1995

Ashwin Budden (Psychology)

Ashwin graduated from CC in 1995. While in the department, he took a range of psychology courses, but directed most of his focus on neurosciences. He also enjoyed courses such as Bob Jacob's "Senior Seminar" in which students examined the implications of animal awareness and communication in the studies of cognitive ethology and consciousness.

After graduating, Ashwin worked, among other things, as a research assistant at The Vollum Institute for Advanced Biomedical Sciences (Oregon Health Sciences University) in Portland, Oregon- his hometown. There, he conducted voltage-response experiments that examined receptor site and ion-channel kinetics in cultured hippocampal neurons. This was part of a larger study that compared the inhibitory efficacy of GABA-agonists and their potential for pharmaceutical development in epilepsy treatment. He also worked in a stabilization facility for youth and adolescents with behavioral and mental problems. He monitored and evaluated the kids and worked with their psychiatrists and social workers to develop effective behavioral strategies of them.

Subsequently, Ashwin temporarily put aside further academic study to become a filmmaker. He has been involved in a variety of film genre but his passion is documentary film. Ashwin has been involved in documentary projects for PBS as well as international projects. Most notably, he worked in South Africa filming Great White Sharks in their natural habitat, and also worked on a cultural project with Kalahari Bushmen from which he produced two independent videos.

Ashwin is currently in his first year of graduate studies in anthropology at University of California, San Diego. He is pursuing research that integrates culture and cognitive neurosciences. One of his main areas research is in cultural neurophenomenology, a cutting-edge discipline that deals with what is known as the "hard problem" in the study of human consciousness. This approach examines the neural and cognitive correlates of cultural experience- especially religious thought and practice- while accounting for first-person subjective experience within the analysis. Neurophenomenology has begun to reshape research into areas of the human brain and mind, (e.g., neural imaging studies of religious cognition and experience). Ashwin is particularly interested in dissociative states of consciousness- their neural correlates and their role in the modification of regulation of cognition and psychophysiology.

He will be conducting ethnographic research in Brazil and hopes to also do cross-cultural studies in South Asia. Ashwin's work has implications in the field of trans-cultural psychiatry as well. This field looks at the cultural "diagnoses" of mental and psychophysiological process. Accordingly, he is forging ties with the UCSD medical school and UCLA's renowned Neuropsychiatric Institute. And if that is not enough, Ashwin hopes to resume work in documentary production.

Ashwin's advice to undergraduates is to keep abreast of the changes in your respective fields as they are changing rapidly. There are many exciting new areas of study in the areas of consciousness, behavior, and neurobiology. Find out what they are, what relevance they have to your interests- and don't be afraid to push the envelope! (4/15/02)

Julie M. (Wilson) Gottselig (Psychology)
    Julie Marie (Wilson) Gottselig graduated magna cum laude and with distinction from Colorado College with a degree in psychology in May of 1995. Julie worked with Tomi-Ann Roberts on a Senior thesis project using a Grass polygraph machine to acquire psychophysiology data of friend dyads during conflict discussions.

    Julie earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Iowa in 2000 and subsequently completed a Post-doc in the Psychopharmacology and Sleep Research section of the Institute Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Zurich. She currently works in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital (an affiliate of Harvard Medical School). (4/3/06)

Publications co-authored by Julie:
Gottselig, J. M, Brandeis, D., Hofer-Tinguely, G., Borbély, A. A., & Achermann, P. (2004). Human central auditory plasticity associated with tone sequence learning. Learning & Memory, 11, 162-171.

Gottselig, J. M., Adam, M., Retey, J. V., Khatami, R., Achermann, P., & Landolt, H. (2006). Random number generation during sleep deprivation: effects of caffeine on response maintenance and stereotypy. Journal of Sleep Research, 15, 31-40.