Leslie Kwakye ’06

  • Associate Professor of Neuroscience
  • Director, Office of Undergraduate Research

Education

  • BA, Oberlin College
  • PhD, Vanderbilt University

Biography

Leslie Kwakye is an associate professor of neuroscience and the director of the Office of Undergraduate Research.

I teach several classes in the area of sensory neuroscience including a non-majors class entitled, Neuroscience of the Arts, an advanced elective lecture and lab course on sensory neuroscience. I also teach a senior seminar entitled Mind, Brain, Eyes, and Ears.

My research investigates how the brain combines information from the different senses and how cognitive factors such as attention modulate this multisensory integration. My lab also studies how the complex relationship between attention and multisensory integration develops in children and whether it is altered in different groups of individuals such as musicians and those with developmental disorders.

My current project seeks to identify the neural mechanisms that underlie attentional alterations to multisensory timing perception using electroencephalography and Bayesian causal inference modeling.

Undergraduate researchers are strongly engaged in my research and contribute from the conception stage of new project all the way to writing manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

In my role as director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, I work with the Committee on UndergraduateResearch to support students seeking research opportunities, students actively engaged in research, and faculty mentoring of students conducting research. We also work to increase the availability of research opportunities for Oberlin students and to ensure equitable access to research.

  • Feldman JI, Kuang W, Conrad JG, Tu A, Santapuram P, Simon DM, Foss-Fieg JH, Kwakye LD, Stevenson RA, Wallace MT, Woynaroski TG (2019) Brief Report: Differences in Multisensory Integration Covary with Sensory Responsiveness in Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 49(1):397-403. doi: 10.1007/s10803-018-3667-x
  • Bailey HD*, Mullaney AB*, Gibney KD*, Kwakye LD (2018) Audiovisual Integration Varies with Target and Environment Richness in Immersive Virtual Reality. Multisensory Research 31(7): 689-713.
  • Dean CL*, Eggleston BA*, Gibney KD*, Aligbe A*, Blackwell M*, Kwakye LD (2017) Auditory and visual distractors disrupt multisensory temporal acuity in the crossmodal temporal order judgment task. PLOS One 12(7): e0179564. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179564
  • Gibney KD, *Aligbe E, *Eggleston BA, *Nunes SR, *Kerkhoff WG, *Dean CD, Kwakye LD (2017). Visual Distractors Disrupt Audiovisual Integration Regardless of Stimulus Complexity. Front. Integr. Neurosci. | doi: 10.3389/fnint.2017.00001
  • Woynaroski TG, Kwakye LD, Foss-Feig JH, Stevenson RA, Stone WL, Wallace MT (2013). Multisensory Speech Perception in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord, 43(12):2891-902.  doi: 10.1007/s10803-013-1836-5.

Fall 2024

Lab in Music Perception, Cognition, and Neuroscience — NSCI 302
Music Perception, Cognition, and Neuroscience — NSCI 303

News

This Week in Photos

December 2, 2019

Oberlin’s campus is rich with events, student life, and learning opportunities as presented in This Week in Photos.

Faculty Members Receive Promotions

May 15, 2019

Eleven faculty members have been promoted to the rank of professor or associate professor. We asked each about their most memorable experience and what they enjoy about being a professor.