Hey there, I’m Ashlea!

WEOC Member Profile: Ashlea A Morgan

Who am I? I’m Ashlea Morgan, neuroscientist, and writer.

As a kid, I started wondering what makes us feel and behave the way we do. Through science classes and outreach programs, I learned that the brain is responsible, and luckily, the brain can be studied!

As a neuroscientist, I’ve now been able to answer some of my childhood questions. Currently, as a doctoral candidate in neurobiology, I study how neural signaling drives our ability to regulate emotions and behave flexibly — i.e. how nerve cells use chemicals to drive our ability to change our minds.

The chemical I study is serotonin. Serotonin is well-known for its role in depression, but I am studying how it’s used in a very particular region of the brain. This area (the medial prefrontal cortex) is vital for higher-order executive functions like anticipating, decision making, regulating emotion, and thinking flexibly. When I say flexible here I mean being able to change thinking to adapt to various environments and situations.

I think my curiosity goes beyond intricate scientific concepts. I wanna know about me. Who am I? Who are you? Who are we?

As a writer, I compose articles, essays, and poems integrating all of my various interests in science, relationships, identity, mental health, and all the diverse complexities that make us who we are. My writing explores the familiar yet foreign — and shines a light on what is deeper beyond the surface. I hope you leave informed. I hope my writing moves you in all the ways I’m moved by experiences in life. I hope my writing is a warm refuge in a cold world. I hope you find my writing is like a light in the darkness — not blinding, but like a group of fireflies briefly illuminating a space before floating away. Ethereal, brief, but very real — that’s what I want my writing to be.

Feel free to join me on my journey.