Brett L. Foster, PhD

Assistant Professor 

Department of Neurosurgery
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Principal Investigator

Dr. Brett Foster obtained his undergraduate degree in psychophysiology, as well as his PhD in neuroscience, from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. His graduate work focused on experimental and computational studies of human electrical brain activity during sedation and anesthesia. He then completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University focused on human intracranial studies of electrical brain activity during memory and perceptual processing, working with Josef Parvizi. As part of an NIH K99/R00 Career Development Award, he integrated this electrophysiological work with studies in human neuroimaging, working with Anthony Wagner. In 2016, he joined the faculty in the Department of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine as an Assistant Professor. His laboratory focuses on utilizing neurosurgical recording and stimulation techniques for revealing the cognitive electrophysiology of human memory and perception; and to provide important translational links between animal models and the human brain, critical for future neurotechnology. His group joined Penn and the Department of Neurosurgery in June 2021.

Senior Research Investigator
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Yvonne Y. Chen, PhD

Dr. Yvonne Chen earned her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Alberta, Canada, where she studied the neural correlates of recognition memory by measuring brain activity from scalp EEG. In the Foster Lab, she combines intracranial brain recordings (iEEG) and fMRI to examine the neural signatures associated with memory encoding, retrieval, and consolidation. She combines behavioral and neural measures to investigate the mechanisms that make memories stronger.

Postdoctoral Fellow
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Seth R. Koslov, PhD

Dr. Seth Koslov earned his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Texas at Austin, where he investigated how people remember to perform future intentions. With a BRAIN Initiative F32 Fellowship in the Foster Lab, Seth uses functional neuroimaging and invasive electrophysiology to study decision-making and memory–characterizing functional neuroanatomy within the posterior cingulate cortex. Seth enjoys mentoring and is committed to access and inclusion in research.

Liz M. Siefert

Graduate Student
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Liz has an Sc.B. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Brown University where she worked in the Aging and Cognition Lab (PIs: Dr. Bill Heindel, Dr. Elena Festa) examining the role of the LC-NA system in recognition memory retrieval. After graduation, she worked as a research assistant at Penn with Dr. Anna Schapiro, exploring the dynamics of memory reactivation during sleep. As a graduate student, co-advised by Dr. Anna Schapiro and Dr. Brett Foster, she is interested in how fluctuations in arousal states drive memory transformations. Liz also loves playing soccer and printmaking.

Ilaina Edelstein

Research Specialist
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Ilaina has an M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology from Boston University where she completed a thesis focusing on perceptual vs. acoustic correlates of monopitch in those with Parkinson’s Disease. Throughout her training, she has worked with individuals with a variety of executive function and speech/language disorders. Her research interests surround the neural correlates involving memory, attention, & cognition, as well as speech & language. Ilaina enjoys discovering new music artists and exploring Philly.

Lab Alumni

Postdoctoral Fellows

Pin-Chun Chen — 2022-2023
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, Oxford University

Eleonora Bartoli (BCM) — 2018-2021
Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine

Graduate Students

Ye Li (BCM) — 2018-2022
Data Scientist, Intuitive Biomedical

Lyndsey Aponik-Gremillion (BCM) — 2018-2022
Assistant Professor, Weber State University

RA & Undergraduate Students

Aayushi Sangani (Research Specialist) — 2022-2023
McLean Hospital, Mass General Brigham

Aruni Areti (BCM SMART scholar) — 2019-2021
Undergraduate, Rice University

Sumayyah Khan (BCM PREP scholar) — 2019-2020
PhD Student, UT/MD Anderson

Nadia Zulfa (Rice U.) — 2017-2018
MA Student, UIW San Antonio

Santiago Garcia Acosta (Rice U.) — 2017-2018
Software Engineer, Cloudera

The Foster Lab is always open to hearing from undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral scholars interested in joining the team. Prior experience in neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, data analysis and statistics is beneficial but not essential.