Wayne Mackey, Ph.D.

Wayne Mackey is a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Neural Science at New York University, where he also received his Ph.D. in cognition and perception. He received his B.A. in psychology from Temple University. Mackey is interested in understanding how the brain supports flexible goal-directed behavior. As a graduate student, he was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to characterize how information maintained in visuospatial working memory is represented and processed in neural circuits. Mackey’s current research is focused on further dissecting the circuits that underlie goal-directed behavior, while also identifying the distinct computations they perform. He is developing a novel dynamical systems model of working memory that elucidates how dynamic and persistent neural coding combine to support working memory. His long-term goal is to identify shared neural architecture and computations throughout circuits involved in working memory, attention and decision-making to establish a unified theory of goal-directed behavior.