Profile

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Christina Brown

My CV

  • Education:

    Barrhead High School (2003-2009)
    Reid Kerr College (2010-2011)
    University of Glasgow (2011-2016)
    University of Edinburgh (2016-2021)

  • Qualifications:

    Barrhead High School Advanced Highers:
    Chemistry, Maths – A
    Barrhead High School Highers:
    English, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Geography – A
    Physics – B
    Reid Kerr College Higher:
    Psychology – A

    (I worked full time after leaving school because I didn’t get into the course I wanted. I had no idea what else I was interested in so I decided to take Higher Psychology at the local college. I now study brains for a living).

    University of Glasgow:
    MSci Neuroscience – 2:1

    University of Edinburgh:
    PhD in Biomedical Sciences

  • Work History:

    Vet assistant at Pets ‘n’ Vets, Pollokshaws: 2008-2010
    Dairy Farming volunteer: 2008-2010
    Kennels volunteer: 2009-2010
    Lidl, Barrhead: 2009-2011
    Lidl, Maryhill: 2011-2016 (Duty Manager between 2013-2014)
    Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company: Research Internship (2014-2015)
    PhD student at the University of Edinburgh (2016-2021).

  • Current Job:

    PhD student/Post Doctoral Researcher at the University of Edinburgh (due to hand in thesis start of March).

    • About Me:

      I am a neuroscientist working at the University of Edinburgh. I study how emotions affect how we well we remember past events.

    • Read more

      I’m from a town called Barrhead, on the outskirts of Glasgow. I have been living and working in either Glasgow or Edinburgh for many years now. When I’m not at work I enjoy watching TV, reading fantasy and Sci-Fi, long distance running and playing Playstation. My favourite videogames are those in the Final Fantasy Franchise. My pronouns are She/her.

    • Read more

       

      I am a neuroscientist who studies how emotions affect how memories are formed in the brain.  Episodic memories are complex computations occurring in the brain, allowing us to recall places, events, people, or tasks. We call these types of memories episodic because they are composed of facets associated and integrated into a single ‘photograph’ of your life. Certain conditions increase the likelihood of a memory being stored and recalled at greater accuracy – whether this is a specific sense, such as a smell or a sound that invokes the memory, or if there is an emotional attachment to an item or a person involved. Despite the importance of episodic memories to our sense of self, neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease damage the brain circuits that construct them.

      I investigate how brain cells from the area that controls emotions connect to brain areas involved in forming memories. I do this recording from brain cells that are electrically active. I also illuminate cells in the emotional part of the brain that send separate information to spatial navigation memory areas and memory areas that encode objects and items.

    • My Typical Day:

      I commute from Glasgow to Edinburgh on the train, which means I need to get up really early. I work in a large laboratory with lots of chemicals so I have to wear a lab coat all the time. Sometimes I work on a ‘rig’ with a microscope so I can record from single brain cells with a glass needle. The brain cells create an electrical signal when activated by the needle. Sometimes I add colours to brain cells to see what they might be important in for creating memories: I can attach a colour to cells important in telling you where you were in a memory (a park, the beach), and others that tell you what objects you remember in a memory (the swings, a bucket and spade for example).

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      I either do two jobs in the lab: I record from brain cells and observe how they react by to stimulation from the emotional parts of the brain (called the amygdala). Or I process brain slices that will show me what parts of the amygdala project to brain areas involved in spatial memory or object memory. This involves attaching different colours to cells in the brain and viewing them up in a large microscope. Instead of cutting up brain slices to see what cells are illuminated, I can ‘clear’ the brain of all its fat and have a see-through brain to observe where exactly the coloured brain cells are.

       

       

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I’d help organise an Art and Neuroscience event so people can make their own interpretations of the colourful work we produce in our experiments.

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Neuroscientist studying memory

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        A Vet (but I was too nervous at interviews)

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        No, I was too quiet

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Deftones

        What's your favourite food?

        My mum's Macaroni and Cheese

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        To be rich (but not famous), to have the next Final Fantasy 7 game right now, and to have a finished Winds of Winter (by George R.R. Martin) in my hands

        Tell us a joke.

        Why do dogs float on water so easily? Because they're good buoys.

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