctoral fellowship, he is currently learning acute neurophysiological recording techniques and is carrying out microstimulation experiments in tandem with neural recordings in monkeys.

Joey carried out his doctoral work under the advisement of Dr. Eliza Bliss-Moreau, Professor of Psychology and was supported by a Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31AG077797) from the National Institute on Aging. A native New Yorker, in May 2019, Joey graduated summa cum laude from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. At Gallatin he crafted an interdisciplinary concentration titled Brain Science: Mind, Music, and History. His concentration drew from the myriad fields that he is interested in, including neuroscience, psychiatry, ethics, music, history of science, and philosophy of science. He carried out the research for this senior thesis, The role of observational learning in acquisition of an auditory task, in Dr. Dan Sanes’ laboratory at the NYU Center for Neural Science, where he also worked closely with Dr. Todd M. Mowery. He was awarded Departmental Honors for his thesis at graduation.