Hey-Kyoung Lee

University of Maryland at College Park as an assistant professor of biology after completing her postdoctoral training.^[3] Lee later joined Johns Hopkins Medical School, where she is a tenured professor.^[3] Lee's recent work studies plasticity of the visual cortex, particularly in the context of multisensory interaction. ^[3] Lee studies cross-modal plasticity, particularly cross-model recruitment, when vision is lost.^[3] Cross-modal plasticity is a phenomenon in which sensory loss can result in functional changes in other sensory modalities.^[9] Lee teamed up with one of her colleagues, Patrick Kanold, to investigate whether or not cross-modal plasticity could occur upon the completion of early childhood.^[10] To induce cross-modal plasticity, Lee temporarily blinded mice, depriving them of all visible light in a dark chamber, leading to cross-modal recruitment in the auditory cortex.^[11] After a week in the dark chamber, Lee and her team found that there was a redistribution of the allocation of neurons in the auditory cortex corresponding to frequencies of sound.^[12][13] Lee's conclusions suggested that sensory deprivation can be used to aid adults with cochlear implants better process sound signals.^[2][10] She used optogenetics to study specific cortical synapses in isolation using light in order to determine synaptic strength, which is mediated by LTP and LTD. ^[3] Lee found that the main change in the visual cortex when vision is lost is the potentiation of intracortical synapses.^[3][14]