Spring 2026
AGENDA OPENING REMARKS
Frank LaFerla, PhD
Dr. Lionel and Fay Ng Dean and Distinguished Professor
LECTURE
Elizabeth Chrastil, PhD Associate Professor
Department
of Neurobiology & Behavior
Q & A RECEPTION
About the Lecture
Our Individual Differences in Navigation Ability: Building a Cognitive Profile From Brain and Behavior
About the Speaker
Elizabeth Chrastil, PhD
Associate Professor
Neurobiology & Behavior
Dr. Elizabeth Chrastil is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurobiology & Behavior at UC Irvine She studies how the human brain supports navigation, spatial memory, and learning. Chrastil leads the Spatial Neuroscience Lab, where her team combines immersive virtual reality environments with neuroimaging techniques to investigate how the brain processes self-motion and environmental cues during navigation. Her work explores how different sources of information such as landmarks, body motions signals and decision-making processes contribute to building mental maps of the world and learning new spaces
