You May Not Know
Professor Katz is an aficianado of jazz music.Don Katz
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Ph.D., Indiana University
Current research
In my lab, we study taste: sensations of taste, taste-related brain activity and behavioral responses to tastes. Our work is one part psychology, one part biology and one part computation. Some of our experiments look at what brain regions and neurotransmitters are required in particular taste and taste learning tasks; others look at how behavior in these tasks is related to the responses of single neurons in one-three brain regions; and still others look at possible mathematical characterizations of the responses themselves. We think of the animal as a dynamic system: loops at multiple spatial scales (neuron to neuron, region to region, brain to body and organism to environment) cause neural dynamics at multiple time-scales (millisecond to millisecond, minute to minute and day to day).
Favorite classroom experience
I love illusions — they illuminate subtle facts about how sensory systems work (and don’t work), and they’re just plain groovy. The single best moment in my Intro class occurs when the students encounter the McGurk Effect. It works like this: a face in a video is seen saying “ba-ba-ba” while the voice on the audio track says “ga-ga-ga.” The overall effect, bizarrely, is neither of these — to both the eyes and the ears, the person appears to be saying “da-da-da.” Even more amazing, the auditory track seems to become “ba” when the student closes his/her eyes, and the visual image seems to become “ba” when the sound is turned off. The gasps and nervous laughter, as it dawns on the class, for the first time, that everything that they see depends on what they’re hearing at the time (and vice-versa), is what I live for.
What makes Brandeis special
For me, it’s the family atmosphere. At Brandeis in general, and within the neuroscience program and psychology department specifically, I feel more like everybody’s little brother than an employee or co-worker. I have friends at similar points in their careers at other institutions, and Brandeis gives me something that none of them has: the feeling that I’m a part of a (happy) family.
Last book read for pleasure
"Saturday" by Ian McEwan and "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace.
Favorite world city to visit
I looooove Kyoto, for the food, the history and the people. But New York City is pretty groovy as well — world-class jazz every damn day. And someday I hope to dive Atlantis.
