Alison Barth profile photo

Alison Barth

Professor

  • Pittsburgh PA UNITED STATES

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

Contact

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

Alison Barth discovers how different neuron types contribute to cortical function

The Transmitter  online

2026-08-05

In this “Brain Inspired” episode, Paul Middlebrooks talks with Alison Barth, professor of biological sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. Originally, Barth wanted to understand learning and memory in brains, explaining how different neuron subtypes might provide a mechanistic account. Now she believes learning and memory could be effective tools to better explain the overall function of the cortex.

View More

The quest to solve the mysteries of teen minds

Vox  online

2025-12-10

“Use it or lose it,” said Alison Barth, a professor of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon. “If you don’t use it, maybe you’re just gonna get rid of it.”

This process might seem inefficient. Why build up HUGE numbers of connections…only to then get rid of them?

This was, in fact, the question that two of Barth’s computer scientist colleagues raised when she told them about the brain’s synaptic pruning back in the 2010s.

View More

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).

View More

Spotlight

2 min

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.

Alison Barth

Media

Social

Industry Expertise

Research
Education/Learning

Accomplishments

Bessel Research Award

Humboldt Foundation

Career Development Award

Society for Neuroscience

Research Award for Innovation in Neuroscience

Society for Neuroscience

Education

Stanford University School of Medicine

Postdoctoral Appointment

Neurophysiology

2001

Brown University

A.B.

Biology

1991

University of California, Berkeley

Ph.D.

Molecular and Cell Biology

1997

Articles

Fluorescence-Based Quantitative Synapse Analysis for Cell Type-Specific Connectomics

eNeuro

2019

Anatomical methods for determining cell type-specific connectivity are essential to inspire and constrain our understanding of neural circuit function. We developed genetically-encoded reagents for fluorescence-synapse labeling and connectivity analysis in brain tissue, using a fluorogen-activating protein (FAP)-coupled or YFP-coupled, postsynaptically-localized neuroligin-1 (NL-1) targeting sequence (FAP/YFPpost). FAPpost expression did not alter mEPSC or mIPSC properties.

View more

BRAIN Initiative: Cutting-Edge Tools and Resources for the Community

Journal of Neuroscience

2019

The overarching goal of the NIH BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative is to advance the understanding of healthy and diseased brain circuit function through technological innovation. Core principles for this goal include the validation and dissemination of the myriad innovative technologies, tools, methods, and resources emerging from BRAIN-funded research. Innovators, BRAIN funding agencies, and non-Federal partners are working together to develop strategies for making these products usable, available, and accessible to the scientific community.

View more

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.

View more