Joshua Downer, PhD
Data Scientist
Neurology
School of Medicine

My research aims to provide a greater understanding for how the auditory cortex supports our ability to communicate.

Awards

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• Ruth L. Kirchstein NRSA (F32), 2017-2020
• ARCS Foundation Fellowship, 2014-2015
• NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2012-2015

Education & Training

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• PhD Neuroscience UC Davis 06/2016
• BA Psychology UC Berkeley 05/2010
• Berkeley City College 06/2008
• City College of San Francisco 06/2008

Websites

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• Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)
• ResearchGate (researchgate.net)

Publications (7)

Top publication keywords:
Signal Detection, PsychologicalAuditory CortexMacaca mulattaNeuronsVocalization, AnimalSensory Receptor CellsNoiseAcoustic StimulationAuditory PerceptionAttentionAction PotentialsMicroelectrodesDecision MakingSaimiriAdaptation, Physiological

• Receptive-field nonlinearities in primary auditory cortex: a comparative perspective.
  Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 2024 Homma NY, See JZ, Atencio CA, Hu C, Downer JD, Beitel RE, Cheung SW, Najafabadi MS, Olsen T, Bigelow J, Hasenstaub AR, Malone BJ, Schreiner CE
• An Emergent Population Code in Primary Auditory Cortex Supports Selective Attention to Spectral and Temporal Sound Features.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2021 Downer JD, Verhein JR, Rapone BC, O'Connor KN, Sutter ML
• Temporally precise population coding of dynamic sounds by auditory cortex.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2021 Downer JD, Bigelow J, Runfeldt MJ, Malone BJ
• Choice-related activity and neural encoding in primary auditory cortex and lateral belt during feature-selective attention.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2021 Mohn JL, Downer JD, O'Connor KN, Johnson JS, Sutter ML
• Hierarchical differences in population coding within auditory cortex.
  Journal of neurophysiology 2017 Downer JD, Niwa M, Sutter ML
• Feature-Selective Attention Adaptively Shifts Noise Correlations in Primary Auditory Cortex.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2017 Downer JD, Rapone B, Verhein J, O'Connor KN, Sutter ML
• Task engagement selectively modulates neural correlations in primary auditory cortex.
  The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2015 Downer JD, Niwa M, Sutter ML