General Research interests:
 Neural coding, perception, and action
 Development of sensory circuits
 Communication and neural ethology

I am a doctoral candidate in Columbia University’s Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior.  I work in the laboratory of Dr. Sarah Woolley, a physiologist specializing in social communication in the Zebra Finch (Taeniopgia guttata).






My thesis work focuses on the effects of developmental vocal learning on the receptive field properties of auditory cortical neurons.  Additionally, my projects explore the depressive effects of anesthesia on the coding properties of auditory midbrain neurons, statistical models of neural coding and decoding, and the sensitivity of songbird auditory cortical neurons to norepinephrine.

Previous Work:
Prior to starting graduate school, I worked as a lab technician Columbia’s Motor Performance Lab.  Co-directed by Pietro Mazzoni, MD, PhD, and John Krakauer, MD, the Motor Performance Laboratory is a research facility dedicated to the study of motor control under healthy and neurological conditions.

My undergraduate research was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. John H. Long, Jr., a vertebrate physiologist specializing in biomechanics.  We developed an evolutionary robotic system for testing biomechanically relevant hypotheses about vertebrate evolution.












CV: download

Papers:

Schumacher, JW, Woolley, SMN (in prep) Developmental vocal learning enhances cortical auditory coding in a region specific manner.

Schumacher, JW, Woolley, SMN (in prep) Gating of auditory cortical responses during vocal practice.

Shabbott, B,  Ravindran, R, Schumacher, JW, Wasserman, PB, Marder, KS, Mazzoni, P (2013)	Learning fast accurate movements requires intact frontostriatal circuits Front. Hum. Neurosci. 7:752. PDF

Schumacher, JW, Schneider, DM, Woolley, SMN (2011) Anesthetic state modulates excitability but not spectral tuning or neural discrimination in single auditory midbrain neurons. J. Neurophys., 106: 500-514

Ramirez, AD, Ahmadian, Y, Schumacher, JW, Schneider, DM, Woolley, SMN, Paninski, L (2011) Incorporating naturalistic correlation structure improves spectrogram reconstruction from neuronal activity in the songbird auditory midbrain. J. Neurosci., 31: 3828-3842

Calabrese, A, Schumacher, JW, Schneider, DM, Paninksi, L, Woolley, SMN (2011) A generalized linear model for estimating spectrotemporal receptive fields from responses to natural sounds. PLoS ONE, 6(1): e16104

Long, JH Jr., Koob, TJ, Irving, K, Combie, K, Engel, V, Livingston, N, Lammert, Schumacher, JW (2006)  Biomimetic evolutionary analysis: testing the adaptive value of vertebrate tail stiffness in autonomous swimming robots. Journal of Experimental Biology, 209(23), 4732-4746.
Article: pdf | journal

Long, JH Jr., Schumacher, JW, Livingston, N, Kemp, M (2006).  Four flippers or two?  Tetrapodal swimming in an aquatic robot.  Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, 1,20-29.
Article: pdf | journal

Abstracts: 

Schumacher, JW, Woolley, SMN (2013) Effects of developmental vocal learning on cortical auditory coding. SfN

Schumacher, JW, Woolley, SMN (2011) Norepinephrine modulates auditory coding in the songbird forebrain. Cosyne

Ramirez, AD, Ahmadian, Y, Schumacher, JW, Schneider, DM, Woolley, SMN, Paninski, L (2011) Natural correlations improve spectrogram reconstruction from songbird auditory midbrain responses Cosyne

Calabrese, A, Schumacher, JW, Schneider, DM, Woolley, SMN, Paninski, L (2011) A generalized linear model for estimating spectrotemporal receptive fields from midbrain responses to natural sounds. Cosyne

Schumacher JW, Schneider, DM, and Woolley, SMN (2009) Encoding properties of auditory midbrain neurons in awake and anesthetized songbirds.  SfN

Cortes JC, Schumacher JW, Ravindran R, Marder K, Krakauer J, and Mazzoni, P (2009) The striatum’s role in online movement correction is specific to internal model prediction errors. SfN

Shabbott, B, Schumacher, JW, Ravindran, R, Marder, K, Krakauer, J, Mazzoni, P (2009) Acquisition of a new motor skill requires intact frontostriatal circuits.  SfN

Vyas, A, Schneider, DM, Schumacher, JW, Woolley, SMN (2009) Estrogen modulates coding and discrimination of auditory stimuli in female songbird midbrain neurons. SfN

Schumacher, JW, Schneider, DM, Woolley SMN (2009). The predictive power of spectrotemporal receptive fields at the single spike train level. Cosyne

Schumacher, JW, Combie, K, Engel, V, Irving, K, Livingston, N, Koob, T, Long, JH Jr. (2006).Testing an adaptation hypothesis for early vertebrates with biomimetic robots.  SICB

Schumacher, JW, Lammert, AC, Long, JH Jr. (2005). Evolutionary Robotics: exploring the origins of early vertebrates using biomimetic swimmers.  SICB

Long, JH Jr., Hobson, B, Pell, C, Schumacher, JW, Kemp, M (2005). Biorobotics: a four-finned underwater vehicle for locomotor research. SICB



http://neurosciencephd.columbia.eduhttp://www.commneuro.psych.columbia.edu/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_finchhttp://www.columbiampl.orghttp://faculty.vassar.edu/jolong/jolong.htmlResearch_files/SchumacherCV.pdfhttp://columbiampl.org/pdf/Papers/13ShabbottMazzoni_FastAcc_.pdfResearch_files/LongKoob2006.pdfhttp://jeb.biologists.org/Research_files/LongSchumacher2006-3.pdfhttp://www.iop.org/EJ/bioinspshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2shapeimage_1_link_3shapeimage_1_link_4shapeimage_1_link_5shapeimage_1_link_6shapeimage_1_link_7shapeimage_1_link_8shapeimage_1_link_9shapeimage_1_link_10
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