Jennifer Hoy

Jennifer Hoy is an Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, affiliated with the College of Science and the Department of Biology. She serves as the Co-director of the Integrative Neuroscience Program and Director of the Institute for Neuroscience, focusing on the neural circuit basis of visually guided behaviors.

• Education: B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona; Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Oregon.

Research interests center on understanding how vision shapes action in mammals, particularly through molecular-developmental processes influencing sensory systems. Her lab employs

• Molecular biology
• Electrophysiology
• Optogenetics
• Chemogenetics
• Quantitative behavior analysis

to study visual system function in mice.

Recent publications highlight her work on

• Neurodevelopmental mechanisms in prey-capture behavior
• Experience-dependent visual processing
• Cross-species comparisons of foraging behaviors
• Neural correlates of emotional salience
• Gamma synchronization in primate visual cortex

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Laboratory: The Hoy Lab investigates how neural circuits translate visual stimuli into actions, with implications for neurodevelopmental disorders like PTSD, ADHD, and anxiety.