The Sci-Files – 10/25/2020 – Samantha Finkbeiner – Training a Neural Network to Track Fear Reactivity in Human Infants

Chelsie Boodoo and Daniel Puentes

Samantha Finkbeiner
Samantha Finkbeiner

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Samantha Finkbeiner. Samantha is a Senior Neuroscience major in the Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University. Currently, she’s leading a project in Dr. Rebecca Knickmeyer’s Lab centered around infant fear reactivity and measuring this reactivity using a program called DeepLabCut (DLC). Samantha has been developing a methodology on how to accurately use and train DLC in order to automatically label body parts of infants with minimal training. The goal overall for the project is to be able to train a neural network to accurately track the movement of the infants in order to determine the fear reactivity level of the infant.  If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at [email protected]. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!