Anna Hagenston Alumna Anna Hagenston awarded $121,500 fellowship for sketchpad memory by Jean Arthur It is called sketchpad memory or working memory, the memory that lasts only seconds yet is vital for normal functions. It is the memory used, for example, in keeping a telephone number in mind while fetching pen and paper. Anna Hagenston, '00 ModLang and Phy, received a $121,500 fellowship this spring from the National Science Foundation to study sketchpad memory in the brain's prefrontal cortex.She began Ph.D. work at Yale University this year. Her neuroscience research is centered on understanding calcium signaling in the brain. She hopes to understand how cells process information by means of calcium signaling. The Billings native explains that the prefrontal cortex contains networks of brain cells that are involved in memory. Without a properly functioning sketchpad memory, a person would not be able to communicate or have any sort of complex cognition. Hagenston's research may one day unlock how the brain works in normally functioning individuals and how dysfunction is expressed in people with schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease. "Interestingly, the part of the brain that underlies these abilities doesn't seem to work right in many psychiatric and neurological illnesses," said Hagenston. "I believe that the kinds of electrical and calcium signals we study may be responsible for how this part of the brain carries out working memory. If this is true, then it is also possible that the reason why abilities like working memory are disturbed in schizophrenic and Alzheimer's patients is that calcium signaling in this part of their brains does not work like it should." She explained that brain cells continually receive thousands of networked signals from other cells. Since the receiving cells may send out new signals, the cells act as information processors. As an MSU student, Hagenston studied honors physics and German. She spent an undergraduate year in Germany studying language, literature and linguistics. "I had originally planned to study physics while in Germany but came very quickly to the conclusion that I would be better served by the small classes and personal attention I could receive at MSU," Hagenston said. She graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA. While her background indicated a career in physics and languages, it was during a teaching stint at a private boarding school in Connecticut, where she became curious in how the brain works, that led her to Yale's neuroscience program. "I have found my niche," she said, and added advice for undergraduates: "Join a lab. Find a project and work hard at it. Learn your field well, the techniques, the goals, the results, the interpretations. Read. In research, like in so many other fields, experience counts."