Ekstrand, Chelsea

The research program of Dr. Chelsea Ekstrand crosses a broad spectrum of areas, centered around understanding how the human brain processes the complex, multisensory world around us. Her lab's projects are curiousity driven, and range from fundamental visual processing questions, to being able to predict high-level cognitive processes. She combines neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, spectroscopy), behavioural, and computational methods, together with increasingly realistic and complex audiovisual stimuli, to examine brain processes in scenarios more akin to those encountered in the real-world. She also incorporates immersive virtual reality environments to blur the boundaries between reality and experimentation.

Dr. Ekstrand completed her undergraduate, M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Saskatchewan and a postdoctoral fellowship at Western University.