Alison Barth

Professor Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh PA

Alison Barth's work focuses on understanding how experience transforms the properties of neurons to encode memory.

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Biography

Alison Barth studies plasticity in neurons. Her work focuses on understanding how experience transforms the properties of neurons to encode memory. Barth developed and patented the first tool to locate and characterize neurons activated by experience in a living animal, a transgenic mouse called the "fosGFP" mouse. These mice, which have been licensed to every major pharmaceutical company in the United States and distributed to more than 80 researchers worldwide, have facilitated studies into a wide range of neurological diseases as well as the study of learning and memory. Barth also conducts research on epilepsy. Her lab has identified a novel anticonvulsant target, an ion channel called the BK channel, whose activity is increased in response to a seizure. Barth has received the Society for Neuroscience’s Research Award for Innovation in Neuroscience and Career Development Award.

Areas of Expertise

Research Design

Neural Plasticity

Biophysics

Neuroscience

Media Appearances

Your Brain Is Made For Change. Here's How To Optimize It And Boost Brain Health.

Women's Health online

2025-04-23

Change impacts your brain on a chemical level. "Novelty is a big driver of learning and synaptic change. Your brain works differently when everything seems new," said Alison Barth (Mellon College of Science).

'We’re always forming links': How 'Severance' highlights the importance of memory

Post-Gazette online

2025-04-19

Allison Barth (Mellon College of Science) says the surgery of splitting memories in "Severance" is pure science fiction. "The idea that there’d be one little spot and you could put a device in there and jam it, I mean, it’s preposterous. It’s not feasible at all. That scenario is a conceit to get us to think about how we separate our memories according to where we are,” said Barth.

Severance is already here warns scientist and shares chilling 'examples'

Express.co.uk online

2025-03-20

Dr. Alison Barth (Mellon College) explains how the science fiction of Apple TV's "Severance" is not too far off from reality. "The cues for 'life' and 'work' can be as simple as time of day, or what your computer screen looks like," she said.

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Spotlight

Mar 25, 2025

2 min

Can we separate our work and home memories, 'Severance' style?

The hit Apple TV show 'Severance' offers a tempting alternative to balancing work and home life by using neural implants to entirely split the memories. But according to Carnegie Mellon University neuroscientist Dr. Alison Barth, this work-life separation is somewhat possible even without an implant. In an interview, Dr. Barth explains: "We all experience some compartmentalization between our private and our work lives. Having a different location where you work and play makes that easier, but the cues for 'life' and 'work' can be as simple as time of day, or what your computer screen looks like." In addition, she says humans can "easily move in and out" of our work and personal worlds, and that there are many examples of people whose work and private lives are completely 'severed'. CMU neuroscientist Alison Barth shares her thoughts on the TV thriller Severance As far as the feasibility of technology to control our memories for us, Dr. Barth says: "I don't think that it is possible to program people so that they simply cannot access memories outside of a particular space and time." And she further warns of the dangers of such a separation: "The potential for abuse and lack of accountability are horrifying. In Severance, the office workers have little notion of what their work is. It would be hard to hold them accountable in a court of law. Severance is perfectly suited to corporate malfeasance," she explained. Watch Alison Barth's CMU Experts video below to learn more about her research seeking to understand how experience transforms the properties of neurons to encode memory.

Media

Social

Industry Expertise

Research

Education/Learning

Accomplishments

Research Award for Innovation in Neuroscience

Society for Neuroscience

Career Development Award

Society for Neuroscience

Bessel Research Award

Humboldt Foundation

Education

University of California, Berkeley

Ph.D.

Molecular and Cell Biology

1997

Brown University

A.B.

Biology

1991

Stanford University School of Medicine

Postdoctoral Appointment

Neurophysiology

2001

Articles

Magnify is a universal molecular anchoring strategy for expansion microscopy

Nature Biotechnology

2023

Expansion microscopy enables nanoimaging with conventional microscopes by physically and isotropically magnifying preserved biological specimens embedded in a crosslinked water-swellable hydrogel. Current expansion microscopy protocols require prior treatment with reactive anchoring chemicals to link specific labels and biomolecule classes to the gel. We describe a strategy called Magnify, which uses a mechanically sturdy gel that retains nucleic acids, proteins and lipids without the need for a separate anchoring step.

Nanoscale Imaging of Biomolecules Using Molecule Anchorable Gel-enabled Nanoscale In-situ Fluorescence Microscopy

Microscopy and Microanalysis

2022

A functional and integrative understanding of a biological system requires precise knowledge of the spatial arrangement of components across length scales, from tissue-level organization to individual biomolecules at the nanoscale. Unfortunately, most methods for nanoscale imaging require expensive hardware and extensive expertise. Researchers can circumvent these challenges by physically and isotropically magnifying preserved biological specimens embedded in a cross-linked water-swellable hydrogel, in a technique termed expansion microscopy.

An automated homecage system for multiwhisker detection and discrimination learning in mice

PLoS ONE

2020

Automated, homecage behavioral training for rodents has many advantages: it is low stress, requires little interaction with the experimenter, and can be easily manipulated to adapt to different experimental conditions. We have developed an inexpensive, Arduino-based, homecage training apparatus for sensory association training in freely-moving mice using multiwhisker air current stimulation coupled to a water reward.