Karam Khateeb received the 2019 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Karam’s research focuses on investigating competing mechanisms of neural plasticity in non-human primate Sensorimotor Cortex. To understand the processes of long-term potentiation and long-term depression within complex neural networks, the heterogeneity of these networks must be considered. Karam proposes to investigate the competing roles of Hebbian and homeostatic plasticity at the level of circuits, specifically through the dynamics of excitatory and inhibitory signals in the sensorimotor cortex. In consideration of the required neural complexity and the benefits of a model similar to the human brain, he plans to utilize the non-human primate sensorimotor cortex.
