When you ask New Jersey Alpha Laura Herman what she is studying in school, she quickly says “the brain.” But in further talking to her, I realized there is a great depth to her interests in the brain. To start off, she is at Princeton University studying Psychology while earning certificates in Cognitive and Neuroscience. She is also studying European Cultural Studies and Art History. It is a mouthful and I wanted to get a better understanding of how all her different interests worked together.

Laura is passionate about the intersection of art and neuroscience. She has more than six years of experience conducting research in neuroscience labs. She is now focusing on the strong link between how the human vision system is strongly connected to art, especially regarding individuals see abstract and impressionist art is such different ways. “Art is the original neuroscience,” Laura says, “Art helps us understands how the human brain perceives things.”

She began her research years ago as a high school student in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Laura has synethesia, a condition in which the stimulation of one sense automatically activates the use of a second sense. Laura helped me understand by giving examples like:

• When someone listens to music, they experience taste, or
• When someone feels an emotion, they experience sound

For a long time, Laura did not realize she had synesthesia. But once she was diagnosed, she was determined to work in a lab focused on research in this subject area. Laura emailed professors around the world, often hearing “high school students cannot work her “ or “there is no funding for you.” But she didn’t give up. Finally, one lab decided to give her a shot.

For three summers, she worked at Harvard University in a vision science lab. The main question she asked in her high school research was: Why do synesthetes associate certain letters with certain colors? Laura collected data from various samples of synesthetes . She concluded that based on the language one first spoke, how common a letter appears in that language is what affects what color it is. For example, in the English, the letter “A” is shown as red, the lowest frequency and wavelength color, as “A” is one of the most common letters in the English language. It’s the inverse in German. The letter “N” is one of the most common letters in the German language and it is seen in red. For the English speaker “N” looks green.

Laura is continuing to do research in labs at school, but focused on the intersection of art and science. With her passion for neuroscience, I am confident Laura will continue to make a difference in her field. Way to go, Laura!